{"id":23268,"date":"2024-07-23T12:23:53","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T00:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=23268"},"modified":"2025-05-07T03:57:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:57:47","slug":"medals-and-math-aiba-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2024\/07\/23\/medals-and-math-aiba-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Medals & math: Australian edition \u2014 a deep dive into the 2024 AIBAs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A sufficiently big spreadsheet also counts as a “hinterland”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since I moved here, I’ve been meaning to subject the Australian International Beer Awards to the same analysis that I do for the competition back home<\/a>. But a mix of feeling less familiar with the industry here and the vastly bigger-and-messier dataset has derailed me. Until now. There’s a lot to unpack, but a little statistics can provide a better context for the results you might’ve seen promoted recently \u2014 and an effective antidote to spin and preconceived ideas about who makes “good” beer.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Because there’s a list of every beer\u00a0entered<\/em><\/a>,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> not just those that win medals, we can calculate some ‘batting averages’ to better compare how each brewery fared. So, I’ve worked out each entrant’s medal percentage<\/em> (MPC<\/strong>: how many of their beers won a medal, of any kind) and their\u00a0points per entry <\/em>(PPE<\/strong>: adding 3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze, then dividing by number of entries submitted). Bigger numbers are better in both cases; overall about 74% of beers entered earned a medal,<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and if your PPE was 1.00 or higher your brewery was in the top half of the competition. The table below focuses on breweries who entered ten or more beers, since that cuts out the noisier end of the data and keeps it manageable to look at;<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> I’ll also highlight some interesting performances that are below that cutoff as we go.<\/p>\n

Performance at the 2024 AIBAs, by breweries entering ten or more beers (or winning a Championship title)<\/h4>\n

