Looking at the recent top 50 list of Australian beers on this site, we only have 3 beers that are 4.0 (outstanding) or higher (Warhead number 1 at 4.09). That seems quite low - surely we have more than 3 outstanding beers that have come out of Australia? Is this the current situation in Australia? Are we still that far off the US and rest of the World? Or do we have a tendency to mark our own beers down when rating on the site? Would be interesting to get some thoughts on this..
It's not just Australia, the UK top 50 is an outrage. I tend not to pay much attention to the ratings on this site.
Having lived in Sydney the last 6 months and now in Perth, I've gotten to try 100+ Australian beers. That's not much compared to 700+ in the States, but I can definitely say some are "underrated" strictly because they're not rated at all. Boatrocker's Ramjet could give all sorts of barrel aged stouts in the BA Top 250 a run for their money. Two Metre Tall's Sour Cherry Ale would sell out in 2 seconds if The Bruery or Cascade were the ones to put it out, but a super tall Tasmanian dude did so nobody cares. Also, there isn't much of it to go around. The ratings for Australian beers are a bit wonky. Not looking to offend anyone, but I read reviews of Australian beers that make absolutely no sense to me. How does a beer like BrewCult's Hop Zone have an average 3.76 when it should be way higher? West Coast staple session IPA, Lagunitas DayTime, has a 90-point score––and Hop Zone is a straight up better version of the same thing. Don't get me wrong, that beer fresh is dramatically better. There are a lot of aging issues going on here (no bottle dates on anything, "Best By" dates a freaking year after bottling for IPAs...), but stuff like Hop Zone would destroy if it was for sale in Southern California, which is arguably the biggest cemetery in the world for sub-par hoppy beers. I read so many reviews about West Coast style beers on here by Australians saying what it "should" be or why it's so "disappointing", but actually being from the West Coast, there are a few Aussie beers that have nailed it; The Grifter's Big Sur, BrewCult's Hop Zone & Keep on Truckin'. In fact, Batch Brewing's Pale Ale is probably the closest thing I've tasted to Stone IPA since I've been here (the brewers are American though). Australians are definitely marking down their own beers, but I don't blame them, there's not solid context to begin with. Even US beers have to travel for so long before they even arrive so it's not a realistic comparison. Conversely, I drain poured Epic's Hop Zombie the first time I had it in California because it traveled so horribly. I think it has to do with the lack of reviews as well as the general palate here. There's not a well-defined "good" or "bad" throughout the country and you can see it in the reviews. Lot's of disagreement happening inevitably holds down high scores. Some things like Ekim's After Battle Pale are becoming fan favorites, but it's going to be a while before the entire country decides what's good/bad and Australia finds its own Pliny or Bourbon County, though Ramjet should already be that beer
i will add more later, but sheer numbers of reviews have a lot to do with it.... eg Warhead scores 4.09 on the 'top beer' list, but its raw score is 4.42, so the lack of Aussie reviewers are indeed hurting the pure numbers. if more people had reviewed it, with 'on par' reviews, it would have higher score. lies , lies and damn lies, i am sure
lol. I just found this list that accurately sums up the utter confusion that is the general palate here. http://www.brewsnews.com.au/2014/01/australias-hottest-100-craft-beers/ How Fat Yak is even in the list is beyond me, let alone #22. One thing I do appreciate though is the crystal clear picture that Australia is heading for the same craft beer scenario that the States is in. This list would echo the sentiment there probably 10 years ago when the tides were just starting to turn.
Most of my reviews of Australian beers from my time down-under were well over the average rating, I'd say many Aussie brews I tried were very underrated indeed.
