EP 23 - Hop Harvest Fest Part 1

What is Hop Harvest Fest, and what happens when you try to take on all 9 breweries in two days?

This episode drops you right into the chaos of the Hop Harvest Fest on the Inner West Ale Trail, chasing some of the freshest beer you’ll ever drink.

Fresh hops picked in Victoria, driven straight to Sydney, and brewed within hours. The result? Limited, once time beers across nine breweries in Marrickville and beyond.

This is Part 1 of the crawl. Four breweries down, five to go.

Along the way, David is joined by Cecilia Hollins and Beers with Boydo, plus brewers and locals, as the plan quickly shifts from “structured tasting” to “just keep moving.”

🍻 In this episode:

•  What makes fresh hop beers so unique (and why timing is everything) 
•  The road trip to Victoria to collect hops 
•  A hazy IPA heavy start
•  Why pilsners don’t always taste like you expect during fresh hop season 
•  The reality of beer tasting (and why even experts get it wrong) 
•  Is Coopers Pale Ale a craft beer?

🍺 Breweries featured (Part 1):

•  Batch Brewing Co 
•  Philter Brewing 
•  Sauce Brewing Co 
•  Mixtape Brewing 

If you love craft beer, pub culture, or just discovering the best of Sydney’s Inner West, this is what it actually feels like to do the Hop Harvest Fest - not polished, not perfect, just real.

Part 2 coming next… if we make it.

👉 Explore the trail:
 https://innerwestaletrail.com.au/

🍻 Breweries (Hop Harvest Fest Participants)

Mixtape Brewing
 https://www.mixtapebrewing.com.au/

Young Henrys
 https://younghenrys.com/

Batch Brewing Co
 https://batchbrewingco.com.au/

The Grifter Brewing Co
 https://thegrifter.com.au/

Future Brewing
 https://futurebrewing.com.au/

Bracket Brewing
 https://www.bracketbrewing.com/

Kicks Brewing
 https://www.kicksbrewing.com.au/

Sauce Brewing Co
 https://sauce.beer/

Philter Brewing
 https://philterbrewing.com/

Episode produced by: WHEN Studios
Follow: @WHEN.Studios,

Insta: @chatontap

Tiktok: @chat.on.tap

YouTube: @ontapchat

Got a Story? 

Wanna help us Tap In to a great venue, deal, beer?

Interested in sponsorship? 

email us!

Email: hello@chatontap.com

Host: David A. Lennon – @davidalennon
Website: chatontap.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Welcome to Chat on Tap, the podcast about pubs and the people in them. My name is David Lennon, and if this is your first time here, welcome. And if you've come back, welcome back. We are doing the Hop Harvest Fest today, and this is gonna be probably a little bit of a chaotic episode. If you heard the last one, which had it to Jason from the Inner West Ale Trail, and he told us all the you know the beauty that is the Hop Harvest Fest, where they get uh uh fresh hops from the farm down in Victoria, they race them back up to Sydney and to Marrickville and all the breweries around the area, uh, and they make these breweries. So there's nine breweries. We're gonna try and challenge ourselves to do this over two days. I'm gonna try and get a couple in tonight, and then there might be part two, it might be part one, I don't really know. So we're just gonna come along for the journey, and there's gonna be a bunch of people here on the um who are on the kind of crawl that you may have may have seen or met before. Um you know, Cecilia is a favourite, Boido's a favourite, those guys are gonna be around, so we'll hear from them. We'll also hear from some of the brewers. Um, but yeah, we've got nine to get through, so let's not uh waste any further time and let's get the uh first one on the passport, the Hop Harvest Fest passport. Um let's get beer one from Batch Brewing. I'm here with uh Batch's Dan. Welcome to the podcast, chat on tap.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Thank you very much. I'm I'm actually Chris. Oh, that's Dan. Sorry, that's alright. But I'm I'm happy to be called Dan. I love Dan. I haven't even had a beer yet. That's right, yeah, yeah. Come on. Are you gonna be like when you get to uh bracket tape one four down there, innit? That's gonna be a big one for you. I'm just gonna be called everyone Dan from now. Yeah, all right, Chris. Um talk us through the beer that we have on the festival. Well, we have a hazy IPA, and unbiased opinion, of course, it's the best one going. Okay, I'm gonna taste that right now. Oh, it's definitely the best I've had so far. That's good, man. That's really good. I'm a big fan. It's uh it's a hazy IPA, not a bit more traditional, the IPA. I think there's been some looking at the list, people mean there's some different things. I'm happy with uh was it the XPAs? Oh, there's a few IPAs. Well, there's definitely a few IPAs. Scram what I just said. I think it's a really good balanced beer. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I mean me and Dan. Dan, not Chris, yep. That's Dan. We were lucky enough to go down to Victoria to HPA uh two months ago to get our hops, and we actually would like to say we've picked up the hops for most of the inner West Ale Trail, so no worries guys.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