n = number of entries, MPC = medal percentage, PPE = points per entry, G\/S\/B = individual medals, \ud83c\udfc6 = brewery Champion titles, \ud83c\udf7a = beer Champion titles, all entrants Australian unless noted<\/em><\/span>
\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Brewery<\/th>n<\/th>MPC<\/th>PPE<\/th>G<\/th>S<\/th>B<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Brick Lane (\ud83c\udfc6 Large Aust., \ud83c\udfc6 Victorian)<\/td>61<\/td>90.2<\/td>1.72<\/td>12<\/td>26<\/td>17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kaiju! (\ud83c\udfc6 Medium Aust.)<\/td>18<\/td>100.0<\/td>2.00<\/td>6<\/td>6<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hawkers<\/td>19<\/td>84.2<\/td>1.68<\/td>6<\/td>4<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Garage Project (NZ) (\ud83c\udfc6 Large Int'l., \ud83c\udf7a Int'l.)<\/td>14<\/td>92.9<\/td>2.07<\/td>6<\/td>4<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bodriggy<\/td>14<\/td>92.9<\/td>1.86<\/td>5<\/td>3<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Three Sisters (NZ) (\ud83c\udfc6 Small Int'l.)<\/td>30<\/td>83.3<\/td>1.40<\/td>4<\/td>9<\/td>12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4 Pines<\/td>27<\/td>77.8<\/td>1.41<\/td>4<\/td>9<\/td>8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
King Road (\ud83c\udfc6 Small Aust.)<\/td>7<\/td>100.0<\/td>2.43<\/td>4<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Behemoth (NZ) (\ud83c\udfc6 Medium Int'l.)<\/td>21<\/td>95.2<\/td>1.76<\/td>3<\/td>11<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stone & Wood (\ud83c\udf7a Australian)<\/td>22<\/td>77.3<\/td>1.41<\/td>3<\/td>8<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Blackman's<\/td>19<\/td>84.2<\/td>1.53<\/td>3<\/td>7<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Seeker<\/td>13<\/td>100.0<\/td>1.92<\/td>3<\/td>6<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Altitude (NZ)<\/td>16<\/td>81.3<\/td>1.44<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hong Kong Beer Company (China)<\/td>12<\/td>91.7<\/td>1.75<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Moffat Beach<\/td>10<\/td>90.0<\/td>1.90<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rebellion<\/td>14<\/td>85.7<\/td>1.50<\/td>3<\/td>3<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
BentSpoke<\/td>13<\/td>84.6<\/td>1.46<\/td>3<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Matilda Bay<\/td>12<\/td>66.7<\/td>1.33<\/td>3<\/td>2<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bridge Road<\/td>10<\/td>90.0<\/td>1.60<\/td>3<\/td>1<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TW\u00d8BAYS<\/td>10<\/td>70.0<\/td>1.30<\/td>3<\/td>0<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mountain Goat<\/td>25<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.36<\/td>2<\/td>10<\/td>8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Reckless<\/td>21<\/td>90.5<\/td>1.57<\/td>2<\/td>10<\/td>7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Philter<\/td>18<\/td>88.9<\/td>1.61<\/td>2<\/td>9<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coopers<\/td>25<\/td>76.0<\/td>1.24<\/td>2<\/td>8<\/td>9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Balter<\/td>17<\/td>100.0<\/td>1.71<\/td>2<\/td>8<\/td>7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Grifter<\/td>17<\/td>100.0<\/td>1.71<\/td>2<\/td>8<\/td>7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Burleigh<\/td>14<\/td>92.9<\/td>1.71<\/td>2<\/td>7<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bucketty's<\/td>19<\/td>94.7<\/td>1.47<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Green Beacon<\/td>14<\/td>78.6<\/td>1.50<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pirate Life<\/td>11<\/td>100.0<\/td>1.91<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Margaret River Beer Co.<\/td>18<\/td>94.4<\/td>1.44<\/td>2<\/td>5<\/td>10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rocky Ridge<\/td>15<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.33<\/td>2<\/td>4<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Beerfarm<\/td>10<\/td>100.0<\/td>1.70<\/td>2<\/td>3<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dollar Bill (\ud83c\udfc6 \"Gypsy\" brewer)<\/td>5<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.80<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stomping Ground<\/td>14<\/td>92.9<\/td>1.64<\/td>1<\/td>8<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Deeds<\/td>15<\/td>93.3<\/td>1.53<\/td>1<\/td>7<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Felons<\/td>14<\/td>92.9<\/td>1.57<\/td>1<\/td>7<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wolf of the Willows<\/td>13<\/td>76.9<\/td>1.38<\/td>1<\/td>6<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Black Brewing Co.<\/td>15<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.20<\/td>1<\/td>4<\/td>7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Esker<\/td>11<\/td>72.7<\/td>1.27<\/td>1<\/td>4<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NBeer (China)<\/td>11<\/td>81.8<\/td>1.27<\/td>1<\/td>3<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Thorny Devil<\/td>14<\/td>57.1<\/td>0.93<\/td>1<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jetty Road<\/td>10<\/td>60.0<\/td>1.10<\/td>1<\/td>3<\/td>2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mount Brewing Co. (NZ)<\/td>10<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.20<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Beerland<\/td>13<\/td>53.8<\/td>0.85<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Outer Range (USA) (\ud83c\udfc6 New Exhibitor)<\/td>3<\/td>100.0<\/td>2.33<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
King River Brewing Co.<\/td>15<\/td>60.0<\/td>0.80<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
No-Li Brewhouse (USA)<\/td>10<\/td>30.0<\/td>0.60<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fixation<\/td>14<\/td>64.3<\/td>1.14<\/td>0<\/td>7<\/td>2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
White Lakes<\/td>13<\/td>84.6<\/td>1.31<\/td>0<\/td>6<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bright<\/td>12<\/td>91.7<\/td>1.33<\/td>0<\/td>5<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Carlton & United (Yatala brewery)<\/td>10<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.30<\/td>0<\/td>5<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sydney Brewery<\/td>16<\/td>68.8<\/td>0.94<\/td>0<\/td>4<\/td>7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Slipstream<\/td>14<\/td>64.3<\/td>0.93<\/td>0<\/td>4<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Black Hops<\/td>10<\/td>90.0<\/td>1.30<\/td>0<\/td>4<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shelter<\/td>12<\/td>66.7<\/td>1.00<\/td>0<\/td>4<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sunshine Brewery (NZ)<\/td>12<\/td>66.7<\/td>1.00<\/td>0<\/td>4<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cheeky Monkey<\/td>10<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.20<\/td>0<\/td>4<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Burnley<\/td>11<\/td>63.6<\/td>1.00<\/td>0<\/td>4<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Watts River Brewing<\/td>11<\/td>81.8<\/td>1.09<\/td>0<\/td>3<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jervis Bay<\/td>10<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.10<\/td>0<\/td>3<\/td>5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Future Magic<\/td>11<\/td>63.6<\/td>0.91<\/td>0<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Spoetzl (USA)<\/td>10<\/td>50.0<\/td>0.80<\/td>0<\/td>3<\/td>2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Brightstar<\/td>10<\/td>40.0<\/td>0.70<\/td>0<\/td>3<\/td>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Freshwater<\/td>13<\/td>84.6<\/td>1.00<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Endeavour \/ Pinnacle Drinks<\/td>29<\/td>34.5<\/td>0.41<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nail Brewing<\/td>17<\/td>52.9<\/td>0.65<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mahou \/ San Miguel (Spain)<\/td>12<\/td>66.7<\/td>0.83<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hawkesbury<\/td>10<\/td>80.0<\/td>1.00<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sunday Road<\/td>12<\/td>41.7<\/td>0.58<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coles Liquor<\/td>10<\/td>30.0<\/td>0.50<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feral<\/td>10<\/td>60.0<\/td>0.60<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/p>\n

