The 2018 Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA) were announced last night in Melbourne, with Western Australian brewery Beerland Brewing taking out Champion Australian Beer for its Beerland Wheat Beer (Draught).
The award was accepted by head brewer Ken Arrowsmith (pictured above). The brewery also took out five gold medals at the awards, noting on Facebook: “Thanks @AIBA and Congratulations Ken, Tom, Andrew and the Beerland team!”
Beerland Brewing Co is the umbrella brand for West Australian brewpubs, Northbridge Brewing Company (NBC) and Whitfords Brewing Company (WBC).
Champion International Beer was awarded to California-based brewery Three Weavers Brewing Company for its Knotty (Packaged) beer.
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 twenty eight countries and almost every state of Australia,” said Paul Guerra, CEO, The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV). “We also added new sub classes to the competition to ensure we are adjusting to the trends of the expanding beer market.”
In other top honours, Mountain Goat Pty Ltd, from Victoria were awarded Champion Large Australian Brewery, while Firestone Walker Brewing Co. from California, were awarded Champion Large International Brewery.
Green Beacon Brewing Co, from Queensland were awarded Champion Medium Australian Brewery, with German Mahrs Bräu Bamberg GMBH awarded Champion Medium International Brewery.
Queensland’s wins continued with Champion Small Australian Brewery won by Black Hops Brewing, while New Zealand took home the last of the Champion brewery honours with Kereru Brewing Company Limited, awarded Champion Small International Brewery.
The Australian Gypsy Brewer Award was presented to NSW brewers Philter Brewing, which began production in 2017, and the Gary Shephard Memorial Trophy for Best New Exhibitor was awarded to Victorian Microbrewery Brownstone.
Nineteen major trophies were also awarded across the various beer styles, with nine awarded to international breweries, four to NSW-based breweries, two each to Victorian and Western Australian breweries and one each to breweries from Queensland and Tasmania.
For the second year in a row, two trophies were awarded for Best Design, with Western Australian Colonial Brewing Company taking home Best Label/Surface Graphic for their South West Sour and New Zealand’s Sawmill Brewery awarded Best Outer Packaging for their Sawmill Multipacks.
A panel of close to 80 international and local judges, assessed entries over three days at Melbourne Showgrounds last week.
Conducted by RASV, who also manage the Royal Melbourne Wine Awards and Australian Distilled Spirits Awards, the AIBA were presented at a gala dinner, held as part of Good Beer Week, where more than 800 people witnessed the results announcement.
The dinner also saw the unveiling of the AIBA Collaboration Beer, ‘We Do It For The Passion…Fruit’ Tart IPA, specially brewed by four of last year’s champions.
All results are available at www.rasv.com.au
