Lion has made the strongest showing in the Beer & Brewer Awards 100 Best Beers of 2012 list, despite none of its James Squire beers rating a mention.
The Top 100 is calculated based on strict criteria comprising people's choice votes, beer sales, industry nominations and beer sales.
Feral Brewing Co took out the Number One position with its much-loved Feral Hop Hog brew.
Stone & Wood's beloved Pacific Ale took out second place, with Little Creatures Pale Ale nabbing third.
The top ten was rounded out by Nail Stout, The Monk Chief, Matilda Bay Redback Original, Feral Watermelon Warhead, Coopers Pale Ale, Two Birds Golden Ale, and Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale.
Lion – as a whole – topped the brewery count with 10 beers making it onto the list with its brands Little Creatures – with three beers – Hahn, Knappstein, Kosciusko, Mad Brewers, Swan, White Rabbit and XXXX all rating places.
But none of the Lion's James Squire beers were included, which Beer & Brewer publisher David Lipman suggested may be due to most of Squire's sales coming from retail outlets under contract and mainstream retail outlets.
"Our retail sales are from the best [specialist] beer venue retail outlets which don’t appear to be selling much James Squire," he said.
The full list is available here. It will be included in the 2012 Beer & Brewer Awards booklet, to be distributed with copies of Issue 24 of Beer & Brewer.