Craft & Co Claytime

With 270 events over ten days, Melbourne’s Good Beer Week was launched with the theme of letting the crowd ‘choose their own adventure’. I’ve been invited to something bound to satisfy the hearty Melbournian thirst for something new and different, with The Craft & Co hosting Claytime at the Craft: a multi-course dinner with matched ingredients from the brewing process to launch Australia’s first ever Bronze Age amphora beer.

Platters of crostini with parfait are being passed around alongside bright orange cocktails as we climb the stairs to the lofty second floor space of The Craft & Co. Massive communal tables are perfectly lined up in the bright, airy room, which radiates warmth as I pop my parfait and make my way to the allocated seating.

It’s not long before we’re welcomed by Heath McVeigh, head brewer, and Sebastian Reaburn, head distiller, to launch into the five-course feast, with each dish incorporating ingredients from the brewing process to match, cut down or bring out certain aspects of each beer. The first of many surprises, they explain that our colourful drinks (that I assumed are based on tequila) are actually a cocktail made with their IPA distillation, a fortified spirit made from house-made pale ale.

Large platters of glossy brioche buns catch the eye as grilled Fish Sliders with pickled green tomatoes are placed in front of us, and it takes every inch of willpower I can summon not to steal a second from the communal table. They’re paired with a Pilsner for light malt and yeast flavouring to carry through the fish, resulting in a hearty, yet refreshing start to the meal. It’s closely followed by wooden plates filled with sliced charcuterie, as well as a little dish of beer pickles, with the bitterness of an American Pale Ale cut through by the salty meats and the hop aromatics contrasted by curing herbs.

Chicken is the highlight for dinner, with lightly flavoured house-made weisswurst — or white sausage — on beautifully braised leeks and juicy grain crumbed chicken fillets which are so juicy I could cry. Dishes of lentil salad and perfectly roasted potatoes accompany the large plates and I start to feel filled to the brim.

Here, we are treated to the highlight of the evening — aged amphora beer. Sebastian and Heath explain the fundamentals of the amphora process, which is an ancient style of brewing in clay vessels from the time of Mesopotamia, utilised by Egyptians to ferment beer and wine. Modern breweries have been experimenting with the vessel with mostly aged and secondary ferments, but the Craft & Co have completed theirs as a primary to stay true to the history of the process.

We are provided with a comparable beer brewed from a traditional tank, and it’s a remarkable difference; you could hardly discredit the flavour of the traditional brew, but the crispness and clean flavouring of the claypot beer is outstanding, and wonderfully light and fresh.

To wind the evening up, we’re served (I kid you not) a dessert beer brewed with distilled coffee, a flavour combination that offers a mocha profile screaming to be paired with a caramel slice, the top of which includes a tinge of brew too. The combination of toffee, caramel and chocolate is a heavenly way to wind up such an incredible feast.

If you missed out on Good Beer Week, The Craft & Co are certainly one to watch for events next year, with this evening really taking the creative cake. Beautiful beers paired with fantastic food in celebration of an Australia first product? You couldn’t ask for much more.

The Craft & Co 
390 Smith Street, Collingwood
thecraftandco.com.au/classes-events/thecraftandco.com.au