Okay, well talk us through what is the what is the what is the um the road trip look like for this day to get these hops back so fresh?

SPEAKER_02 2:44

So we left there well I'll give you a complete rundown. Yes. We left there around seven in the morning, um, got on the old motorway, going towards Victoria. We stopped town, which my phone's over there, but it was randomly had this submarine. They'd managed, and this was like about 250k from the coast, and there is an entire submarine there. Um so we had a little look at that. Stopped and got a cheeky pastry, cheeky pie. Of course, yeah. Um, what was that pie we got? Or the pastry that was the vanilla.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

It was a French vanilla slice.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

French vanilla slice. One of the highlights of the trip. Uh I'm actually uh gonna grab my phone. Okay, it's coming back. Because like you need to see this if the podcast goes out. Literally, a submarine.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

I probably should say this point for for those that are audio listeners. Um, this might be one of the first ones to do the crossover and watch it on YouTube because there's gonna be so much to see here. Oh, yeah. And uh we're gonna get this picture up. This is Holbrook from New South Wales. Oh, Holbrook, yes, of this. There is the submarine. Yeah, we'll get that air dropped. Look at that! You don't need to show the camera, we can use editing effects and put it over top. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Okay, same shoes on, thumbs up. Um yeah, then we got to Bright in the Alpine Victorian region, which was beautiful. Yep, it was so cool. Um and a guy's down to Bright Brewery, host this for the night, HBA hosts for the night, um, gave us a really good introduction of what's going on. We've got a tour of the HBA farm, which was just I found very, very interesting. We both did actually. Uh, because I was I'm studying brewing, so um yeah, we did that on sort of C the next morning. Got back in the car, come right down to Sydney. We stopped at Aubrey for uh you know the generic McDonald's breakfast. Of course. Yeah. Walked back to the car. Sausage or bacon? I've got both. Yeah. You're buying muffle. I'm I don't do McDonald's very often, so when I do it, I I I'll go big. Yeah, yeah, you've got to do a proper bin. Yeah. Um yeah, we got out of McDonald's and um we looked at a Ute and there was this cockatoo literally hanging off the side of the Ute. And it was like, ah. And we're all in a bit of shock. Like it was. It got attached to. Have you got a video of the cockatoo or something? I couldn't I couldn't bring myself to get a video of the cockatoo, man. I was like, this poor thing had been absorbed by the youth. And um had this the name Crestfallen. It's a tribute to the cockatoo.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Sorry, I've just realised what's happened. Yeah. I thought it was just a cockatoo. It was a dead cockatoo.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

It was a very dead cockatoo. Oh. Hence why I didn't get a picture of its.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

