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GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers Of 2024 Livestream Replay!
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For the best expert analysis served with a dash of opinion and plenty of banter, be sure to tune in to The Crafty Pint’s GABS Hottest 100 Video Podcast on countdown day!
Kicking off from 2.45pm AEDT on January 25, the Crafty team will guide you through the pointy end of the countdown, with deep dive trends and insights, interviews with brewers and beer lovers, wild chat, hot takes, listener comments, and more than a little random beer trivia.
Yep, it’s the world’s oldest tradition… ranking beers and trying to make it sound like this is a serious thing we should be doing with our time. You can subscribe to The Crafty Pint Podcast on YouTube for the full video experience, and catch up with an audio replay later on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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Transcript
Introduction and Acknowledgments
00:00:01
Speaker
Good afternoon craft fear lovers and welcome to the Crafty pint podcast live coverage of the Gab's hottest 100 Aussie craft fears of 2024. We are coming at you live from the lands of the Wurundjeri people and we want to acknowledge the the The elders, the traditional custodians, wherever you might be watching from. So ah we pay respect to elders past, present and future. Guys, today is the big day, the biggest day in Australian craft beer. It is countdown day for the Gabs Hottest 100.
Hosts and Format Overview
00:00:33
Speaker
My name's Craig Williams and I'm delighted to be playing the sparkling and effervescent host for today's show. And with me to provide expert insights, commentary and probably more than a few random facts are two of the biggest names in beer journalism.
00:00:46
Speaker
On my left, I'd like to introduce the man himself, the founder and editor of The Crafty Pint, the mohawk with a microphone, Mr. James Smith. Thank you, Craig. Pleasure to be here and what's already shaping up to be the most fascinating countdown in in years, I think. So, yeah, should be pretty fun. Fantastic. And on my right, I have multi-award-winning senior journalist, senior writer for The Crafty Pint, Mr. Wills Abell. Will. Craig, thanks so much. It's so exciting to be here to talk about craft beer. What more could you want in life?
00:01:15
Speaker
This is pretty exciting. We're basically three guys on a panel talking about beer. Amazing.
Craig Williams' Gab's Journey
00:01:20
Speaker
Now, a couple of little disclosures to get out of the way first on my behalf. I have been involved in this campaign, this hottest 100 for a long time. I was the event director of Gabs for a few years and and intimately involved in the poll. And I have worked for a few breweries, particularly on the Sunshine Coast, where I now reside. So I have seen this thing from every angle, even the unflattering ones.
00:01:44
Speaker
So is there any, um you know, it's too late for people from this year to to know this, but maybe for next year, the Brewers that are listening, what are your what are your hot tips? How do you win it, Craig? Well, Will, I'm ah delighted that you asked that question because I'm proud today to announce the release of my new book, Everything You Need to Know to to Win the Gab's Hottest 100. But you know what? We're all friends here, so I'm just going to skip straight through to the end and let you know. Here's the secret.
00:02:13
Speaker
That's right. You heard it here first, folks. I was promised there'd be canned laughter, but that's okay. I think it falls flat on the room. I was supposed to provide the laughter. Sorry, guys. Yes, the jokes will be this bad, but hopefully the beer banter will get better. up Now, guys, where are we up to? We have already started into the countdown, of course. Guys, what can we expect from today's show, James?
00:02:35
Speaker
Better question. I can't we expect Craig. We've got everything you might want and more. So we're going to have some live crosses to some of the countdown parties around the country. We'll be speaking to some of the people appearing in the poll. We've got some pretty records of people talking about their favorite beers of the year, their gateway beers. um yeah You know, I'm sure we'll be very insightful and hilarious um as ever. Fantastic. and And will our man on the on the The box? Yeah, yeah. Well, I've got the terrifying job of keeping the eye on the YouTube comments. So please be polite in there. You know, be careful. Don't get too aggressive. There's already a lot of debate going on in there and the numbers are ticking up as well. So we're watching that with excitement. Do you jump into it? Yeah.
00:03:18
Speaker
So jump in the chat, get in the comments. We have set this up so we want it to be as interactive as possible. We'll be reading our comments, we'll be referring to it throughout the the show. So jump in there, be as spicy as you like with your comments. We're we're excited. And um um we'll be seeing them coming in live as well. So if you see us sort of you know hunched over our laptops at any point and crunching away, it's because we're actually you know finding out that the results as that as they come in as well.
00:03:43
Speaker
Yeah, fantastic. Now, guys, we mentioned we're already quite quite deep into the into the
Industry Insights with Mike Bray
00:03:49
Speaker
beers. Well, the list is quite deep into the beers. We haven't touched one yet. But I want to ask you both, and we'll probably talk a lot about the entire list and what's going on there throughout the show. But just to look at the top line trends so far, or any any big standouts that you've noticed, James.
00:04:06
Speaker
I think what's been really cool and I think a few people have commented on it as well is just how many small brew breweries have made the lineup, the list already, some for the first time. um Bojack Brewing in Dandenong, got a beer in there. Curly Lewis, a little brew pub in Bondi, landed a beer, Dangerous Ales from Milton, Future Magic from East Brisbane. Acre are pretty high up there as well, they had a beer last year but it's really awesome to see them do so well.
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, you know, so that that's pretty cool. I mean, and we we were aware that there'd been a few less brewery breweries registered, but I still think to hit hit that high when you're a small, locally focused and brewery is pretty cool. We've actually um had some back and forth with some of them as well. So we'll have some comments on them them later in the show as well. Yeah, brilliant. Now, of course, we're coming to you.
00:04:47
Speaker
With gabs in mind, it's all about the hottest 100. So earlier this week, I spoke with Mike Bray, Managing Director of Spectacular Events, who runs the festival and the poll. Let's hear from Mike about what he thinks of this year's campaign. Mike Bray, thank you for joining us on the show. Welcome to the podcast. Good to have you here.
00:05:05
Speaker
Oh Craig, it's fantastic to be with you and what an incredible day for craft beer in Australia. I'd love to just set the scene for our viewers, our listeners. Give us the the stats, Mike, like how many breweries, how many beers, how many votes, give me the the size and scope of this thing. Especially it's been amazing. You know, it's it's obviously we, the whole market is aware that it's been a tough couple of years for for the craft beer industry side to have a day like today, which effectively craft beer stops the nation.
00:05:35
Speaker
um is, you know, is is such a good celebration for consumers to be able to go out there and go, hey, you know what, I voted for my favorite beers. It's a personal choice. It's my palate. It's my taste and my vote counts. We had nearly nearly 400 breweries in this year's poll. So, you know, it's still a really strong representation across the craft beer industry.
00:05:57
Speaker
um over 1,500 beers nominated in it as well. So it's it's huge. It's as huge as it's always been television for the first time at 3D Air. So Channel 9 carried carry the Gav's hottest 100 TV adverts this year. So, you know, we're constantly growing, evolving, reaching more and more more people and hopefully, you know,
00:06:22
Speaker
increasing their awareness of craft beer. I agree. I think it's the biggest day in craft beer and gets um more people talking about it than than anything else. So um Mike, every year breweries just embrace the Hottest 100. They jump on, they campaign, they encourage their their fans and their customers to vote. How would you rate kind of this this season of of the Gabs Hottest 100 podcast, or sorry, the Gabs Hottest 100, and though any Any standouts in terms of campaigns and so on? you Craig, there's there's probably too many standouts to to mention. it's It's political campaigning in a fun fun way. You're such a creative
00:07:03
Speaker
yeah industry as it is. It's not only making the beer, but it's the marketing, the street art that goes onto the cans. And this creative, it's another creative outlet for the industry to go, well, how do we reach more more more and more people? I guess um for those breweries that do that are successful in in making the list today, and you know um what what do you think that means to them? Especially those those smaller breweries that maybe got a new beer into the list for the first time?
