Last week, 400 Australian craft breweries battled for a spot in the GABS Hottest 100 list, with Mountain Culture’s Status Quo Pale Ale claiming top honours for the third consecutive year. Shining a spotlight on the debut brews of 2024, GABS has unveiled the new releases sub-list for the second year.
Dedicated to the year’s new releases and limited-edition beers, the GABS Hottest 100 New Releases of 2024 sub-list features 72 Australian breweries. First place goes to Hiker Brewing Co’s Horizon, which entered the overall list in 38th place.
Brewmanity took out second place with Mouth of Melbourne while Future Magic Brewing Co clinched third position with Hazy Shade of Pale, sitting alongside new and emerging breweries and familiar favourites, including Mountain Culture, whose Hyper IPA and Backpack Ale landed seventh and eighth place.
While small-batch Brisbane brewery Range Brewing didn’t make the overall list, for the second year running it claimed the most positions on the new release sub-list, landing a total of six beers once again. BentSpoke followed with five beers on the sub-list, while Balter, Good Land and Hawkers each landed four.
Breweries based in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria dominated the line up, landing 29, 28 and 21 spots respectively. Western Australian breweries ranked a total of nine times, South Australia five and Tasmania two.
The full list of GABS Hottest 100 New Releases of 2024, which is presented by First Choice Liquor Market, can be found here. Other sub-lists released by GABS include the extended GABS Hottest 100 Next Craft Beers 2024, which features the breweries ranked between 100 and 200, and the GABS Hottest 100 Indie Beers of 2024, presented by the Independent Brewers Association.