Okay, yes, yes, but that's why we've call it Crestfallen.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Fresh hop. We're trying to honour it, we're trying to preserve its legacy. Okay. And its and its sacrifice uh for the hop farmers.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Right, okay, so um, right, so then you've so you've left on one day, you've stayed overnight, you've driven back the next day. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Spend some time with Nick, the brewer, and Dan. Um, Chris is because you're Chris. I'm Chris, yeah. Yeah, he's average sometimes. But very enjoyable.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Chris, thank you for sharing the uh the road trip journey. Thank you for the first beer. Sorry. Oh, I need to get my stamp.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah, where is the stamp? No, I'll go down there.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Okay. Do you want to follow us for a live stamp? Yeah, we'll f I'll follow you for a live stamp while um I guess uh we'll our stamp says batch on it. That makes sense. Um alright, well that's first beer down. Um batch. Onwards to the next one. I actually don't know what the itinerary is yet. Where would you say I go next? Well, probably go with a filter. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

And um sauce. It should be like it's like a zigzag.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Thanks, Screw. Thanks, man. We're at venue two now, which is filter brewing, where their beer is the Hazy Harvest IPA. Just very simple. I also learned they've got a um they've got an off like an off-passport beer. They actually made two.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

Ooh! Secret menu!

SPEAKER_03 6:59

Yes, oh now you may know that voice. It is Cecilia Hollands. Cheers! Cheers, CeC, thanks for joining us on the crawl. I thought that you might like this one. This is your first stop.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

This is my first stop. I've joined a little bit late, um, which I guess is the beauty of the beer crawls, is you can kind of just pop in whenever you can. Yep. I've now joined on stop number two. Um, I skipped batch, so I'm gonna have to go back and visit batch um on my own time. But came in for filter, which I'm very happy about because filter is one of my favorites. They're now actually, I reckon, my go-to when I see them at the pubs on tap. Uh, I used to go for Balter XPAs, and I think now I've actually started switching, and whenever I see a filter XPA on tap, that's my go-to now. So I'm very happy to be here trying out their specialty Hop Harvest Fest beer.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

Oh, look at you with the proper wording. Now, like a hazy IPA would be in your category along with an XPA.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

Yeah, it's probably not one that I would normally go to. It's more of like a special occasion one for me. So a hazy IPA I would say is like, ooh, that looks really interesting, I'm gonna try it. But it's not the normal one that I'll reach for, so I'm excited to to test this one out.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Yeah, yeah. And this is, I mean, this is really nice. It does not taste like 6.8%.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Yeah, I reckon that's dangerous at 6.8%. I mean it is so easy drinking.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Look at some of the numbers though across the whole festival. 6.8, yeah, 6.2, 8.4, 7, 4.8. The lowest is 4.3.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

That's a grift up, but and they're having fun with that. Like that's how you know they're having fun with it.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, now t why what's for the love affair with filter? Like, I know you just bring yourself down here sometimes. Yeah, but I know.

SPEAKER_04 8:37

Well, I live so close by, this is probably the local brewery, like the closest brewery for me. But they're also probably the one that I would like, they're on tap the most. I think out of all the breweries in the area, it's usually you see Grifter a lot, which is another go-to of mine. But Filter's just like starting to get out of the Merrickville realm, which I'm loving to see, like they're becoming a bit more popular, and so that's why I'll kind of reach for them a bit now. Because I'm like, I know Filter, they're just right up the road from me. So it's fun like going into the city and seeing it and being like, oh, it's my local.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Um, and how many stops do you think that we should do today? So I'm gonna pick it up on Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

I know you've got soccer on Sunday. So you I mean you've got a full week and they're pretty close to you. You might be able to get it through all nine because you've got more days. I've only got the two days.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

Yeah, I'm definitely gonna be spreading mine across because it's a bit easier for me to just kind of like wander down and and see what's up. So I'll probably be spreading mine across all of next week as well.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Yeah. We have to say we have to work out how many we're gonna do today because we're going to the footy. Like we've got a we've got a pace.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

Yeah, we've got a big day going and it's the Derby footy as well. So you know that that's gonna be pretty pretty busy. I reckon today at least three. Because Sunday you'll have a little bit more time. You don't have anything on if you need to hit the four. Like, I say aim for four today. I think we could do at least three.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

