So the results are in: http://www.beercartel.com.au/blog/2017-australian-craft-beer-survey-results/ Beer Cartel's 2017 survey lists, among other things, Pirate Life as Australia's best brewery. My own feeling is that the brewery list is dominated by volume brewers pushing pale product. (I don't know if that's fair, it's just my impression.) I wonder what a *thoroughly scientific* survey of this forum would come up with? Who and what are our favourites?
Survey's like this can only reflect what the punters who take them input. People on this website sometimes forget that they are the 0.0001% and as such their favourite beers are unlikely to be the same as the general craft beer drinking population. What is your definition of a 'volume brewer'? 10,000 hectolitres a year? 30,000? 200,000? 1,000,000? For me the survey delivered results as I would expect. Relatively consistent and good breweries with a good distribution did well. Pale Ale and IPA are the most popular styles among craft beer drinkers, again as expected.
I just said it because it sounded good. I think you're right about the volume / quality assurance connection though. The bigger the volume and the economies of scale the easier it is to ensure consistency, improve processes, invest in people, plant and R&D... I'm not a pale ale person though, and nor are many of this forum's contributors. And we may be the 0.0001% (or more likely 1% (maybe we should get patches, like Hells Angels)) but I'm still interested in what we/you have to say.
I'm certainly interested in what fellow BA's have to say, unfortunately the Aus forum has about 6 or so regular posters and another 10 maybe semi regular posters (or 0.0009411 of the people surveyed in the beer cartel thing ). Excluding Stone and Wood, the top 5 breweries are all pretty small in the scheme of things, but they are fairly consistent, with good branding and good presence in the market. Bridge Road and Feral also have time on their side, they've both been around for more than 10 years which is a lifetime in the Australian Craft scene. It doesn't appear to be in the survey, but I would hazard a guess that Saisons and Wild/Sour ales were one of the fastest growing categories, albeit still a tiny percentage of the overall market. An ultra geek BA/RB survey would be fun, even if just for the LOL's.
Well for shitz n giggles, let's get this thing started shall we? From a really limited sample... My top 5 brewers: 1. Boatrocker 2. Feral 3. Mornington 4. Bad Shepherd 5. La Sirene Top 5 beers: 1. Boatrocker Ramjet imperial stout 2. Feral Hop Hog 3. Hop Nation Chop NEIPA 4. Edge Brewing Project Stagger Lee imperial stout 5. La Sirene Saison
Very NSW biased list but 1) Black Font (very high quality beers, very good range and a mix of experimental/classic styles) 2) Akasha (fairly consistent hoppy beers) 3) Pirate Life (fairly consistent hoppy beers) 4) Stockade (mainly cause of Old Money) 5) Fixation (all their IPAs are pretty solid) 1) Stockade Old Money 2) PL Mosaic can't pull out any other huge highlights really, apart from Boatrocker Banshee but that was from years ago For the Victorian brewers, WOTW, Bad Shepherd (except their dark beers are not very good), Little Ravens or Mountain Goat are all good and fairly consistent but I can't easily pick one out as a standout from the others. I've found Feral to be lacking consistency of late (last tap takeover I went to was overpriced and seemingly had a lot of stale stuff on), Bridge Road have been too reliant on that sour series which isn't actually that good Shenanigans or Boatrocker would easily make it in if they had released new stuff recently (or even if Shenanigans rebrewed their classics again).
I'll have a crack then, Top 5 Breweries (in no order): Mornington Peninsula Brewery Foghorn Brewhouse Pirate Life Brewery Akasha Bad Shepherd Honorable mentions to Bentspoke, Bridge Road Brewers, Boatrocker and 3 Ravens (particularly the Wild Ravens series). Top 5 Beers (in no order): 3 Ravens Wild Raven Riesling Sour Foghorn Sligo Stout Stomping Ground Archfiend hmmm..., thats it for now, plenty of other beers that have been good and I'd certainly drink again eg. Riders Loose Trucks Porter or Boatrocker Saison du Bateau.
Thanks both for your lists and comments. My beer education is progressing well! @smithflipper I think you may have right about this not being a forum for surveys, though. It's a great forum but it's small.
I had a couple of the Wild Ravens initial releases and found them "soapy" so haven't bought one since.
I've only had the Riesling one, very much enjoyed it. I'm sure I'll end up trying the others at some point. Which did you have?
I had the old red ale, the purple plum red ale and old brown ale. The old red ale wasn't too bad actually which was the most recent one I had. The other two yielded similar soapy characteristics. I think they were his first few wild ravens so may have had some issues which he later rectified?
Under "most consumed beer styles" is that styles of Australian-made beer, or beer from around the world? "Belgian Ale" is multiple styles of beer.
