Chris Shanahan: Victoria pips ACT in national home brew shoot out

Victoria, with 23 points, seized top spot in this year’s Australian Amateur brewing championship, narrowly beating the ACT on 22 points. Two points behind in third place came NSW (20 points), followed by Queensland (18 points), Western Australia (12 points), South Australia (12 points) and Tasmania (one point).

With a population of just 385 thousand (ABS, March 2014), ACT’s performance sparkles compared with more the more populous Victoria (5.8 million) and (NSW 7.5 million).

With eight points ACT’s Kevin Hingston won the Champion Brewer award. Hingston’s Belgian strong golden ale and weizen topped their categories, while his traditional bock and American pale ale ranked third in their classes.

The brewers at Canberra’s three commercial brew pubs – the Wig and Pen, Zierholz and BentSpoke – all came from home brewing backgrounds. The championship was judged in October at BentSpoke, Braddon.