I think four today, five on Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

Oh wait, there's nine, isn't there? Yes. Oh shit, wait. No, then we need at least four today.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Yeah. Oh no. But I think possible, if you've ever been on the Inner West Ale Trail, you can walk to a few. So I think between batch, filter, yeah, sauce, and mixtape, all achievable today.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

Yeah, those are all close together. So insider local pro tips right here. Batch, filter, sauce, mixtape, all very close together. Okay. If you're only gonna hit two, batch and filter are very close, and they're also close to the station, which we love. Mixtape and sauce are quite close to each other. Um Grifter's a little more up the road, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Yeah. I think, and there's there might be a couple of hoobers on Sunday, but yeah. We'll do what we need to do.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Yeah. It's not too far, because Young Henry's are they still up in Newtown?

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

They haven't moved yet.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

So that's gonna have to be like your last stop, Young Henry's, because uh, god forbid it's a whole suburb away. Oh, out of the way.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

There you are. And then uh then you might be able to get one of these shirts.

SPEAKER_04 10:54

I'm fitting to get I can't believe you've cheated and gotten your t-shirt early, which is such a joke. Someone get the president of the ale trail on the phone because I better have a t-shirt by the end of this.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Now you've got to hit all nine breweries, mate, so um.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

You're cheating, get yours early. I just want to put that out there.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

I feel like it's pressure. If I only get eight come Sunday, I've gotta hand this sweaty shirt back to the Inner West Ale track.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

You must have gotten like the influencer insider information.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Oh, we don't use that word around here. Alright, that's enough for stop two.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Alright, moving on to stop three.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Thanks, CeC, for coming along.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Stop three, we are at uh Source for the Solar Eclipse Pilsner, and I thought I would bring uh one of my Pilsner loving friends, a favorite of the uh the Chat on Tap family. It is Boido from Beers with Boido. Cheers to you, mate. Thank you for joining us. Mate, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

Hey, you've got to pick up your microphone.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Oh shit. I just I I touched it down, I thought, is it on? But I was touching my collar. All right, well you think I'll be called. You think I'd be better at this? Yeah. Um it's weird, like I'm not filming today, so like I'm just like in relax in relaxation mode.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

You're in holiday mode, just so you know. If you're first um here and you don't know who Boido is, he has a channel, YouTube channel called Beers with Boido, uh, which I stumble upon. He was on one of the previous episodes if you haven't heard it. And yeah, we've kind of just started this. I I've been calling it almost a bit of a love affair. Because I feel like we text every day now.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Pretty much, it's pretty, it's pretty much like that.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

So uh I you invited me on your channel to do the macro lager challenge.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Uh which actually we'll talk about that in a sec, so we should talk about this beer first.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah, we'll talk about the beer first, I think. Which is the um yeah and yeah, it's my it's my second time on the Inner West Ale Trail. You took me on my first time. Um I've only ever been to Young Henry's brewery. I've never been to any of the others, so it's my second time on the ale trail. Uh I'm loving it. Let's start get stuck in this hills, huh?

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Yeah, so you have a sip, an elegant lager with light floral and resin tones with fresh eclipse cones, eclipse spectrum, galaxy and simco in the dry hop. So that's a little hops. Cool, a lot of flavours.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Pretty hazy for a pills, huh?

SPEAKER_03 12:59

That was the first thing I noticed because.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

It does have that like slight XBA aroma, I guess, from the Galaxy hops. I don't know much about my hops, but I know I know about the Galaxy hops. Stone and Wood were the first ones to use them in that Pacific owl style. I went to the Stone and Wood brewery, so I learnt it there.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Okay. So, okay, we I actually thought I was like, great, this this beer is a Pilsner. You love a Pilsner.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

It's a pretty hazy Pilza style. Yeah, it does taste like a craft beer. So it was a blind tasting, I'd say a hazy XBA kind of vibe. Yeah. Wouldn't say Pilsner. Um it's quite enjoyable.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