00:07:31
Speaker
what What do you think that that means to them? ah Craig, I mean, it's know it's it's well documented that the hottest 100 list plays a ah large role in retail ranging. you know It allows the sales teams to go in and go, you know what, we wanted that few percent that made it onto onto the hottest 100 list. Our beer is being appreciated by consumers out there. If we're not ranged with you, give us a chance. So I think it's super, you know,
00:07:58
Speaker
gratifying for those that that make it not only turn to the hottest 100 list, but onto the even you know the hottest 100 new beer list, which comes out next week, onto the hottest indie beer list. There's a fantastic representation of independent breweries across across the range and that the 101 to 200 list that we release to allow breweries to see how they're coming up. And there's some really good examples you know of breweries that have come onto to the new list a couple of years ago, and now really going deep on on on the hottest 100 list. Well, Mike, thank you so much for your time. I know you're a busy man today, even though people might be able to pick up that I'm not wearing the same outfit that I'm going to be wearing on the day. But Mike, thank you so much for joining us, and we'll get back to an exciting countdown. Great. Thanks so much for having me.
00:08:53
Speaker
At First Choice Liquor Market, we offer more choice with over a thousand wines in every store. Over 70 boutique and international gins. More than 50 single malts. And over 140 craft beers. Our team of experts are your first choice for friendly advice. And we're great value with low prices across the store and online. That's why we're your First Choice.
00:09:23
Speaker
There you go, that was Mike Bray from Spectapula, who runs Gabs in the festival Festival and the Hottest 100. And I should mention, you saw our first choice ad in there. Our first choice are the partner of the Gabs Hottest 100, and by extension, they're helping bring this podcast together. A big shout out to our studio as well. We're here in Brunswick in a venue called Stupid Old Studios, and I'm sorry, just look at this screen behind us.
00:09:47
Speaker
If anyone's a regular viewer of the Crafty Point podcast, we've hit the fucking jackpot here, guys. Sorry, i I was told not to swear, but it's just too good. On the screen behind us, we are not announcing the top 10 as we go. We've got previous champions from every year of the the hottest 100.
00:10:06
Speaker
gone by since 2008 and in front of us here we've got last year's top 10 lined up so we'll see I guess later on how many of those come through around that time. Yeah a few shoeys. I want to see if we can shoot them off or something like that but we'll wait.
00:10:22
Speaker
So we're waiting, I think we've got the next batch of results dropping very soon, but a couple of takeouts from um my interview with Mike. He mentioned that we've got around 1,500 beers in the poll and about 400 breweries, so good representation. And we've just seen those next 10
Tasmanian Breweries Breakthrough
00:10:39
Speaker
beers drop. So I'll read these out quickly and we can show you the screen as we do. And I'm gonna scroll down to the bottom here.
00:10:48
Speaker
So in position 30 we've got Fox Friday craft brewery with their hazy IPA, wow Reckless Brewing Co with their BX lager at 29, 28 Kaiju with a Kaiju Crush, at 27 Blackmans Juicy Banger, at 26 Hop Nation with J-Juice hazy IPA, 25 Blackhop's Goat,
00:11:11
Speaker
At 24, Burleigh Bighead, that's a a massive result for them. 23, we've got the Grifter Brewing Co with their Pale Ale. And 22, Beer Farm Royal Hays. 21, Akasha with Freshwater, Pale Ale. Will, I'm going to throw to you mate, what's... The quick takeouts, what are you seeing in that result? Well, results the big news of the yeah the countdown so far is Tasmania, I think. like They have they vanished. yeah They've been gone from the pole for, I think, 12 years. yeah So not a a single Tasmanian brewery has made it in, in that amount of time. Last time it was Moo with a pale ale and a heff of lyson. A style you're probably not too likely to see in a modern gabs countdown. So to see Fox Friday in there, obviously they do have breweries on the mainland. as well. They've got one in Melbourne and one in Perth, but um that's awesome to see that, yeah, Taz he's back on the Gabs map. It's the longest drought, I think, in probably Gabs history. Fantastic. And James, any any kind of standouts in that 10 minutes? I think we're seeing yeah even more newcomers, so Reckless with their BX lager appearing in there, um just showing that you know smaller brewers and are having some cut-through. um Again, you know there's a fair few um you know pale ales and lagers in there, which I guess is what we've seen over the years. um Just throwing back to a few little bit, but not that much lower down the line-up.
00:12:35
Speaker
um Bad Shepherd's Peanut Butter Porter, which has always been like ah a mainstay of the poll for a number of years, but normally like 98, 99, has jumped up 43 places, um you know which in a poll, which is becoming a bit more sort of, you know, pails and lagers sort of dominated, that's pretty remarkable. I did shoot Derek a message, he's on holiday, and I wasn't even watching, and so his holiday just got a little bit better today, yeah so he's pretty pretty excited, and he's hoping he might claim reclaim Australia's highest rated dark beer, so we'll see.
00:13:02
Speaker
Now guys, we talk a lot about the Hottest One 100 being a core range game now. It's such a tough competition and breweries I think realise that trying to get their limited release beers in there is going to be tough so they they promote their core range beers. Just as a point of curiosity, you know, you guys both, you're in beer journalism, you're receiving beer samples all the time.
00:13:25
Speaker
what's what's What's your drinking habits look like in terms of, are you a core range guy? Are you a limited release? i what What's the deal there? Well, what what do you go for when you're... if If you're looking for more than... If you're looking for a four-pack of beer or four beers, I'm buying a four-pack, ultimately, and it's core range beers. Like, if it's something you know you want and you're drinking for a sort of occasion and over a session, I would always go back to a core range drink and maybe in pubs as well, but... often I get excited when you walk into a bar or a pub and you see that new beer you've never heard of before so it's sort of hard to even though you know you know a pale ale your love is great it's hard to sort of um feel loyal there and it's it's a conversation we have all the time that craft beer fans aren't very loyal um but the poll kind of shows that ah there is a lot of love I think potentially for gateway beers
00:14:10
Speaker
I think we're probably a slightly ah unusual case study given given we are sent so many beers, but certainly if I'm buying for you know going away camping or you know having me go for a but barbie or whatever, it would generally be, what's my favourite local core range? you know Fresh pale ale or IPA or pills or something like that. you know At the end of the day, crowd pleaser, but make sure it's you know local, fresh and independent would be the way we'd go. um and yeah And then just top them up every now and then with... you know non-out if you buy the beach for summer or something a bit fancy maybe you know a tall bottle or whatever if you're um you know treating yourself. So Core Range very much has a place in and everyone's sort of... ah I think it always has you know yeah but ultimately there's probably less noise around limiteds now just in the current climate for a number of reasons certainly as the 2010s went on and then the COVID era there was just so many you know out there beers big cans expensive beers for
00:15:02
Speaker
because of the situation we were in then um but even then most breweries would have been relying on one or two core range beers to pay the bills just you know the way it is apart from a tiny handful of breweries that sort of can and build a business on wild stuff. I find myself I think I've come full circle so I probably started You know, you will have your origin beer, your gateway beer, you then start to go down this huge rabbit hole of limiteds and wild and wacky and and so on. And you you want to learn and grow and challenge your palate and so on. But I think is more and more I've kind of swung back the other way to if I've got a a really good paleo that I know and love, I'm going to grab that every time. it
00:15:41
Speaker
evolved to become a GERS nerd and then then it's back to Pails and Pillsness. Yeah, when you want something you trust, you know you you know you're going to get a good product. um Guys, building on that discussion, let's talk about, I guess, the marketing that goes on around the hottest 100.
