Adelaide’s Beer & BBQ Festival has announced a summer sibling event, HomeBrewed, which will feature the best South Australian beer, barbecue and bands in a new format this December.

After the forced postponement of its flagship winter 2020 event, the Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival has announced new dates and a new summer concept: HomeBrewed.

Happening from 4—6 December 2020, BBF HomeBrewed will be the “upstart little sibling” of the original festival, says event organiser Aaron Sandow.

“We are thrilled to be able to give people the BBF experience again, although in a different format, with an open-air festival,” he says.

The event will still run as four sessions across three days, and will still happen at the Adelaide Showground, but now at the outdoor area by the Ferris Wheel.

Due to COVID making interstate travel near impossible, the brewer lineup will be predominantly South Australian, with each participating brewery able to invite a guest to share their stall.

The guests can be from any industry (one brewery has locked in a coffee roaster), but the concept will enable interstate and even international breweries to be showcased at the festival, without the need to travel into the state.

The full roster of breweries is scheduled to be announced in a month’s time, but Woolshed Brewery, One Barrel Brewing, Pirate Life Brewing, Beernoevil, Whet Whistle, Shifty Lizard, Thug Life and Silver Bark are set to appear.

Given the summer timing, the festival’s founder Gareth Lewis says punters should expect lighter style beers, perfectly suited to sipping in the sun – including a dedicated sour beer bar programmed by the festival.

“We’re going to activate our own bar, the Super Sour Sound System, which will be the stuff we buy in from overseas and interstate,” Gareth says.

“That’ll be our thing that we run. All of the brewers will naturally gravitate towards those lighter styles as well. That’s what they do in summer.”

The barbecue aspect of the festival is as strong as ever, with a few new players in amongst old favourites.

Food will be available from Afri-disiac, Angler Stirling, Barry’s Burgers, Boston Bay Smallgoods by Smoking Grillers, CARŌclub, Drew’s Soul Food & BBQ, Four Seeds, No Beard Required BBQ, Gang Gang, Lovefield Bistecca Italian BBQ and Fire x SOI 38.

Gang Gang bringing the goods

BBF HomeBrewed’s music lineup has also taken a parochial turn, with an all-south Australian lineup including The Superjesus, West Thebarton, Wolf & Cub, Towns, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Weezer, Stabitha & the Knifey Wifeys, Oscar the Wild, and Hey Harriet.

Nineties party band Chunky Custard will also round out the Saturday evening session, in a programming move that surprised even Gareth himself.

“It’s going to be fun. We wanted to make it a bit more irreverent and take ourselves less seriously,” he says.

[They’re] going to do [their] version of beer drinking songs, they’ll all dress up in their outfits. I don’t know, it could go either way,” Gareth laughs.

There are more bands to be announced in the coming months.

Some of the usual sideshow elements will return in this summer edition of Beer & BBQ Fest, including the beer bod wet t-shirt contest, discoteca silenciosa, a tiki bar, carnival rides, barber, markets, chilli eating competition and much more.

And as in previous years of the festival, the Sunday session will be family- and dog-friendly.

COVID, of course, has introduced some difficulties in running the event. The organisers are working alongside a private health management service that helped produce a COVID-safe Perth Craft Beer Festival, and the festival will be capped at somewhere between 1,000—3,000 attendees, as opposed to their usual near 5,000 punters.

As (or if) the world returns to normal, the plan is for the HomeBrewed concept to continue to exist alongside the main winter event, with each having their own distinct identity.

“We have been asked thousands of times why we don’t hold the festival in summer, so given everything that’s happened to our industry in 2020 we just thought, why not?” says Aaron.

“We are excited to launch a new event that has much more focus on summer styles, sours, gose, seafood, Asian BBQ and lager-itas, but still retain the BBF attitude.”

Tickets to Beer & BBQ HomeBrewed are available now via the website.

Stay tuned via Facebook and Instagram for updates on the beer, food, and music offerings.