Insanity is the Mother of Invention

Having spent our first couple of days in Melbourne exploring the CBD, we resolved this morning to investigate the area north of town, including the colourful districts of Fitzroy and Collingwood.

We start by walking to the Queen Victoria Market with the intention of assembling a picnic breakfast.

First world marketplace

QVM is an indoor market of the kind in which each vendor had their own sealed unit, complete with glass display cabinets. It's all very orderly and unlike the rowdy outdoor kind - more like a little row of shops. We went from one little shop to another, eyeing the delicious and tempting food on display. A man offering samples of cheese got us started. We bought a chunk of his Maasdam goat cheese, which was sweet and nutty, then some creamy King Island ash brie, eggplant and capsicum dip, a black olive sourdough baguette, and, to top it all, honeyed figs stuffed with marscapone.

First world food

We took our spoils and ate them greedily in the park next to the museum. The sun was hot and the food rich.

Picnic breakfast

After our slap-up breakfast, we pottered around the streets of Fitzroy, spying a trendy little launderette-cum-café that we intend to use, and dropping into the Rose Street arts and craft market. Our time whiles away happily, until I noted that we needed to make a break for our next appointment - a brewery tour at Moon Dog at 2pm.

Where the magic happens

Moon Dog, in Abbotsford, was a fair stride away from Fitzroy, but we made it in time to grab a quick drink before the small tour.

I had a very refreshing watermelon wit (Bjorn to Boogie), while K had an exceptional beer called Breakfast of Champions. This is part of Moon Dog's single keg concept beers and was brewed with all the ingredients required for a bloody Mary - including the celery.

A fine line between genius and insanity

The tour involved stepping behind the bar with our server and guide, Matthias from Denmark. The brewery is tiny and largely uses recycled dairy equipment. The whole effect is wonderfully Heath Robinson with gaffer tape holding control boxes onto the vessels and generally keeping things together. Elbow grease supplements the low-powered motor on the mash tun that was designed for churning milk. Matthias said there is inertia against upgrading the equipment and, besides, the additional effort increases the reward at the end of the day. He recalled wistfully the day he cut all the watermelons with a penknife for Bjorn to Boogie. He did recognise that some mechanisation is useful, though, as he no longer has to prime the tanks with boiling sugar solution sloshed in from a bucket while standing on a rickety stepladder. The bottling line takes care of that now.

The line-up of beers at Moon Dog doesn't bear much resemblance to the usual 'pale, amber, something dark, maybe a pilsener' roster familiar from other breweries. Matthias noted that, as homebrewers, they recognise that making crazy stuff is just as much effort as making a boring pale ale, and is much more fun to drink. Most other brewers make a standard bestseller to "keep the lights on".

So good and varied was the selection that we stayed in the comfy taproom for much of the afternoon, under the watchful eye of John Goodman, who presides over the barrels ageing fourth edition of Black Lung, the smokey stout produced annually.

Touching perfection

Special mention must go to The Beard Down Under - a collaboration with John ("The Beard") from Oregon's Rogue brewery. It is a superlative, syrupy, raisiny toffee barley wine aged in rum casks that tasted well above its 9% abv.

After sampling the various and delicious intoxicating liquids, we required sustenance. Loving Hut was not far along Victoria Street and promised simple Asian vegetarian food.

Veggie Mongolian BBQ

The Mongolian BBQ, tom yum soup and dim sim dumplings were all right, but Fina - the Vietnamese restaurant only a few doors away - is a cut above.