Well let's talk about um blind tasting. Yes. So anyone who's been following the journey of Bordeaux and I, uh, anyone who's seen the bird shit video, that's where it came from. But uh, you essentially wanted to challenge yourself. You said you could pick five macro beers out of a lineup. So we're talking your VBs, your Carlton drafts, two is new. Uh the first one we did super dry, I think, both times, and then it was like 4X or Carlton Dry. Anyway, essentially beers we would think as just Australian beers. Yeah. Except then none of them are owned by Australian companies anymore. Correct. Um you went in pretty confidently. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Yeah, so I um I've been drinking the Australian macro lagers ever since I was 18, uh, and was just like people that have always said to me, doing my content over the years, you've got to do a blind tasting. And I I never did it because I thought, what's the point? It's too easy. Um and then it wasn't until when I did my subscriber meetup, I had another couple of thickles say you've got to do a blind tasting, and I was like, right, let's just get it over and done with. Let's do the five Aussie macro lagers in a pub. Obviously, you can't draft too easy U, VB, uh, 4X, and Han. That's what we did on the first one. Um I did have a slight cold, but I still thought I'm doing it because it's gonna be that easy. Let's just get it done. I've got zero from five. It was amazing. It was so hard. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

I then I got one from five, and I reckon it was a guest.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Yeah. Yeah. And then um, we came back two weeks later when I wasn't sick. Uh I said, mate, uh, I'm gonna get it this time, but then in between that, I'd listened to your episode with Bevan Giffen. Um, if you haven't heard that, Bevan does a bit of Instagram content on beer. He's very good at his beer tasting, and he was basically saying it's impossible. And I was like, holy shit, this is must be so much harder than what I thought. Um and so I went into the second round pretty scared. I wasn't sick this time, I was scared, and I got one from five. So I got the Han super dry. Uh, and it's just kind of blown my mind about how similar cotton draft is my favourite beer on tap in a pub. I can't believe how similar it is to VB, a beer that I think that I don't like. It is literally almost the same beer. Um and then it's kind of Bevan was talking about how what was um 51 51% of the Australian what was the start?

SPEAKER_03 15:51

So 51% of the Australian um craft beer, well sorry, the Australian beer industry is employed by 8% of the breweries.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that blew my mind. I was like, holy shit, like there's all these good, like we live in Sydney, there's so many great craft breweries. Um I don't get out to them that often, but I appreciate them and I like them. Um and it just made me think, shit, like all the beer I'm drinking just gets the profits go to Japan. There's all these amazing craft breweries, and it's kind of just like flicky switch to my mind. I need to catch the craft beer bug that everyone's kind of caught over the years in the in the beer scene that I just never have. I've always liked going to breweries and drinking craft beer, but I just love a macro lagers, yeah. You can't take that out of me. Um, but now I think I've really hit this switch of like, you know what? No, we need to support like local craft beer. Um, come to venues like this, and then when I listened to the podcast last week when you did with um Jason, who runs the Inner West Ale Trail, talking about this hop um festival, I was like, shit, I'm so excited! Like, let's get out there and just try them all. And um, yeah, we're drinking some of the freshest beer you can get. The hops are just being harvested, um, and it's kind of kicking off my I guess craft beer journey, you can say.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Yeah, yeah. So you've have you felt a bit of a change in the change in the identity of Lloyd Robson?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

I have, because usually in my pub crawls, I'll stick to the macro lagers and I'll try and get in one local craft beer just to be nice. Did a pub crawl last night and I just it was all local craft beer. Yeah. I was like, no, let's just let's um yeah, let's let's era. Yeah, yeah. And like, that's not to say, like, you on Friday afternoon, my first beer at the pub, it's probably still gonna be a cart and draft. But it's the idea of like let's incorporate more craft beer into the session, you know. Um so yeah, it's uh it's good. And you've kind of helped me. I guess you kind of helped kickstart the craft beer journey with it.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

Oh good, I'm glad. I'll shake your hand on that. Um oh mate, that I mean that yeah, that makes me feel lovely. Uh so good luck for the new era. Uh I mean I'm sure there'll be I mean this isn't even the end of you of this episode. I'm sure you're gonna pop up again because you've committed to coming to the second part of this um.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

