South Aussie Breweries and Cider producers dominated this year’s Royal Adelaide Beer & Cider Awards (RABCA), taking out of all the major awards and trophies. Established in 1844 and relaunched in its current format in 2010, the event now attracts around 400 beer and cider producers from across Australia and New Zealand to compete for thirteen highly coveted trophies.
The most outstanding beer in show went to Adelaide-based brewery, The Suburban Brew, for their mid-strength (3.01 – 3.5%) ale, Sunday. A very popular beer at the competition at the Adelaide Showgrounds, Sunday also won champion of the reduced alcohol beer category.
From small beginnings as a ‘nomad brewery’, where Tony Dichiera made beer “working out the back end of other breweries” they now have two Adelaide locations, their OG taproom in the heart of Goodwood managed by his business partner Troy Brailsford, and their new Brewery & Taproom in the North Eastern suburb of Glynde.
“It was really exciting to see a small-batch reduced-strength beer take out a major award!” Founder Tony Dichiera said.
“That means out of all the categories, it scored the highest.”
The awards were held on the Friday night of the Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival. Tony says they previously were held away from the festival but this year they presented them on the big stage.
“That was pretty cool to get our name chucked up on the big screen there as champion beer,” Tony said.
Head Brewer and Operations Direction Peter Bradley championed the total nine wins for the brewery across the night, taking the “original recipes up that next level to take out these awards”, Tony said.
The Sunday ale is a crisp clean session ale with a bit of fruity hope note, perfect for a – aptly-named – Sunday.
“Easy to drink, uncomplicated… like any good Sunday should be,” Tony said.
The Suburban Brew serve an exciting rotation of small-batch brewed beer with new favourites ready to be discovered. Their most recent drop, the Kief Sub-Urban with NZ liquid hops from Freestyle hops produces a tasty burst of tropical and stone fruits with a heavy ABV of 8.7%.
After discovering a love for batch-brewing in the UK, Tony use it as a way to meet the neighbours when he moved to Australia. With his wife – who loves to bake and cook – he headed across the road with homemade beers in hand and a freshly baked treat to introduce themselves. This inspired their tagline – Love Thy Neighbour, Love Thy Beer.
“The idea of the Suburban Brew was to get people back together and the way to do that was sharing a beer,” Tony said.
Their packaging has three key elements influenced by Suburban life. The iconic Street Sign and the Street Number – with each style of beer inspired by a real-life location – make it easy to find your favourite in a crowded bottle shop! Every batch is also given a unique postcode, allowing the small-batch brewery the ability to keep track of, and tweak, different flavours and styles.
The RABCA are judged in a blind tasting from both a technical and consumer appreciation perspective, taking into consideration the beer’s appearance, aroma, flavour and overall impression across categories including lagers, ales, porters, stouts, reduced alcohol beer, wheat beer, rye beer, alternative grain beers, cider and perry (pear cider).
The Barossa Valley Cider Company cleaned up all the major trophies in this year’s cider-tasting exhibit. The local producer won the Best Cider in Show for their Squashed Cloudy Cider, the Best Perry in Show for their Squashed Pear Cider and Best South Australian Cider Exhibit. Nestled amongst the grape vines of the Barossa, they produce a blend of South Australian Apples to deliver a lively mouthfeel and texture that is soft/subtle and velvety on the finish.
Barossa Valley Brewing won the Champion Small Brewery Award, as the highest-scoring brewery with offerings like Hop Heaven taking out Gold in the India Pale Ale exhibit. The local brewers also brought many heavy hitters to the Alternative Grains category scoring gold for their stouts with unique flavours including Peanut Butter Chocolate Milkshake, Imperial Chocolate Coffee and Rocky Road.
Port Adelaide’s Pirate Life Brewing was crowned the Champion Large Brewery was the highest score in the 250,000 litres or greater per annum produced category. The popular brand was started by WA brewers Jack Cameron and Jared ‘Red’ Proudfoot who moved across the country to open the doors to a new venture March, 2015 at the Gilbert Street Hotel – followed by bars and bottle shops across the country.
South Australian Breweries also dominated the Beer Trophies – awarded to the exhibit with the highest points. A gold medal goes to any drink that scores 17 points and over, a silver medal goes to one with a score of 15.5 to 16.9 points and bronze medals are given to beverages that score 14 to 15.4 points.
The Best New Exhibit went to Eclectic Brewing for getting the highest score from an exhibitor in their first show for its mid-strength (3.01 – 3.5%) ale, Campbeltowner. The Champion Lager went to Mismatch Brewing for their lager, champion reduced alcohol beer was awarded to the Suburban Brew for their ale Sunday, Champion Ale was given to Pirate Life Brewing for their California Pale Ale, the Champion IPA was kick back brewing’s anchor steady, Champion Porter/Stout went to Prancing Pony Brewery for it’s Class 16 winning can, Double Black, and the Champion Alternative Grain Beer/Specialty went to Vale Brewing for its barrel aged stout, Fox Hat Rusty Mongrel.
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