Boutique brewers are making themselves heard on other fronts, with local brewers and sellers launching Canberra Beer Week in November. It starts with a family-oriented beer festival at the racecourse at Thoroughbred Park on November 9. Local restaurants will run food stalls, with an emphasis on beer matching (2pm-9pm). The festival is being run by local wholesaler Stephen Hegarty, retailer Anthony Young from Plonk, and brewer Richard Watkins. After the festival, a week of degustation dinners, beer crawls, brewing demonstrations, and meet the brewer events. So far, they have on board: 2 Brothers, Bridge Road, Stone & Wood, Feral, Nail, Hargreaves Hill (Chris Shanahan reviews the pale ale from this brewer on Page 15), Red Hill (whose Hop Harvest ale is also reviewed), Two Birds, Coopers, Matilda Bay and Cascade, as well as overseas brewers Erdinger (Germany), Bridgeport (the US), and Samuel Smith (Britain).