Breweries with female brewers at the helm have taken out two of the top awards at the 2018 Australian International Beer Awards (AIBAs).
Philter Brewing, with its head brewer Sam Fuss, won the Australian Gypsy Brewer Award and Best Australian Style Pale Ale – for its Philter XPA.
Fuss kicked off her career in brewing at Little Creatures almost two decades ago and is regarded as a pioneer in the industry.
“When I started out, the only women in brewing worked in the lab, or packaging say,” she told News Corp. “Now you walk into a brewery and there are chicks everywhere. Sometimes I think we work a bit smarter than the guys — we don’t need to put a huge bag of grain over our shoulders, something our bodies will thank us for eventually.”
Philter noted: “Thanks to everyone who has ever bought one of these puppies. We a forever thankful you legends!”
Meanwhile, Two Birds Brewing, Australia’s first female owned and operated brewery, won Best Amber/Dark Ale with one of its original creations Sunset.
The brewery said: “To win this trophy once again is a testament to the skill and consistency of our brewing team, and we’re so proud of the work they do every single day! Thank you to everyone who supports us, and for all the love Sunset has received over the years!”
Founders Jayne Lewis and Danielle Allen (pictured, main) noted to News Corp last year: “It was a slightly strange situation that we’d managed to get to 2011 (when Two Birds opened) without a female-owned Australian brewery,” says Lewis. “We were conscious that we had to focus on quality, and make sure that our beer was absolutely as good as it could be. We couldn’t be seen as a gimmick.”
The AIBAs is the largest annual beer competition in the world judging both draught and packaged beer, the AIBA celebrated 26 years of recognising the world’s best beers this year, attracting record participation with 2178 entries across the beer categories, including 120 entries received in the design and media categories.
“Interest in AIBA continues to grow – this year we had entries from 28 countries and almost every state of Australia,” said Paul Guerra, CEO, The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV).
