Early each year the Beer and Brew Awards nominates Australia’s top 100 brews of the previous year. Beers wine their places through a combination of popular votes, on- and off-premise sales, industry nominations and results from leading beer shows.
Where beers finish on equal points, they’re lined up before a panel of judges for a final decision.
In this year’s event, big, small and middle-sized brewers shared the honours. Japanese-owned Lion led the competition, with 10 successful beer spread across a number of its brands – Castlemaine XXXX, Knappstein, Kosciusko, Little Creatures, Malt Shovel Mad Brewer, Swan, Hahn and White Rabbit. Mid-sized Coopers fielded six winners.
Western Australian Feral Hop Hog topped the list, followed by Byron Bay’s Stone and Wood Pacific Ale, the Lion’s Little Creatures Pale Ale.
You can read the full list at www.beerandbrewer.com
Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 27 March 2013 in The Canberra Times