00:15:58
Speaker
It'd be good to talk to one of the breweries that I guess has been quite active in that space and, Will, I think you've you've got something set up for us. You had a chat with the team at Hop Nation. Early in the week, I sat down with Sam Hamber, co-founder of Hop Nation. I was really interested this year because Ratenhund has done quite well for them over previous years. It sort of jumped up over the last two years and then Now, this year, they're pushing J-juice. So I was just interested to know when you've got this beer that's kind of climbing in the pole while you'd switch it. And Sam talks quite openly about how it is a core range game. You've kind of got to pick a favourite for child. And yeah, so we go into that. And also the other thing I loved about their campaign was seeing all the street posters around, you know. We can focus on what's people posting on Instagram, but there's a much more old-school way to get the word out about your beer. Let's go to the chat.
00:16:50
Speaker
Sam, thank you for joining us for the Gabs livestream. Hey Will, now good to be here. Yeah, exciting time of the year. It is always exciting time for beer. Now, one of the things that interests me about Hop Nation this year is you really focus hard on jade juice and that's off the back of I think several years where Ratnhund you yeah fantastic lager has been a real something you've pushed a lot and you know if I can rattle it off last year the Ratenhund was 51 year before it was 78 so it has also been sort of shooting up the pole maybe a little bit so do you want to tell us why you decided to focus on a different beer this time around? um Yeah so this year we did decide to focus on Jay Juice yeah as you said the last
00:17:34
Speaker
I think three years we've kind of given Ratnhood a push as it's been new to market. um This year, I mean, we saw some natural growth or organic growth in Jeju, so the last 12 months, um you know, potentially for a few different reasons. But um and then, you know, we had a ah marketing um plan and campaign booked in for December. And as we were developing that out, we thought, why don't we just kind of and tag it along with the Gab's hottest 100 as well. So that was partly the reason. And otherwise, yeah, it's kind of, you know, J-juice is its eighth season now. So, um and it's kind of picked back up. You know, we kind of look at a few reasons, but
00:18:18
Speaker
um December's always the ah month for J-juice. Most people kind of spend a little bit more on that Christmas period. So um yeah, we kind of started rolling it out and then it kind of turned into the Gabs kind of campaign as well. So, um well, you know, Ratanhund's definitely still a brewery favorite. The way that the game works, you kind of have to pick one one child to push to the front of the line.
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, well, do you think Raton Hood and sort of popularity might, could harm you a little bit? Because I imagine there's plenty of Hop Nation fans who might still want to vote for that, but maybe they'll vote for Jay Juice as well, but lower down or something like that.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, absolutely.
Campaign Strategies in Craft Beer
00:19:02
Speaker
I mean, as, as I mentioned, the other, the way this it's set up, if you're, if your votes are spread, um, you know, there's probably a certain amount of people that like your beers and want to vote. Um, and as it spreads, it dilutes it a little bit, but you know, we look at it, you know, the last few years we've had, uh, you know, four or five in the top 200, which, you know, from a brand point of view, we're not.
00:19:25
Speaker
You know, we look at it as a a good thing and rather than kind of riding on one beer to hold a brand up, which also has its pros and cons. But, um you know, we kind of back the range and, you know, appreciate the people like different styles. And as long as they're voting for us, that's ah that's a win. Yeah.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, okay, fantastic. And the other thing I really noticed was your campaign. you um I saw a lot of street posters around my part of Melbourne, which is the inner north, where street posters are sort of on every single corner. And you know there's obviously many ways you can do it. And I saw some social media posts as well, but that more physical campaign, what was sort of driving that?
00:20:09
Speaker
um I guess part of the whole, you know, campaign and the different touch points for marketing generally for the J-juice in December, um you know, the street posters, it's a an old one, but it's definitely a way to reach the people.
00:20:25
Speaker
ah you know They do a great job of getting it out there, and and we did stick a QR code on it this year, linked to the Gabs Hotis 100. Whether or not that you know scan rate wasn't great, but it's just another reminder to if people are thinking about it or or it's on their agenda. um And then, yeah, the tap room, we just, you know the staff were talking about it, had a couple of posters up.
00:20:49
Speaker
uh, backed in with, um, I guess the social media side of it, just some, um, general social media through, you know, the usual platforms. Um, so I guess, yeah, we look at it as a multi-pronged approach to the, you know, just giving that changes, uh, reminded to everyone talking about it, getting people excited, coming into like the period where people are happy to spend a little bit more on a four pack and, you know, and and enjoy it. So, um,
00:21:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think the main goal was just JJ's generally, but Gav's, you know, another part of it. And, you know, it's that time of year when everyone's talking about beer again and styles and brands. And um so, yeah, it'd be interesting to see how it goes. And, you know, if Rathun beats it, then we know that our marketing is not very good and and stick save some money. I don't know.
00:21:41
Speaker
And how do you hope it'll fare? Any sort of desires? Where do you want to see it? Other than number one? Of course. You know, we'll see. If it gets in the top 30, we'd be pretty happy. We've got a little um side bet system going at work. So, you know, I think the winner gets something. Everyone's having a punt.
00:21:59
Speaker
um But yeah, we'll see. I mean, if it's if it's up again, then it's great to see a beer that's this long end market that's still you know doing its thing, which is great. um But I mean, it's not gonna be number one, but you know if we can get up up and up in that top section, we'd be pretty happy.
00:22:21
Speaker
I tell you what, he's going to be happy because Jay Juice just came through in that last bracket, so a fantastic result. And it turns out their marketing does work. They're going to keep spending money on it. Keep spending money, Hop Nation. just That's money well spent. Now guys, I think we just talked about and and some of the things that I think Sam was mentioning as well. i you know There is a lot of value in that core range and that gateway beer. the beer that got you into it. So we're going to explore that a little bit through the show today. To get an idea of just some of the beers, the beers that got people into craft beer, we talked to a few people around the industry ah for their insights. Let's have a look.
00:23:00
Speaker
Hello, Grace here from Reckless Brewing coming to you from Mount Panorama in Bathurst, Wiradjuri Land. I just wanted to talk to you guys about my Gateway Beer into craft beer. I was working at the Sussex Hotel in Sydney. We had one rotating craft beer tap ah oh and almost permanent feature was the Lord Nelson 3 sheets.
00:23:35
Speaker
um Yeah, it was as exciting to me as driving this racetrack is right now. um Just amazing, you know, really well made beer. Lots of ah very tasty hops. Just something that was completely different to, you know, the jugs of beer that I'd been used to during my uni days. um You know, $10 jugs at Manning Bar at Sydney Uni.
00:24:00
Speaker
And, ah amazingly, the first brewery that I actually worked at, I i made the Three Sheets Pale Owl as well for them. So that was pretty cool. um And it all kind of came full circle, but yeah. ah So big shout out to Lord Nelson um and their Three Sheets Pale that's still around today and still absolutely delicious. Cheers. Hey, I'm Guy Southern and my gateway beer is Friel's Hop Hog.
00:24:28
Speaker
In the 90s, I remember drinking dog bolter at the Salan anchor and later little creatures pale out. But when Hop Hop arrived, it really felt like something something new was here. Hop Hop gained fuel for that matter. Bold use of US hops. The adventure of going out to the Swan Valley and drinking it at a glassware like this.
00:24:47
Speaker
um just felt really like a moment in time, something was shifting, things were changing and I know it's inspired a lot of other people as well. So cheers, well done Brendan, well done Will.