I wanna I want to um get my passport stamped, so I want to get all nine. Definitely want I have to get all nine.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

So we're at three, we're running out of time to get the fourth in. Uh can we do it before Cece and I have to run off to the footy, and then we'll try and tackle the rest on.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

How can we do it? You better do it because five five for Sunday is good. Yeah. I gotta work early Monday morning, so alright.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Alright, let's enjoy these uh this pilsner. I I mean, yes, cloudy for a pilsner, but I it's not that I don't like the beer. I was just expecting something different, I think.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Yeah, I guess I like my pilsner is clear and bitter. Um this is very fruity. Uh yeah, it's it's not that it's bad, it's just um different. And hey, that's part of the craft beer journey. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Alright. Let's enjoy stop three and we'll be back in a sec for two stop people.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

Alright, guys, we're here. I've stolen the mic, I've stolen the camera, and we're taken over. Sir, sir, sir. What's your favorite beer?

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Cooper's, Cooper's parallel.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

Oh, new answer. That's not craft.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

No, oh that's actually a very debatable question.

SPEAKER_04 19:02

Alright, yeah, let's debate. Here, you oh you hold this. Okay. Wait, no, first, what's your favorite beer? Mix take these. Oh, well, you're wearing the t-shirt. I've got that same t-shirt. Okay, we're coming back to that. First, we're debating. Okay. Is Cooper's craft?

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Technically, it's such a debatable question because it is Australian-owned, it's independent, but it's large scale, right? So it's large scale. But they traditionally make sort of bottle conditioning. Do you know what bottle conditioning is?

SPEAKER_04 19:29

No, please, please tell me.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Okay, so bottle conditioning is when you finish your beer and it's come out of the fermenter, you add a second drop of sugar, and the beer comes alive again and uses the residual yeast within the brew to secondary ferment. It it and so it oxygenates the beer, choose to oxygen, and makes a stable conditioned beer.

SPEAKER_04 19:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Right? So that's why Coopers is kind of magic. It's the you've heard of real owl? Have you ever heard of real owls?

SPEAKER_04 19:56

No, I actually haven't.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Okay, so in the UK, there's a whole movement of real owls. Australia's only real oil left is Coopers. Because they bottle condition. But look, they are look, what I if someone asks me what the best beer is, it's something that's made with passion. Right? Passion integrity. So you're you're making with great um uh malt, hops, uh all like all the things you need to make good beer, right? So actually the dream is water, molts, hops, yeast. Love and love. It's it's the it's this added extra, right? It's the added extra. But everything if if you ask me, the most important thing is making beer with passion.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

Passion. Passion more than love.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Passion and love, right?

SPEAKER_04 20:45

So who's got the most passion?

SPEAKER_00 20:48

It depends on what kind of beer you want, right? Do you want a hot forward beer? Do you want a yeast forward beer? Do you want a slightly boozy forward beer? It all depends on what kind of beer. What kind of beer do you like?

SPEAKER_04 20:59

So give me give me a recommendation. I love I love an IPA, not every day. My go-to is normally an XPA.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

What's your favourite XPA?

SPEAKER_04 21:09

Probably filter.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Okay. Can I consider? Because it's do you know Filter made their uh their uh XPA with a a lot less bitterness and a lot more nose. So it smells like an IPA, but it tastes like like a palau. So it's so it it's got a real hidden awesomeness because it it tastes not to hoppy, but it smells like it's hoppy. Exactly. Yes?

SPEAKER_04 21:35

That's exactly what I was thinking. You just put it into words for me.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

I'm not too sure. Maybe not, maybe not. So um my favorite beer is something that I I I I'm one of these guys that likes to have a couple of crafties, like really uh obtuse stuff, whether it's be from um mountain culture, uh range. Um I like to have one or two of those um Sunday Road, and there's a lot. Lots of great craft breweries that make good limited editions, high ABV stuff that you can really enjoy, right? Maybe only one or two kids. The high ABV say only one or two, right? It's a couple, it's a couple responsibly. Responsibly. Only one or two just to get an interesting taste. Yes. And then I move on to my like core number, which is a cubic palau, because I think that's a really great beer. Right? And then as my tongue fills with a bit too much beery goodness, I move to a good lager. And I love a good lager. Do you like a lager?