These are the Champions (and they mostly did very well)<\/h4>\n

Eleven different “Champions” are crowned at the AIBAs, and it gets a little confusing and unwieldy. Stone & Wood’s ‘Hinterland Big Pale’ (pictured above) won Champion Australian Beer \u2014 determined by a final taste-off with the other local trophy winners (Best Pilsner, Best Modern Pale Ale, etc.<\/em>) \u2014 and soaked up plenty of media coverage as a result.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But Stone & Wood the\u00a0brewery<\/em> didn’t fare so well; several gold medals out of contention for a “Champion brewery” title,<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> with MPC and PPE only slightly better than average and nothing to write home about in context \u2014 all while their flagship Pacific Ale failed to earn a medal. It’s the perfect example of how bad news can hide behind good news.<\/p>\n

Probably the most-obvious thing from the table is how far an outlier Brick Lane are; entering vastly more beer than anyone else, but also earning twice<\/em> the golds of any other brewery and a heavy pile of other medals.\u00a0The reason I started these analyses was to show that some breweries ‘brute force’ their way to victory<\/a>, since there’s no penalty for a beer that fails. But that is absolutely not<\/em> what Brick Lane are doing here, as you can see from their very creditable MPC and PPE, and the broad base of beers that did well for them, from everyday crowd-friendly stuff to an impressive run of barrel aged stouts. For such a large brewery, it’s striking that about a third of the beers they entered have no online presence at all, and a few others are in the single digits for check-ins on Untappd. To me, that strongly suggests they’re entering a lot of very small-batch stuff, perhaps only available at their onsite taproom<\/a> \u2014 open two afternoons a week, in a remote Melbourne industrial park.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> That would begin to strain the spirit<\/em> of the rule that entries must be “commercially available”,<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> though it is worth noting that even if you deleted all those ‘ghost’ beers from their winnings, they’d still be Champion in the ‘Large’ brewery tier.<\/p>\n

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Kaiju (and others, to be fair) crushed it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two other Australian Champions, Kaiju (Medium) and King Road (Small), both turned in even sharper performances, each winning a trophy in a hotly-contested category (Pilsner and Traditional IPA, respectively), and earning medals for every single beer they entered \u2014 with Kaiju doing so with more beers than anyone else who managed the same feat. King Road’s PPE was almost the best in the entire competition, bettered only by a handful of breweries who put forward just one or two beers each. Meanwhile, Dollar Bill won the “Gypsy” category for the third year running, but I’ll come back to the question of who they might’ve been up against later.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