00:25:02
Speaker
Grace and Guy there for their Gateway beers now. Right now, across the country, there are Hottest 100 countdown parties going on. People enjoying Australian beer, celebrating what's great about the industry. So we're going to cross to one of them live now. We're going to head to Brumadini at their new pub in South Melbourne. Over to you guys. oh They're just getting their camera fixed, I think. yeah Can you hear us, Jamie? Jamie, can you hear us?
00:25:34
Speaker
Jamie, well, that was looking pretty good for a second. I think it was interesting going back to those two gateway beers while we wait to connect with them is that both of those gateway beers are one still in the countdown. There we go. Jamie, can you hear us now? Jamie, it's great to chat.
00:25:55
Speaker
ah You know, interestingly, these guys have actually just had their first beer appear in the Hottest 100 as well. We saw Mouth of Melbourne, which at 65. What's that? top melbourneman be Yeah, I will. Yeah, um so there was a version called Mouth of the South um in celebration of their awesome brew pub launching in South Melbourne. And then they secured a partnership with the Melbourne Football Club, of course, which David Neats, one of the founders, is a um was a former captain of. So in tribute to that that, they brewed a special beer for the Football Club. Obviously, it's been pretty popular for them.
00:26:34
Speaker
yeah and with And with some fun little, you know, footy references on on the cans as well. But yes, I mean, it's one of those many smaller breweries that's hit the poll so far, i including Grace as well. I don't think Reckless had appeared in in the poll the certainly winning last year, and so their BX lager coming in at 29 is a pretty amazing debut um and I think she really went all out there with her her video going around the track at Bathurst. I asked her to film a short fun video and and she was like it might take me a few days and that's what I got. She delivered, there you go. She wasn't driving though, was she? Let's just be clear on that. It's in the passenger seat. um While we wait to get Brumanity on the line, we'll see if they can make it. Guys, talk me through, you mentioned BX, you met we've talked about Brumanity. I did see, was it Bojack brewing? Right at the start of the list in 100 as well. Where are they from?
00:27:29
Speaker
ah Yes, so Brewpub down in Dandenong, I guess they, ever since they started out, they've been doing, I guess, what what a lot of the industry has sort of moved towards yeah over the last few years with the, I guess, the changed economic landscape. a Small family on Brewpub is the name actually is a sort of melange of their son's names. um Just servicing the local community, a lot of limited-release beers going out, just have really forged a great spirit there. um In fact, i making really good hazy IPAs as well. i sort of not as well known as probably some Melbourne breweries but they're doing it really really well. Yeah yeah and and I actually got some word from the founders Dale and Sue said a huge thank you to everyone who voted and showed their support. We know Calypso is a delicious beer and it's so humbling to see it recognised by those who enjoy it. We're super wrapped and proud to have got into the top 100 of the Gabs 2024 Hottest 100. That is very cool and you know it's very heartwarming to see a small brewery like that where you really can harness the the audience, the community that you've got behind you and it's still making it as a top 100 beer as you're talking. I think it was 1500 beers or so that Mike had mentioned in the poll, so it's a very small percentage that actually make it in that top 100.
00:28:42
Speaker
I'm told, I'm told that we are okay with the cross now for Brumanity, so welcome Neets and David and and Foxy. Hey, how are you guys? Hey, we got you, great. Congratulations. Neetah's Commodore 64 couldn't handle the upgrades there with Zoom. You need to get a Commodore 65 in recognition of your placement. i That was terrible.
00:29:08
Speaker
Congratulations, guys. how How do you feel? Obviously a great showing for Math of Melbourne, but is it your first time in the Hottest 100 as well? I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. that's been It's been fantastic, too. I mean, it's all let's sort of washed up from afar, really, for a long time. And today, I finally have never been here and have been with an audience and gained some experience and whatnot. It's pretty helpful, you've got to say, to to make the list after being around for some sort of on-the-out skills for about 10 years. This year, really good result with the crew. And this is just a fantastic way to start 2025.
00:29:47
Speaker
how How did it go down when the beer was announced 65 in the brew pub? Was there a bit of a bit of a cheer, for free free beers on on you guys? yeah There was, there was a big roar led by us. And then I think everyone said, what the fuck's going on? We've got boys on the big screen are you're on the YouTube channel here. so but a they hit breath There we go. Hello everybody. What a beautiful place to enjoy a countdown.
00:30:16
Speaker
There's too many breweries on the south side of Melbourne, so to represent, we've got a few different different craft breweries, T-shirts rolling around, but things like that, so it's kind of nice to be representing another fabulous party over here, representing the south side of Melbourne. Yeah, that's awesome. now i hope you could I'm sure you're going to enjoy the rest of the day, um and you know yeah congratulations again, and we'll see see how you roll in 2025.
00:30:41
Speaker
Yeah, lovely, guys. Many thanks. Cheers. you congrat That's a huge achievement. Cheers, guys. And look, just as we finish that conversation with Brimany, like we planned it, Gabs Festival has announced the next 10 beers in the Hottest 100. So I'll read those through as we go. So number 20 we have Hawker's Beer with their West Coast ah IPA. Big story in the news about them this week. At 19 we have Seacup Brewing with Mystic. Wow. At 18. That's massive yeah. That's massive yeah. 18 we've got Bright Brewery with their Alpine Lager. At 17 Capital Brewing Co with Coastale. At
00:31:22
Speaker
16 Rocky Ridge Brewing Co with Jindong Juicy at 15 Pirate Life Brewing with South Coast Pale Ale. I believe that's one of the previous top 10, if I'm not mistaken, in 15. And we've got one of my local faves, Black Flag Brewing at number 14 with Rage Juicy Pale.
00:31:42
Speaker
And wow, number 13, Stone and Wood, Pacific Ale. um A big result there, number 12, Young Henry's New Towner, and at 11, Bridge Road Brewers, Beechworth, Pale Ale. Guys, some really interesting results. We've got a ah couple of the beers that are currently sitting in front of us in that 11 to 20 bracket I'm gonna- You brought that gun to shoot them off. I'm going to throw to James, what what do you what do you make of that? Yeah well I think you know it's something that's been talked about amongst us but I guess online and I know both people beforehand there has been less more less campaigning by some breweries um and including some of those bigger breweries at the top I mean
00:32:23
Speaker
Stone and Wood would be one of those. At the same time, a lot of the folks within Stone and Wood is on that one beer. And I think there's been less even from the likes of Bolter this year. So I mean, Stone and Wood Pacific Ale remains the only four-time winner. So it's still a Hollis 100 classic, but I think it's worth highlighting as well. Seeker, we're big fans of Seeker, Will and I. We don't see enough of their beers, but small music-loving. They host a lot of live music at their venue in Wollongong. Their sort of hazy, their Pails, their IPAs are fantastic beers. So yeah, massive congratulations to them. Some big fans in the comments as well of Seeker 2. A few people gunning for them earlier on, so it's great. Yeah, we're very happy.
00:33:06
Speaker
Fantastic. And I guess we should throw them back at you. So Craig, ah Black Flag up at 14. Yeah, up 14 positions from last year. I do do a bit of work with the boys up there and and the team. You know how had to Jimmy the system. im They had an advanced copy of the book, obviously. um And it's definitely come through. So 14 positions up there. you know The Sunshine Coast is a real hub of craft beer. And I think that's probably, you know we've still got maybe a few to come.
00:33:34
Speaker
So one brewery we haven't seen yet is Ranged Disco I don't think has been in and that did really well last year and they put a really big bush behind it which um is why I actually spoke to them early in the day, early in the week sorry so um yeah Craig.