SPEAKER_04 22:31

No, I don't normally drink the only time I would go for a lager is like on holiday.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Like where?

SPEAKER_04 22:36

On holidays, I'm going for like a Mexican lager. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

So you're not into a Japanese lager? Like are they they're becoming super popular now?

SPEAKER_04 22:42

For me, probably more Mexican than Japanese, but I do know that Japanese lagers are very good.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

I I love a good Japanese lager. I love a Sapporo. Um I I love like I don't mind as I but give me a good Sapporo poured properly with a good like a good thick head, it's delicious, right?

SPEAKER_04 23:00

I don't know. You gotta get into the Mexican lagers with a lime.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Okay, everyone's gonna love it. The most important thing in life is to enjoy beer. Because beer is the most wondrous of thing. Everyone makes friends having a few beers.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Oh, I just made friends with you.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

There you go. That's great. My name's Mat Man, right? I I I'm Mat Man. As in Batman, but with an M. I'm a bit of a uh I won't say I'm a huge Maryfield institution, but I'm a small Maryfield institution. Right? I get around, I enjoy the beers. I used to brew myself, I occasionally just sort of brew myself, and I just love beer and I love people enjoying beers together.

SPEAKER_04 23:35

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Right?

SPEAKER_04 23:36

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Amaze, amaze, amaze. So said so so said Rocky.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

Stop four is uh at mixed tape, and it is the Into the Darkness Black IPA. I have kept saying black lager, I don't know where I got that, but it's a black IPA. Wow, yeah, that is that is really wonderful. That is awesome. Now I did keep saying black lager, and I said that to Jason, the head brewer here, and I was like, I'm really excited to try your black lager, and he goes, Oh dude, it's a black IPA. I was like, ah, man. Okay, stuffed that one up. But then he was telling me that uh the style is very close to a Cascadian dark ale, and you can kind of interchange the two. So the cascading is more of a malt profile, and that's sort of what they're going for, but uh the black IPA is more of like a hot bitter profile, but it is a beautiful beer, nice roasty chocolate in there, 5.8%. Uh, and that is stop four for us on the Inner West Ale Trail, the Hop Harvest Fest 2026. I I realize that there's so much happening at the moment that we're gonna have to do this across two episodes. So this is the end of part one. Uh, will part two mean that we get to all nine breweries? We've uh we ticked off four, and uh we will be going for the other five on Sunday. Bordo will definitely be back. Ceci might be back if we take so long uh that her soccer game finishes and she comes and joins us. But uh that cheers Bordo for filming. Uh, we're sort of tag teaming on the uh production values these days. Um but yeah, that is that is number four on the Hop Harvest Fest of 2026. Thank you always for listening to Chat on Tap. Thank you for those who sent us a message uh during the week when I did a shout-out last week. Craig, thank you so much for the email. The the he's a guy from the UK, lives in southwest Sydney, starting his um craft beer journey. It's really nice to read the the email just to hear about what you've been up to and that this channel, uh this podcast is sort of helping you on your journey. So uh hope that we meet you on part two and run into you. Otherwise, thanks for the email. You can always get in touch with Chat on Tap. Uh, hello at chatontap.com if you want to email, follow the uh social channel at Chat on Tap. Um subscribe, of course, if you're watching this on YouTube, um, or leave comments as well on like Spotify or reviews on Apple or whatever the case may be. Uh but yeah, awesome. I will see you next week for a drink where we go part two of the Hot Harvest Fest 2026 and try and knock over the last five breweries. Cheers.

SPEAKER_04 26:09

Bye night man. Bye. I'll see you on the next podcast.