Queenstown’s Altitude Brewing are celebrating (another) stunning awards performance at the Australian International Beer Awards, held in Melbourne last night.
They increased their haul from last year’s AIBAs — taking home three trophies and a swag of medals (20 in total, including five gold).
They retained their title as Champion Small International Brewery, took home two other class trophies: best modern pale ale (Foggy Goggles Hazy IPA) and best pilsner (Powder Day Pilsner).
Powder Day has now won two big awards in a row after winning the NZ Lager & Pilsner trophy at the NZ Beer Awards last year, where Remarks won the Juicy/Hazy IPA Trophy and Altitude took home the Champion Medium Brewery crown.
Their five gold medals were across an array of styles: Pilsner, Hazy, IPA, Irish Stout and a field beer.
Co-founder Eddie Gapper, who celebrated his 50th birthday today, said this latest success feels even better than previous wins.
“It feels better each time. And the thing that’s most pleasing is how thirsty the team has remained after fantastic results in the past. They still have the drive to produce fantastic beer. And that’s never dimmed or wavered despite everything that’s happened to the industry over the last five or six years.”
He was also rapt their core range beers had done so well over successive years with Foggy Goggles winning best modern pale ale after Sled Dog did it last year, and Powder Day doubling down across two sets of awards.
“It’s extraordinary. These are the staples that run all year, every year and they get the same amount of care and attention as the one-offs.”
It was a big night for a number of other Kiwi breweries, with Garage Project winning the Champion Large International Brewery for the fourth time in a row.
Bach Brewing won the trophy for best non-alcoholic beer with All Day Hazy IPA, and Heyday won the design trophy with Soul Cat.
There were a raft of gold medal winners from NZ (and apologies if I miss anyone as apparently the results PDF was missing sections!).
Altitude: Powder Day Pilsner, Foggy Goggles, Peak Chemistry IPA, Silent Peak Irish Stout, Window of Opportunity (Field Beer).
Brothers Beers: Nectaron Fresh Hop Hazy IPA, Mad Science #3 Double Hazy IPA
Garage Project: Engeltjes Pis (barrel-aged sour), Mountain Call (Experimental Beer)
Rhyme X Reason: Mount Alpha IPA, Black Lips Porter
Bach Brewing: All Day Hazy IPA
Brave Brewing: Terrible Lizards IPA
Renaissance: Stonecutter (Scotch Ale)
Three Sisters: Hot Sand Dash (Belgian Session Ale)
Scrolling through the results, the New Zealand breweries were largely on their game with very few beers from this side of the Tasman missing a medal and with a number of breweries have 100% strike-rates.
A handful of talking points:
Bach Brewing’s All Day Hazy is now easily the best non-alc beer in the country. It picks up award after award. And the performance here is world-class. It beat beers from Sierra Nevada, Brew Dog, Samuel Adams, Budejovicky Budvar and a bunch of international from Germany, Netherlands, China, Korea and Australia’s best such as Heaps Normal.
Garage Project Engeltjes Pis now rivals Chance, Luck & Magic 2020 (from the same stable) as the most internationally-awarded beer produced in this country.
The return of Renaissance Stonecutter Scotch Ale to awards stage is heart-warming. It’s been a great beer for a long time.
The champion beer of the event had a strong New Zealand connection. Mountain Goat’s Bract To The Future IPA was brewed as part of the NZ Hops Ltd Bract Brewing programme and features experimental hop NZH-106. And if that’s not a reason to get the commercial version, I don’t know what is!