00:33:53
Speaker
ah Fantastic, well we're actually going to go to a little section we've got with Range Brewing. Yeah, Matt and Isla. No, we've gone to the the wrong one, so we're really nailing it here guys. And not even consuming beer yet ourselves. We've got another little couple of the gateway beers from around the industry, let's check it out.
00:34:12
Speaker
Hi, it's celebrated foot model and member of the Cardew team, Chloe here, and here are my gateway beers. Number one is the Sunset Ale from Two Birds Brewing. I remember having this when I was freshly 18 at my local RSL and thinking, that is art, that is incredible. Obviously the messaging behind the brewery of Two Birds as well quite dramatically changed my life. The second beer is a Bitburger Pilsner. I remember having this at a train station in Cologne um my first time when I was backpacking around Europe.
00:34:42
Speaker
and thinking if two birds taste like art, this is what the Mona Lisa would taste like. It is clean, crisp and out of perfection. If you ever get a chance to have a bit burger from tap in Germany, take it. Obviously that kick-started my lifelong love of lagers.
00:35:02
Speaker
My Gateway Beer is Penicious Weed by a Garage Project. I had it for the first time while working behind the bar at the Gilbert Street Hotel. I, at the time, had never even heard of an IPA or a garage project, but we had a tap takeover and I sampled all the beers and pernicious weed definitely stood out above the rest. Not only the flavor of the beer, but the but artwork of all the decals was definitely a light bulb moment for me.
00:35:35
Speaker
pernicious weed as your first gateway beer. That's your Radlar. Ah, your Radlar. Now, we've previewed it earlier, but we want to talk about what getting a place in the Hottest 100 means, particularly to a smaller brewery. Earlier this week, Matt Will spoke with Matt and Isla from Range Brewing. and that Matt and Isla, thank you for joining us for the Gads Hottest 100 Countdown.
00:35:58
Speaker
Thank you for having us. times well yes' Great. Now we want to talk about disco. So tell us about it. You know, obviously it's beer that this year and I think the previous year you have sort of put a bit of a push behind it. How come? Yeah, we, we've put a bit of a push behind it this year. It's, it's the second full year in 2024 that disco has had you know, out in the wild. And we think people are have really started to latch onto it and and and really started to, you know, love it even more than what they they already had. And ah from our side of things, we've we've dialed in some and processes and some techniques and um and our hop selections have been have been really, really good for the last couple of years. So we're really happy with when where the beer is at. and And it seems like people are too, by the way, that it's been selling. so
00:36:48
Speaker
So, yeah, we wanted to put a little a little push behind it this year and and hopefully we can see it do well. Cool. And, you know, last year it was 16. I know, you know, there's there's going to be a lot of range fans listening and and people do love the brewery, but you are still a very small brewery really compared to a lot of the other ones that make it into that higher end. Like, what does it mean to you as a small brewery to get towards, I guess, the pointier end of the countdown?
00:37:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's it's huge for us really. um Yeah, like you said, when you when you look at some of the breweries that are just just below us or or above us in the in the countdown, and you you think about how much beer they produce and how much beer they sell and where they sell it, and you compare that to you know the humble little disco can, it really is quite incredible how how high it got last year at number 16. And so we we're really wrapped with that. and um We're hoping this year that we'll that we'll improve on that number 16, maybe jump up a spot or two, but we'll see how we go. Like I said, it's such a small production volume compared to some some of the big guys that are above us, but small but mighty, we said. Yeah.
00:37:56
Speaker
yeah Cool, and Ayla, maybe this is more your territory, but in terms of actually getting the word out, you know, I've seen a bit of disco activity this year. Pretty sure I saw a big inflatable can. I don't know if it was games related, but I saw a billboard as well. like Like, how do you go getting the word out um these days, particularly when you've got the venues as well?
00:38:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, for us, like we sort of um saw this, I guess, season of marketing and gabs in summer as like our opportunity just to sort of step into the ring as, you know, someone to watch out for and and disco in particular, like, um you know, everything from the name, um the design, the style of beer, it all just really represents, um I guess, like us as a brewery, us as a team, and it really resonates with just like a massive range of people um you know I've got best friends that love it, my grandfather who's a farmer loves it. It's just the variety and the range of yeah of drinkers that it connects with. like It's crazy. So I guess we just wanted to lean into that and make as much noise in a small amount of time as possible. um yeah So we did some billboards. They weren't necessarily um
00:39:06
Speaker
I guess linked to disco in particular but I guess the themes that we wanted to sort of touch on and yeah we are very much an event sort of focused brewery and and brand so all our venues from range to our neighborhood bars like we really just sort of um yeah we wanted to highlight disco for it being like a main sort of beer to drink at those events but then also just um Yeah, just putting that inflatable disco in front of them and reaching as many ions as possible. So yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool. And one other thing about the poll is I guess over many years, it has become more of a core range sort of area. People people really do focus in on one beers like you have. But last year, disco wasn't the only beer that Ranched had in there. There were some limiteds there.
00:39:59
Speaker
popular I'm sure but probably you didn't sell that many like like what do you account for that as a brewery that people are still honing in on I guess some of the you know you you're releasing a lot of new beers a year and people are really linked to some of those aren't they?
00:40:14
Speaker
Yeah, they are. and And I think it's just a ah testament to, you know, the amount of effort and and focus that we've put into continuously um exploring, you know, with new beer recipes and and new hop styles and and, you know, finding the ones that people like and and sort of drilling down on those styles and those those like recipe ideas, I guess. And I think as well, it's it's realizing, you know, when we when we hit ah hit a nerve with people and and try to exploit that a little bit or or bring it back you know year on year for them. And that's what we've seen with some of the limited release beers that have but have been in in the last couple of years for us is that those are beers that we really um only make once a year and and you know one very small batch with about 150 cases that that that gets in there. So I think people, it just goes to show that um you know it is ah very much a core a core but a core range countdown
00:41:07
Speaker
um But there there is still that desire out there for people to to drink big, exciting beers and and you know um you know try try something a little bit out of the ordinary. And people still love it.
00:41:20
Speaker
yeah And I think it's all something to know, like whether it's disco or one of our limiteds, like I think it doesn't matter where on the leaderboard it gets or what um gets on there. I think it's just like, we all feel so proud that our name is even in like a top 100 or top 200. There's a lot of moving parts at range and to make these limited releases in disco and forever range. so Um, yeah, I think it's always just a really nice moment for our team just to like reflect and, um, yeah, just give ourselves a pat on the back no matter what happens. So yeah, it doesn't really matter if it's disco or limited. I think it's just like, yeah, it's a huge achievement to even get into this list. Cool. Cool. And, uh, any, do you want to predict where where you think disco might end up or where do you hope to see it? Uh, well, I don't think it'll get number one.
00:42:12
Speaker
I think we've all got a pretty good idea about which mountain brewery might get into number one. ah No, I don't want to say anything like, look, well we were absolutely stoked with where we ended up at last year and we we we truly didn't expect to be that high in the countdown. so um I think for us, like our focus is just like, you know, having fun, like pushing or pushing disco, but just um Yeah, like as long as you know this whole thing is supporting independent breweries and just like the idea um and the joy and what comes with the craft beer industry, like I think it doesn't really matter. like yeah We have fun like every year and then especially during this time in summer. so it's just like It's a fun fun time to guess and to be a part of the whole experience. But we're definitely hoping
Top Beer Shifts and Consumer Preferences
00:43:00
Speaker
to win.
