The Steamtug Blog

I can’t believe they drank all my beer!!! Oh, I don’t really mind because as I write this, I have another big pot of boiling barley sitting on the stove. Yeah, it’s the stove in the garage since I got kicked out of the kitchen for making too much mess… But last weekend, we had the party of the century up at Niel’s farm near Camperdown with a great bonfire party!

I had been planning this party for months, and at the last minute Niel’s mate Scott suggested we switch it to his place where he brews more beer than me, and wanted to celebrate moving his brewery into a new shed. So I loaded the kegs of beer, including the special brew I had made for this party with Grumps to take up to Bathurst for our car race weekend coming up in another couple of weeks. As Grumps drove off into the sunset with all the beer, I got the message the party had been changed back to the bonfire… oh damn… So I quickly batched up a keg of beer from what I had left hoping it would fit the bill. As it turns out, everyone loved it and it was all drunk by 9pm! Even Scott the master brewer was drinking my beer! My mate Foot told me later he heard some of the boys saying “Hmmm not a bad drop. I hope he brings beer like this to Bathurst!” It must have been ok…

It was a boys only weekend, and I can’t help thinking how little fuss went with getting it all together. Niel killed a sheep, and we set it up early over a cooking fire to cook slowly over the day. We had some simple bread rolls, some home made chutney, and lots of beer. How can it get any better than to stand with your back to a big fire, with hot lamb roll in one hand, chutney dripping down your arm and a cold beer in the other hand. We had lots of salads that hardly got touched. Charlie brought a chocolate mud cake that didn’t get opened, and there was nobody drinking wine, Barcardi, Bailey’s, or La-di-dah vodka cruisers. Just beer, beer, beer!

Apart from my beer keg with 19 litres, Scott brought a big esky of his professionally brewed beers, inlcuding a special batch of “medieval ale” which was bittered with hawthorn berries and stinging nettle instead of hops. He even had a special swing top bottle for me to take home. Foot brought some Coopers home brewed beers, and of course, lots of Carlton stuff. Somebody even brought some Aldi beer, and after drinking my all grain beer, I realised just how bad it tasted!

We borrowed Foot’s sound system. I had used it before, running the sound from my laptop through his band PA speakers and it sounds great with plenty of oomph. He offered to sell it to me a couple of years ago, but now I just borrow it for free! Well, we brought him to the party too to make sure we could use it! I got extra points because I put my “bar” sign that I got in Thailand over the beer, and another find from Thailand was a disco light effect that makes stars with a laser light. I shone this one onto the wall of the shearing shed, and everyone thought it looked cool.

Sunday morning they all woke me up with lots of noise in the kitchen of the shearer’s cottage that we were staying in. Then I remembered I was the last to bed, so they were all chirpie in the morning. I yelled out to them from the bedroom “Shut up! Do you think you are in a 3,000 acre paddock?” Then I remembered that they were… so I got up too to join in the fry up of bacon and eggs.

Nobody wanted to go home, and since the fire was still going, although quite small, we again sat around talking nonsence. I felt a big thirst coming on, and disgusted everyone by opening my first stubbie of the morning. I drank it slowly when I remembered I had to drive home. We packed up and left Niel in peace by mid afternoon, after a fantatic weekend. It just goes to show how good a time you can have with a simple bonfire, bbq, beer, loud music and a few good mates! Thanks to all who came and made my weekend so good!