Brewers around the country are prepping venues and celebrations ahead of the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers People’s Choice Awards, which will be announced tomorrow.
Over 50,000 people have cast their vote for their favourite Australian craft beers, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and the countdown will happen in conjunction with the Triple J Hottest 100 and the winner will be announced at 5pm on Saturday, 28 January.
Last year, nearly a quarter of a million votes were cast by close to 50,000 consumers as a record 58 breweries made it onto the Hottest 100 list. Canberra’s Bentspoke Crankshaft IPA took out the number one spot for the second year running and as testament to how astute and on trend Aussie consumers voting in the Hottest 100 are, Crankshaft IPA went on to win a gold medal in the UK’s International Beer Awards. Gold Coast’s Balter XPA which is co-owned by Mick Fanning and Joel Pakinson came in second and podium debutants Your Mates from the Sunny Coast came in third.
Speaking to The Shout late last year, Bentspoke’s Co-Founder, Co-Owner and Head Brewer, Richard Watkins, said that the wins have helped the brewery with spreading its presence way beyond Canberra.
“The wins help get a better distribution, better awareness across the whole of Australia, and giving the retailer something to talk about,” he said.
“It also gives us something to go to the retailers with and say ‘look this beer just got voted number one craft beer in Australia and if we work with you, we’d love you to stock our beer’.
“We’re still a relatively small brewery and there’s still people in Canberra that potentially haven’t been to the brewpub or tasted our beers before. So when we do get a bit of media about the wins that exposes us to potential consumers and so we do get people coming along and tasting our beer.”
You can follow the countdown at gabshottest100.com or come celebrate at one of the many venues who will be hosting countdown parties across the country: https://gabshottest100.com/find-a-venue/