00:43:00
Speaker
yeah you no Great chat with the team at range there, mate. And I don't think we we have seen disco drop yet. we I think they're going to be very happy with today, I would imagine. Well, devastated. or yeah yeah Either they're going to be very happy or very, very sad. But they have had other beers appear, so i you would expect it to turn up at some point.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, fantastic. well um Will, anything in the chat? What are we what are we seeing on the ah on the YouTube so far? It's sort of tying into that. I mean, a lot of people, it's going to be a very different top 10, ultimately. I mean, you've seen Bridge Road drop out, Stone and Wood, Young Henry's. These are all breweries that have sort of been in and around it quite a bit. There's 100 lifers.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah well well definitely Bridge Road. So yeah, that's ah a lot of people are sort of looking into that or talking about that. Like it it will look quite different. um maybe I guess if we like we said if we haven't seen Range disco so far, then it's going to be a top 10 VR. You would think so, yeah. yeah that is so That logic detects that or people hate them suddenly, which I don't really think is Range's story. yeah And I guess, like, let's talk about that one for a second. Like you mentioned, a few dropping out of the top 10. We've got, you know, in 11, 12 and 13, you've got Beechworth, Beachy Pale, you've got Young Henry's New Towner and Stonenwood Pacific Ale. I mean, all three of those beers were in the top 10 last year, as well as Pirate Life, South Coast Pale Ale. So, you know, anything behind those guys, like what are you seeing on Stonenwood's front, for example? Yeah, well, I think, you know, it could be maybe a lesser push, but also what you have found over the years, I guess, longer term with the poll that often when brands have sold, they have tended to sort of drop down the drop down the rankings a little bit afterwards. So it could be something to do with that. It's time often, like they might still have a bit of buzz, but they do sort of fade generally as a role. Like Feral Hopper is back in now. It's independent again. Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, we'll say maybe a bit of a changing of the guard this year. I mean, you know, we're really interesting to see with so many previous top 10 beers, not in the top 10, who's going to fill the gaps? You know, so I think it's going to be pretty damn interesting over the next hour, hour and a half.
00:45:10
Speaker
yeah fantastic uh stone and wood were obviously they've won the the the gab's hottest 100 i think a record four times now uh they're the overall record holder they've never won a three-peat though which of course is what we're seeing mountain culture pushing for and it was the the heart and soul of their campaign yeah um i don't know do we want to do you think it's going to happen where we are we are we brave enough to make a A comment? We just plead the fifth on that. I think that's what most people are expecting for sure. um and ah and Number 10 has just dropped, Craig. and it's um i think I think you might want to turn your attention to this. It's quite remarkable. It is a fascinating beer to be at number 10. Come on computer. um All right. It's the first double-frooted smoothie sour to make the top 10. Let's just say that. It's ah One Drop Wee Jammin'. Wow. It's yeah sort of... There we go. It's one of One Drop's killer beers out of the many wild and wonderful experiments they do. um but It's up 30 into the top 10. So yeah I think in previous years we've had top 10s that have been pretty much water wall, pale ale, summer ale, Pacific ale.
00:46:22
Speaker
hazy whatever IPAs um so Nick and the team at One Drop and Clay and Meg like that is awesome I wouldn't swear. you've You've been swearing. I'm going to try and you know not have a thought team out today. But that is effing awesome. They're going to be stoked. um yeah They have been pushing it hard, obviously. They know that it's a much loved beer. And um obviously their fans love that they make unusual beers like this. So so they can can talk to them and say, let's vote for this beer. Let's go for it. Let's do it. yeah And um they've done better than they ever have before, which is awesome.
00:46:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. and And I think, you know, with the, you know, mentioned before the bad shepherd peanut butter porter with that jumping up as well, like this definitely is the most different and interesting, and you know, hottest 100 I've seen in in a number of years. Like it's the biggest, biggest change in in so many ways, you know. Well, let's see if this trend is reflected in retail. We're going to go and talk to Nick McCardle, who's the head of beer from First Choice Liquor Market. Over to Nick.
00:47:20
Speaker
Thank you for joining us. Welcome to the show. Good day, Craig. It's ah yeah awesome to be here, mate. Thanks for having me on the show. Mate, you are the head of beer for First Choice Liquor Market. Give us the the job in a nutshell, what does that kind of entail day to day? Yeah, so I think head of beer, probably the best job you could ask for in the world, I'd say it for for First Choice. So very lucky to to lead a team of buyers that manage the end to end process for for all our beer within within First Choice.
00:47:48
Speaker
um Basically that means dealing with suppliers across across all of Australia. Got a buying team that manage that conversation and work through pricing promotions, the ranging that goes into our first choice stores. And then basically just to the crux of it, just having stock on our shelves to get to customers at a great price and having the right range that they can come in and and and shop. So yeah, pretty lucky to be in this role. And it's ah it's a great fun role and I really love dealing with the the great industry that we work in.
00:48:16
Speaker
Yeah, nice, mate. And I'd imagine, you know, head of beer first choice, you've got a ah wide range of stores out there, and probably a lot of of data coming through. I think what would be of interest is, you know, what are the kind of trends that you're seeing in in craft beer the last kind of 12 months and consumer behavior and beer styles? yeah what's What's going on out there on the front lines?
00:48:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's um well documented around craft beer and it's been ah a bit of a challenging environment over the last 12 months, but pleasingly we've seen ah a bit of a resurgence in crafts, especially over the last six months. I think about 12, about eight months ago, customs were definitely shifting back into more mainstream brands, mainstream craft brands, but over the last last six months we are seeing that come back as I guess consumer confidence is is growing. So um we are seen seeing people shift back into so more of those easy drinking craft style. So your lagers and pilsners are starting to come to the fore. um hazys Hazy ales, hazy pale ales are still playing a pretty significant role. um But yeah, people are shifting back into that. And I guess local still is ah is a significant part of that, but it is more that state-based local. So you've got those state-based heroes across the craft beer industry that are
00:49:27
Speaker
seeing some strong growth and and still performing really strongly. So um I think the craft beer and season in a good space and ah navigated some of the the challenging times over the last 12 months. And it feels like, you know, there's some good momentum heading into the new calendar year um that can hopefully see that growth continue in the right ways.
00:49:45
Speaker
That's awesome, Nick, and I think it's probably something that a lot of our listeners wanted to hear, so good to good to know. Mate, talk to me about the the idea of kind of range planning and range reviews. like How regularly is First Choice you know looking at its range, what its offering is to customers, and how do things like the Gab's Hottest 100 craft beers play into that decision-making?
00:50:07
Speaker
i mean We're always looking at our range. um got the The craft beer team are constantly looking at what is the new innovation coming through, whether it's new trends and styles or yeah new breweries that are coming into the market. and We're always looking at it. We run ah run a process called a range view process, which we do every 12 months within first choice. and That's basically doing a full review of our range. and That's where you might open up on new trends or open up into into new areas that you're trying to explore and and make some fundamental shifts to your category. But we're also are constantly reviewing our range and offer. um And if there's opportunities to bring you know the new and exciting um innovation in or NPD in, and we're constantly reviewing that and gives us the opportunity to do that all year round to ensure that we remain you know relevant as a retailer.
00:50:50
Speaker
Things like um Gabs and Hottest 100 play a massive role in that. So last year, I believe we had around 90% of the Gabs Hottest 100s. We did range within first choice liquor market, market which is which is brilliant. um So we just want to make sure that you know when we do get the results and and hear them later today,
00:51:08
Speaker
ah that' ah that there we do have those SKUs ranged and we have you know the great offering out there that we know that all the craft customers and our customers are coming in to to search for. So um if we don't have those SKUs in, then well we'll probably struggle to maintain those customers. So we really look at gabs closely and ensure we have that right range in the right stores, in in the right states to to give that offering to our customers. Well, thank you for those insights. And mate, before we leave you, just ah what was your favourite beer of 2024?
