Melbourne

Four days in Melbourne created an opportunity to catch up with the local beer and bars. There was no shortage of highlights, starting with the Little Creatures Dining Hall in Fitzroy and the nearby Lambs Go Bar. Then a long day being shown around by Adam of Boutique Beverage Distributors included visits to the Hargreaves Hill and Mountain Goat breweries and a couple of damned good bars whose names elude me right now. Later on I made it to the Local Taphouse in St Kilda.

There's no doubt that some extremely good beer is coming out of Victoria and the scene is thriving generally. I'm particularly looking forward to more chances to taste beer from Hargreaves Hill and Jamieson.

There were plenty of annoyances too. Do any bars there post their opening hours? And minimum charges to use EFTPOS? (Actually I can see the attraction of that for an operator but it's hardly putting the customer first.) And being prompted to tip was like being back in the UK or US.