All three international Champions were from New Zealand \u2014 and each also won in 2023. On their way to defending their title, Garage Project collected the Champion International Beer trophy with ‘Chance, Luck & Magic’, and were one of only 14 entrants (out of 396) to register a PPE over 2.00. Behemoth and Three Sisters weren’t quite as strong, but still performed much better in MPC and PPE terms here in Australia than they ever have done on their home turf. Both have previously seemed to opt for the ‘brute force’ method of winning a title with lots of entries and a relatively low hit rate,<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and while they’ve done better here, it’s still surprising that a small brewery in Taranaki fielded the second-highest number of beers in the entire competition. The sole non-Australasian ‘Champion’ this year was the Best New Exhibitor, Colorado’s Outer Range \u2014 who were founded in 2016, but “new” here refers to their first time entering the AIBAs, and that title is essentially awarded on PPE. 2.33 is a very<\/em> good score, and though it was only off three entries (all IPAs), that’s the kind of laser-focused high performance I’ll always applaud.<\/p>\n

Undercelebrated performances (and reality checks)<\/h4>\n

Good news can also hide within bad news. For example, Revel \u2014 perhaps unfairly neglected from my table because they only entered 9 beers \u2014 would rocket into sixth place overall if you sorted the field by medals (they won 5 golds, and had one fewer silvers than Bodriggy), arriving there with a perfect MPC and one of the highest PPEs of the year at 2.33. Urban Alley and Hawke’s aren’t far behind, with fewer golds but both likewise scoring 100 MPC with PPE of 2.11 and 2.00 respectively, also off 9 entries each. Moon Dog earned an even higher PPE of 2.40, from five beers which all medaled. And indeed, you can see from the table above that Balter, Grifter, Seeker, Pirate Life and Beerfarm all<\/em> entered at least ten beers and won medals with every one, with very respectable PPEs at the same time. Such performances are all too easily overlooked when they don’t come with a title and it’s not hard to find really solid scores from breweries that don’t get much respect in some circles.<\/p>\n

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Dark beer, dark horse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two particular breweries make a good case study in reputation and results: the average Melbourne-based beer “fan” would talk of Deeds with reverence<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and look down their nose at Bodriggy. But if you sort the table above by MPC, you’ll see they’re within one point (with only one failing beer each), and it’s Bodriggy<\/em> who have the better PPE, and enough extra golds that they damn near wrestled the Championship out of Kaiju’s hands.<\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This kind of thing is why I often encourage people to try things ‘blind’ occasionally \u2014 since you’ll pretty frequently surprise yourself and like (or dislike<\/em>) something contrary to your own expectations. It’s also a nice reminder that beer can be “good” in several ways and to keep in mind that awards focus on technical precision and faithfulness to style and it is obviously okay to base your choices on other factors. But “crap beer” does not do well at competitions, and it’s pointless to dismiss the results because your favourite didn’t win.<\/p>\n

A lot of the current “hype” breweries sat out the competition entirely, so there’s no way see how their stuff fares when tasted blind against their peers. There’s nothing here from Future, Found, Fox Friday,<\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Bracket, Wildflower or Working Title, for example. Mountain Culture didn’t submit anything either this year, perhaps deciding their huge push to dominate the Hottest 100 (awarded by popular vote instead) is more worth their time. A few breweries in what might be their late-hype era \u2014 Rocky Ridge, Range, One Drop \u2014 were present and did pretty well, but there’s no way to slice the data in which any of them come out on top here.<\/p>\n

And you might’ve noticed that Brick Lane were also awarded Champion Victorian Brewery, but no other states got a special category \u2014 presumably because the AIBAs are always hosted here and the organisers were formerly known as the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria. If the other states and territories had a parallel award, the winners would’ve been Bentspoke (ACT), Moo Brew (Tas.), Coopers (SA), King Road (WA), Revel (Qld.), and 4 Pines (NSW)<\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u2014 most by pretty comfortable margins, the closest runner-up being Pirate Life in South Australia.<\/p>\n