00:51:37
Speaker
ah To be honest, ah I'll drink anything. I drink anything that's cold, especially on a nice summer's day, which I've been pretty lucky down in Melbourne. um But I'll probably, yeah, probably a bit more traditional in the bolter space. So I love the bolter easy hazy. um But also I love the work that the guys at Capital in Canberra are doing. So their Coast Pale Ale is probably one of my favourites, which I'm, you know, is regularly in the fridge at the moment, but getting a bit longer than two. So some of that lower ABV, the bolter easy hazy is definitely the the drinker choice at the moment.
00:52:06
Speaker
Yeah, nice one, mate. We'll enjoy the rest of the countdown and thank you so much for joining us. um Nick McArdle, thank you. Awesome. Thanks, Craig. Thanks for having me, mate. Thanks Nick and I want to go back now, I want to take us on a little level of a nostalgia trip back to 2010 when a young and earnest cub reporter James Smith founded the Crafty Pine, the top 10 in that year James, to bring you back. ah Number one was Vale Ale, ah two little creatures pale, three stone and wood, ah Pacific Ale, four feral hop hog,
00:52:38
Speaker
ah Five, Kuwinder Pale, Matilda Bay Fat Yak, um White Rabbit Dark Ale, James Squire, The Chancer, Veil Dry and Hawthorn Pale Ale. Mate, um what memories does that trigger? Take me back to that bygone era. Yeah, and I had a had a look at the list, obviously, before coming on today. I think there's 10 breweries or brands in the 100 that no longer exist. Wow. um A number of those have changed hands or changed structure over the years.
00:53:03
Speaker
um Back in 2008, 9 and 10, Murray's had eight beers in the poll every year and there were similar similar numbers to the likes of Hallgate, Mountain Goat, I think Feral, these breweries that were, you know, less people voting, less breweries out there, um you know, so obviously it would be their whole range, kind of, yeah or their most interesting beers from Pale to sort of Farmhouse, Barrow Lane. Yeah, but it was interesting, that you know, the top six beers were all pale ales, even though Hop Hog was called an IPA back then, but there was more dark beers, there was Saisons, there was Imperial IPAs, Imperial Stouts. um Bit of context as well, like, you know, the Crafty Python had just launched a few months earlier. Bruce News, which did this live stream previous years, had launched a few months before that.
00:53:42
Speaker
Two weeks after the um countdown, gabs so the local tap house held their first ever gabs, just with 20 beers at the local tap house. A week after that, I was approached by ah two guys, Miro and Barney, who'd been chatting to the brothers from Bintani.
00:53:57
Speaker
for a conversation that led to Good Beer Week. So there was like, looking back, it was this crazy little time where all these sort of things started happening. um And yeah, and then within sort of 16 months of that poll, the second Good Beer Week took place and gabs had already moved to the Royal Exhibition building. So it was like, it was an insane time you know and certainly it's it's it's a fun little snapshot sort of see you know the sort of beers that were in there and you know a lot more beers you see one or two like that now but you know though it was very very colourful but again you know less breweries less beers and probably a few hundred or a few thousand people voting at most. Yeah wow. It would have been controversial either though definitely when you think about those beers James Squire like I'm sure people were as outraged as they sort of are now in so more corporate breweries. Harn Premium was in the first one back in 2008 but they were probably struggling to find 100 beers back in 2008. Fair enough and Vale Ale winning that one first ever beer to go straight to number one. yeah There's a bit of a story there with those guys as well isn't there? I just I think um that definitely probably caused the first sort of you know big holies 100 furore but I think it was essentially that um you know they pushed to their mailing list they they pushed it you know they asked people to vote um and it worked and I think at that time you would have needed far less votes to win but it was it was the same I guess it was one of the earlier
00:55:14
Speaker
examples of a brewery actually going well we're trying to push into into new into more bars and bottle shops so why you know why wouldn't we try this um and certainly would have been it earlier than when getting you know top three or whatever probably had a massive impact in terms of marketing but then again the the industry was was smaller as well Yeah, fantastic. And James, um while you're speaking, we've just had the beer number nine drop um coming in at number nine. Four Pines Brewing Co with their Japanese style lager. Will any kind of thoughts and feelings on that one? Four Pines Japanese lager. Well, it's a massive joke. it's out 64 places and um other four pines beers have obviously done quite well in the past. um This probably, you might say, looks to be maybe one of the beers they've really put um put their sort of marketing house behind and um it has picked up some awards previously as well. I think it's Sydney Royal, um I'm sure. Well I think, you know, it outraged the comments as well. I think, you know, the the the big, you know,
00:56:16
Speaker
multinational own craft brands they kind of have a beer they want to get behind and that would be the beer that Four Pines will be pushing um you know that that's become their flagship as opposed to their pale or their colch in previous years so I'm sure whoever's responsible for brand management at Four Pines will be ah you know enjoying a couple of Japanese lagers right about now Well, congratulations to Four Pines. Now, guys, I want to talk to one of the about one of the absolute stayers of the Gabs Hottest 100. The only independent beer, in fact, to have been in every single edition of the list since its inception in 2008, and that beer is Beechworth Pale Ale.
Consistent Quality in Craft Beer
00:56:52
Speaker
We're at number 11 this year. number 11 this year, correct. It's been in every single edition of the poll. It first entered the top 10 in 2014. Its highest result was number five, both last year in 2023 and five years ago in 2018 poll. Will had a great chat with Bridge Road founder, Ben Krause. Let's hear what hear what he has to say. Ben Krause, thanks for joining us on the live stream. Yeah, no problem, Will. Nice to be here.
00:57:22
Speaker
ah Yes, um now Beechworth Pale Ale, it's the only independent beer that's been in the poll every year since the start in 2008. I'm pretty sure the only other beer that's been there for the whole ride is Little Creatures Pale Ale. ah Do you have any thoughts on why it's stuck around like that?
00:57:40
Speaker
um Probably a combination of factors. um You know, one one being that we're still independent and some of the other brands that are, they probably haven't been in there as long, but there are many of brands or or beers that have been there a while that are no longer independent. So that's that's one reason that gives us the stat. um It's a pretty consistent consistent beer and consistent story, although the beer has evolved over over all those years and it continues to evolve. um I think we've you know we we may maintain consistency in terms of
00:58:11
Speaker
what our brand stands for and what our brand offers and what people can expect when they buy Bridgerode beer. So I think it's just, you know, it gets consistent results because it's a consistent beer. We make a consistent effort to to promote the beer and encourage our our loyal group of supporters to vote for it every year. So just um repetitive, hard, consistent work. It's probably, that's the kind of beer it is and and that's that's you know the result that it gets.
00:58:40
Speaker
And if we look at some of these early polls, so the first the first poll, 2008, Beechworth Pale was in there at 80, but you had a much higher beer in the Chevalier Saison, which was 22. The year after that, again, Beech Pale's in there, but Bling IPA did much better. Year after that, we're talking B2 Balmain Imperial IPA, India Saison, India Saison again, the year after, and a um Belgian Quad with Nyongye, Brookey,
00:59:10
Speaker
I don't know the results, we don't both don't know the results, but I think we can both probably comfortably say a Belgian quad appearing towards the pointier edge this year is is unlikely. like What do you think of the poll? It it has obviously changed a lot to be focused on that, I guess maybe more diverse craft beer market, oh but also maybe pointier end beer nerds. How do you think about how it's changed?
