Earlier in the week, we ran an article on the new head brewer at Uraidla Brewery titled Max Bowering Slays Beer, and it appears the judges at the 2024 Independent Brewers Association (IBA) awards agree. Uraidla's red IPA, Vampiric Throne, has been named Champion Australian Independent Beer, coming out on top of more than 1,000 beers entered in the competition.
It's the first red IPA to take the top prize in ten years of the Indies, and the first time the champion beer trophy has headed to South Australia since 2018. In a neat bit of synchronicity, Max has been mentored at Uraidla by Owen Lyons, who collected the trophy for Mismatch while delivering one of the all-time acceptance speeches.
"This beer was a last minute decision, so happy we decided to enter it at the last minute," Max said. "Super-fresh, made with love and passion.
"Wow. I'm as shocked as everyone else."
Talking of synchronicity, we featured Lindsay Astarita of Stomping Ground (pictured above left with Kelly Falconer) in the second episode of The Crafty Pint Podcast this week. She spoke about setting up a sensory and quality program at the Collingwood brewery, and clearly she's created a good one as the brewery has a couple more trophies to squeeze into its bulging cabinet after securing Champion Australian Large Independent Brewery and Champion Modern Lager for their Draught.
"A pretty good night," Lindsay said afterwards with one of the understatements of the night. "It feels good, because quality and consistency is something we always strive for, and it's nice to be recognised for that. It feels really good for the team.
"It was nice to see a lot of excitement. People were very happy to have the awards ceremony in their home state. It's nice to see excitement like that."
The medium-sized champion brewery title went to Seven Mile, in Ballina, who continued their fine run of form at awards ceremonies in recent years – building on trophies for individual beers at past Indies and Australian International Beer Awards. There was home state success in the small brewery category, with Boundary Island Brewery also taking home Champion Modern Pale Ale for Estuary Ale XPA and Champion Modern IPA for The Deckie, while SA-based Tiny Fish were named Champion Independent Contract Brewer.
Elsewhere, there was a mix of familiar and fresh faces taking to the stage. In the former category were awards fiends Moffat Beach, whose Trilogy Best Coast IPA picked up yet another trophy – their 17th at the Indies, presented by our WA writer Guy Southern, Dangerous Ales, with the Milton brewers going back-to-back in the Juicy-Hazy IPA category with Mt Cooked Hazy New Zealand IPA, and Brick Lane – last year's Champion Large Brewery – whose Amburana-aged imperial stout Asylum continued to amass silverware wherever it turns up.
Other past winners returning to the stage included Loophole (Champion Porter / Stout for Salt Water Stout Porter), Boston Brewing (for their just-released non-alc Little Wren Raspberry Sour), Six String (Champion Reduced Alcohol for Session), and Felons (Champion Sour, Fruit + Funk for Red Sky At Night). There was something of a blast from the past too, with Mornington Peninsula's Brown Ale – a cult favourite for many when it first appeared – winning Champion British-Style Ale.
With the awards taking place in WA for the first time, following on from the WA Beer & Brewing Conference, there was plenty to celebrate for locals. Aetheon Brewing's imperial stout, Significant Milestone, Indian Ocean Draught, Homestead Brewery's St Isidore Saison (for which my first tasting note when invited to sample the 17 trophy winners earlier in the week was, simply: "Wow."), and Innate Brewers' DDH American Pale Ale all topped their categories.
There was also a special presentation for Matt Kirkegaard. He received the IBA's Lifetime Achievement Award after bringing down the curtain on a lengthy career in beer earlier this year when he made the decision to close the beer website and podcast, Brews News, he had launched back in 2010.
Completing the major awards on the night were Capital Brewing, who picked up Champion Juicy-Hazy Pale for their popular Hang Loose Juice while also winning their first state / territory trophy too.
In total, 1,028 beers were entered with 151 golds awarded by the 50 judges and 87 percent of beers winning at least a bronze.
Head judge Justin Fox said: “The calibre of the assembled judging panels was again first class, with representation from all corners of our industry. Each judge brought unique skills, industry perspective, sensory strengths, and a positive willingness to both improve and impart their own knowledge.
"With the Olympics in full swing, this medal tally demonstrates that consumers across Australia can enjoy the highest calibre of independent beers on tap in venues and packed in fridges across the country.”
You can look out for more on the Indies when Episode 003 of The Crafty Pint Podcast goes live on Thursday. It will feature chats with winners on the night plus an in-depth interview with new IBA chair, Callum Reeves of KAIJU!, on his plans for indie beer.
Indies 2024 Trophy Winners
Champion Australian Independent Beer presented by Konvoy
- Uraidla Brewing – Vampiric Throne Red IPA
Champion Australian Independent Large Brewery presented by Orora Beverages
- Stomping Ground
Champion Australian Independent Medium Brewery presented by Cryer Malt
- Seven Mile Brewing Co
Champion Australian Independent Small Brewery presented by Thirsty Merchants
- Boundary Island Brewery
Champion Australian Independent Contract Brewer presented by Lallemand Brewing
- Tiny Fish Brew Co
Champion Modern Pale Ale presented by Yakima Chief Hops
- Boundary Island Brewery – Estuary Ale XPA
Champion Traditional Pale Ale
- Innate Brewers – DDH American Pale Ale
Champion Amber-Dark Ale presented by AMSAT
- Uraidla Brewing – Vampiric Throne Red IPA
Champion Porter/ Stout presented by Potato Press
- Loophole – Salt Water Stout Porter
Champion Juicy-Hazy Pale Ale presented by EventRight
- Capital Brewing – Hang Loose Juice
Champion Juicy-Hazy India Pale Ale presented by me&u
- Dangerous Ales – Mt Cooked Hazy New Zealand IPA
Champion Specialty Beer presented by Western Australian Brewers Association
- Aetheon Brewing – Significant Milestone
Champion Traditional Lager presented by American Canning
- Indian Ocean Brewing – Draught
Champion Modern Lager presented by Barrett Burston Malting
- Stomping Ground – Draught
Champion Modern India Pale Ale presented by Hop Products Australia
- Boundary Island Brewery – The Deckie IPA
Champion Traditional India Pale Ale presented by The Crafty Pint
- Moffat Beach – Trilogy Best Coast IPA
Champion European-Style Ale presented by Pink Boots Society Australia
- Homestead Brewery – St Isidore Saison
Champion British-Style Ale presented by Barons Beverage Services
- Mornington Peninsula Brewery – Mornington Brown Ale
Champion Non Alcohol presented by Athena Quality
- Boston Brewing Co – Little Wren Non-Alcoholic Raspberry Sour
Champion Reduced Alcohol presented by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development – Western Australian Government
- Six String Brewing Co – Session
Champion Strong, Wood + Barrel-Aged presented by Midland Insurance Brokers
- Brick Lane Brewing – Asylum
Champion Sour, Fruit + Funk presented by TangoSix
- Felons Brewing – Red Sky At Night
Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Independent Brewers Association
- Matt Kirkegaard – Brews News
STATE CHAMPIONS
Champion Western Australia Brewery presented by Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development WA
- Margaret River Beer Co
Champion ACT & Northern Territory presented by Potato Press
- Capital Brewing
Champion New South Wales Brewery
- Seven Mile Brewing
Champion South Australia Brewery presented by Brand South Australia
- Mismatch Brewing
Champion Tasmania Brewery presented by Tasmanian Government
- Hobart Brewing Co
Champion Victorian Brewery presented by Agriculture Victoria
- Stomping Ground
Champion Queensland Brewery presented by Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water QLD
- Felons Brewing
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
