Chris Shanahan: Diversity in Aussie beer competition

For an insight into the incredibly diverse world of beer go to www.beerawards.com and check out the 2009 catalogue of results. It’s a mouth-watering list, running to 42 pages, and containing lots of everyday beers as well as some of the hardest-to-find exotica on earth.

Trophy winning breweries include relatively unknowns like the beautifully named Feral Brewing Company of Western Australia, Cerveceria Hondurena (Honduras Brewery), Mountain Goat Beer of Melbourne, McAuslan Brewing of Canada, Weihenstephaner of Bavaria, Blackwood Vale of Western Australia, The Flying Horse Bar and Brewery of Victoria, The Sunshine Coast Brewery of Queensland and Anderson Valley Brewing of California.

Scrolling through the score sheets, though, you find exotic brews mixed in with our old favourites – so we can use the judges’ scores to run the value-for-money ruler over a vast range of beers.

The packaged lager section, for example, bristles with bronze and silver medal beers from around the world. But we scroll a long way to find the first gold medallist, Cerveceria Hondurena Imperial.

The judges reveal their leaning to more complex beers with a run of four consecutive golds in the India pale ale class and vein of gold sprinkled through the draft stout division – including gongs for James Squire The Craic, Port Dock Black Bart, Stearn Exchange Stout, Mountain Goat Surefoot, Blackwood Valley Stout and Moo Brew Seasonal Stout.