Indies and conglomerates (and retailers)<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0other big nation-wide beer competition is The Indies,<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> run by the Independent Brewers Association<\/a> \u2014 but their members still produce a huge proportion of the Australian beers contesting the AIBAs; something like 80%, despite their combined market share of less than 10%<\/a>.\u00a0And once I’d worked\u00a0that<\/em> out, naturally I had to check how they (collectively) performed, compared to the local duopoly.<\/span>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t
Ownership status<\/th>Entries<\/th>MPC<\/th>PPE<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
IBA member<\/td>1012<\/td>79.0<\/td>1.31<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Asahi \/ CUB<\/td>144<\/td>83.0<\/td>1.47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kirin \/ Lion<\/td>47<\/td>76.6<\/td>1.34<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Again, I think that should push back against some biases in the minds of many consumers; I’m not sure many people would think they might all be so close \u2014 nevermind have much chance at guessing the rankings by MPC or PPE. Asahi is buoyed by Balter and Pirate Life doing so well, but even their mainstream brands (like Carlton and Great Northern) were earning about 80 MPC. Back home in NZ, Lion-owned breweries are reliably stronger than their rivals, but here Fixation underperformed and dragged their average down somewhat.<\/span>16<\/sup><\/a><\/span> There are a\u00a0lot<\/em> of valid criticisms of these giant conglomerates and their business practices, but bluntly knocking them for making “bad beer” is pretty wrong-headed on these numbers.<\/p>\n

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100% Australian made, 16.6% brand MPC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the two main liquor retailers in Australia \u2014 Endeavour (who own Dan Murphy’s and BWS) and Coles (Liquorland and Vintage Cellars) \u2014 both also have a number of “store brand” beers<\/a> which they sent into the awards. These include labels like Zytho, Colossal, John Boston and Tinnies<\/a>. And those<\/em> are the real duds of the competition, it turns out. Even as their portfolios account for an estimated 5% of all beer sold in the country (about as much as Coopers)<\/a> they earned zero gold medals, and the two companies easily had the worst MPC and PPE stats of any significant local entrants. (Morbidly curious, I checked their 2023 results, and they were just as bad.)<\/span>17<\/sup><\/a><\/span> They’re such an outlier that it makes me wonder who actually brews them, and what it says about the producer(s) \u2014 are they half-arsing something that isn’t going to carry their own name, or is the contracting company imposing cost constraints that lead to inferior product? There’s mention online that Brick Lane brewed the Tinnies range, for example, but that was years ago<\/span>18<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and it would be in stark contrast to the quality seen from them this year. [Postscript, May 2025: a few months later, results of the Sydney Royal Beer & Cider Show<\/a> confirmed that Brick lane do indeed still brew Tinnies \u2014 if only other awards catalogues included such useful information…]<\/p>\n

My final point is that this weirdly brings us all the way back to Dollar Bill’s possibly-predictable win in the “Gypsy Brewer” category, the weird and outdated phrase the AIBAs use for contract brewing. It’s unfortunately absent from the awards data which other breweries were eligible; another manifestation of the general lack of transparency with this mode of production.<\/span>19<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But other than a few real minnows,<\/span>20<\/sup><\/a><\/span> it seems Endeavour and Coles might be most of the “competition”, here, with their sad parade of knockoffs. So while I’m sure it’s nice to have some more silverware and extra recognition, the victory must start to feel a little hollow.<\/p>\n

And…<\/em> that’s enough for now. If you’ve made it this far and found my commentary useful or entertaining (or both) odds are you know someone else who will, too. It takes a lot of work to drag some sense out of all this, and I appreciate any help in spreading the word, so the numbers can settle some arguments \u2014 and bring a little more praise (or scorn) to those who have earned it.<\/p>\n

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