Willy Beer Fest one out of the box

Willy Beer Fest organiser Terri Jackson and Hopheads owner Ryan Cochrane. (Joe Mastroianni) 221126_01

Goya Dmytryshchak

People can still grin and beer it despite the annual Williamstown Heritage Beer and Cider Festival being postponed until next year.

Organisers didn’t want people to have to wait, so they joined forces with Hopheads to create the Willy Beer Fest in a box.

Festival director Terri Jackson said people could order a box of 12 limited edition local craft brews and create their own festival anywhere they liked.

“Obviously, due to the current situation and climate with corona, we haven’t been able to hold the festival this year, which normally occurs at the end of November,“ she said.

“To keep our attendees happy and keep the interest around the festival, as well as returning to our locals and the breweries that were involved, we hand-selected breweries that were our clients’ favourites as well as our own to put together this festival in a box.

“We hold ourselves quite heavily on only using Australian independent breweries because they’ve all been impacted by what’s occurred over the last eight months.“

The box contains brews from locals including Stomping Ground, Bricklane, Modus Operandi, Fury & Sons, Moon Dog, Two Birds, Bonehead, Hop Nation and Blackman’s Brewery and others.

It comes with a playlist of songs matched by brewers to their beers and includes merchandise, a festival glass and free festival tokens for next year’s event, scheduled for November 27 at the waterfront Seaworks Maritime Precinct.

The box represents more than $140 value but costs $99, including delivery across Victoria (Fees apply for interstate).

Details: willybeerfest.com.au.