The GABS Beer, Cider and Food Festival – which will begin in Melbourne before moving on to Sydney and Auckland – is expected to feature more than 160 beers and ciders.

And the twist? 

All those beers and ciders will be one-of-a-kind festival creations brewed specifically for the event.

Two Heads Brewing, which was established in Bathurst in 2016, went to last year’s GABS with the Cult of Dionysus – a beer co-fermented with Semillon grape juice from Renzaglia Wines.

This year, Two Heads has been working on another co-production with Renzaglia Wines – an ale with a pink tinge created with shiraz grapes.

Sam Renzaglia from Renzaglia Wines and Two Heads head brewer Ian Carman have been working together on what is being called the Eight Italians Red IPA.

”The grape juice and beer ferment at the same time,” Two Heads’ Campbell Hedley said.

Those attending GABS – which will be at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne from May 18 and Sydney Showground from June 2 – will use tasting paddles to sample the various creations from the container bars set up on-site.

“They get thousands of people through,” Mr Hedley said. 

And why be part of it?

“It's great to be able to mess around with beer - experiment; do something you never usually do,” he said.

And to have the chance to then present that creation to “a captive audience of several thousand beer nerds”, he said, is an opportunity too good to be refused.