Some of the taps at the Illawarra Brewing Company brewhouse for Craft Beer Rising.

This week I managed to resist beery temptation not once, but twice. And we’re talking serious beery temptation here.

The first instance happened on Tuesday when I went to the Illawarra Brewing Company brewhouse to interview the guys for a story about their Craft Beer Rising event. I always like visiting the brewhouse because the guys are always quite friendly and welcoming. And they usually offer me a beer or two. I’m pretty easy to win over like that.

So I turn up on Tuesday to interview the guys and we head up to the new tasting room for a chat. It’s the first time I’ve seen the place and there, at the bar are five beer taps, cool slightly icy beer taps. And then comes the big question

‘‘Do you want a beer?’’

To be honest, there was a voice in my head that went ‘‘you can say yes. No-one will know’’. But I pushed that voice away and said, ‘‘no, thanks, I’m not drinking this month’’. Which felt pretty good because I figured my resolve is pretty much useless until it got tested.

The second time also happened at the brewhouse because I ducked out there today to get a few growler fills. Initially it looked like I’d have to miss Craft Beer Rising altogether until some people pointed out on Twitter that the counter-pressure growler fills at the brewhouse will easily stay fresh and carbonated until I can drink them next week.

The temptation came because I couldn’t try any of the range of six beers they had on growler fills. So I couldn’t try before I buy. It was pretty damned hard choosing which beers to go for, because I’d already promised myself that it would be frigging stupid to get a growler of all of them (how the hell would I fit them in my fridge?). So I had to limit myself to a growler and a squealer – a growler of the Holgate Black Forest Summer Porter and a squealer of the Prickly Moses blueberry hefe (that was a risky purchase. As I couldn’t drink it, I could only smell the beer – and it smelled good. But others told me the taste didn’t really back it up. But I went for it anyway.

I didn’t hang around too long. Partially to avoid temptation but also because I was on a lunch break from work and had to get back to the office. Now I just need to try and forget that I have two big bottles of fresh beer hiding in my fridge. At least until next Saturday.

As for everything else, well some things have changed. I am now finally sleeping better. And maybe it’s my imagination but food I eat does seem to have more flavour than before – a sign of a sharper palate perhaps?
I lost a bit more weight too – a half a kilo – which was a surprise given that work commitments and illness making it too hard to do any exercise.

So now there’s just another seven days to go.