00:59:35
Speaker
i yeah I don't know what the numbers of votes received were. You know, I don't know if that's even disclosed from from those initial polls through to now, but it it was definitely quite tightly focused in terms of the audience that reached initially. So they were.
00:59:51
Speaker
Probably people like the people listening to this podcast or watching watching us as well um so that idea of who the audience is reaching probably dictates what styles of beer get it get in there so initially it was you know.
01:00:08
Speaker
a poll that was run out of the local tap house, I believe, and a pretty strong audience of of people really into craft beer and really looking at what was most exciting that year, what new beer styles might have been something that was a highlight for the year, um much like ah you know it feels a lot like the hottest 100.
01:00:29
Speaker
music countdown voting and that is only ah about what beer came out that year ah sorry what music came out that year. So I think it was used in that way. um We definitely noticed we were we were getting five to 10 beers ah in the top hottest 100 each year and ranking you know in different locations either in the 80s or the 50s or in the teens or but really struggling to have you know a voice in the top 10 regularly.
01:00:59
Speaker
So our messaging changed and say, hey, if you support us and what we do, we know you love our B2 bomber or our latest IPA, but if you want to vote for us and. and CS2 well, vote for Beechworth Pale. I don't think we were the first to do that, but we were one of the few that that really focused on that. And now if you see anyone with a campaign, that's how it's led. you know they They pick their flagship beer and the campaign is all about that beer and trying to raise the profile of that beer.
01:01:30
Speaker
um And it's probably a lot to do with um you know the people's attachment to the brand and appreciation of a brand and then and then that gear. But I also think Beechworth Pale Ale has a strong and loyal following. it's not It's not that the people voting for it don't drink it. It's sort of become that that go-to, um quintessential craft pale ale in Australia with it. It's not American pale ale.
01:01:56
Speaker
It's not necessarily fit that XPA Australian pale category because it's not pale yellow. um It's sort of you know ah reflective of the 20 year ago craft beer industry in Australia and a little bit of modernization, but it sort of crosses both both sides. So so it's it's still relevant in in modern brewing and it has its roots in, I wouldn't say in a great history, but in a 20 year history of craft beer in Australia.
01:02:24
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Great. And Ben, do you have any hopes or predictions on where we might see it land this year? Well, but personally, we always try to hope and and predict that we can do as well as we did in the previous year. yeah We never know what the result's going to be. We work hard to to encourage people to vote and we do it in a way that we think is as as ethical as possible. we don't We don't really offer any incentive to do it. We just ask people to take the time.
01:02:53
Speaker
um and and and make a vote. So if we can be in the top five, we'll all be very, very happy, um but we'll see what the results are. Yeah. And if not beachy pale, do you have any predictions on who might take out the top spot?
01:03:08
Speaker
I think it'll be hard to go past mountain culture and status quo. they' They've done such a great job, not only their beer, but their distribution and their ah relevance in the market. And they've got a loyal following and you i an independent beer at number one, again, would be great. um And I also know the the guys at Benspoke work really hard as well. So either of those two, I'm guessing, will will slot into number one. But if it was Beechworth Pale, I wouldn't be complaining.
01:03:39
Speaker
Fantastic. All right, Ben, let's ah leave it there. All right. Thanks, Will. Cheers. Thanks, mate. Ben Kraus, what an amazing business he's built and an enduring legacy with Beegee Pale. um Speaking of of the greats, of the all-time greats, I asked our amazing Hottest 100 stats advisor, Daniel Reed, if you're watching, thank you very much, to give me the breakdown. So if we look at the entire history of the poll, so what are we, 16 editions of it, 17 now, over the last 16 editions, 1600 beers,
01:04:11
Speaker
ah Bridge Road has earned a whopping 64 places in the poll. Of course, 16 of those now being beachy pale, which means they're about two-thirds of the way to creating their own Hottest 100, well done, Ben. Then you've got Little Creatures with 58 positions, Mountain Goat with 57, Tide with Feral as well, Coopers at 49 and Four Pines 48. And no, I didn't just read out CUB and Lion's shopping list right there. um If you look at it state by state, Victoria has been the most dominant state. We're seeing more from New South Wales these days, but over the whole history, Victoria was 225 positions in the poll. New South Wales, 177 Queensland. Coming up like a rocket with 99, WA67, ACT20, Tasmania, seven until today. None since 2012, as we mentioned, and Northern Territory has had
01:05:06
Speaker
four beers in the entire history of the poll and I think all of them were one mile broad one mile one year they had some coverage in the NT News the the country's finest newspaper um and rocketed four of their beers in a few years ago yeah now you told me I was gonna be the stats nerd for this Craig you just sort of stole my thunder here all you thunder whatever Now guys, apparently while we've been speaking, the next year... Yes, beer number eight has appeared. If um you don't have it in front of you, Craig, it is Filter, XBA. There we go. so You were talking about this yesterday, actually, Will. Yeah, well, their campaign was all about how they hadn't been in the top 10 before, so they were just saying that they'd love to be in it, and um they'll be stoked with that. They've made it, which is awesome. um Yeah, now we have got someone on the line here, importantly, a beer of theirs hasn't appeared yet.
01:05:55
Speaker
Yeah, so again, we're going to go to the cross to the Sunshine Coast, my hometown, and chat to Kristin McGarry from Your Mate's Brewing, the epic party. Kristin. G'day, mates. How you going? Good. How are you doing? Hey, Kristin, can you turn your phone sideways so we can... Oh, is he going to... Oh, beauty. Look at that. Sorry. Sorry. How you going? Sorry, I had to go outside because...
01:06:23
Speaker
It's a little loud in there. And I was struggling to hear you guys. You got the other party started early? Yeah. Kristen, how are you feeling, mate? We haven't seen Larry yet, the flagship beer. Last year, I think, was it number, what are we talking about here, four? Number four, yeah. So we've had five years in the top five. That's pretty ah um pread accolade for ourselves. But yeah, it's been a pretty, like,
01:06:52
Speaker
different. There's been a lot of movement in the kind of up to the top 10 so far so it's exciting to see some movements. We've had not one beer so far this year. We usually get a couple or um three so um yeah it's good to see lots and lots of new beers in the in the hundred this this year. yes Yeah and in terms of campaigning McGarry did you sort of say you you really wanted people to just vote for one beer or is it just how it sort of ended up assuming that Larry gets in there?
01:07:21
Speaker
Um, I think we spend more time thinking of like, which song we're gonna, um, cover. So this year was, uh, come on Aussie, come on into the, come on, Larry, come on rendition that we did. Um, which is, you know, like a bit of a misspent youth. Um, offline, I get to take advantage of recording, recording our accounts team, singing the chorus to the song, looking at their faces, going,
01:07:47
Speaker
Why am I working somewhere where I've got to sing in front of my co-workers? I feel for them. um Yeah, we we're always pushing for Larry, um definitely. And you know if anyone else gets up there, if any of the other beers gets up there, it's great. But um yeah, Larry's been our flagship. it's it's I mean, it's it's he's my baby. He's the ear that I learned to brew beer, designing the recipe for him. And yeah, we love him.
01:08:17
Speaker
Kristen, I imagine you're at the brew pub at the moment. I'd love you to actually, as we finish talking, kind of wander back inside and and give our viewers a taste of the ah the iconic Your Mate's Countdown party, because I try to describe it to people. I've been to a few of them. um It's just a thing to be seen. So want wander that way as we as we keep talking.
01:08:37
Speaker
Yeah, you guys want to come check it out? I mean, we want to check it. know me i would hear That's all right. the piece through it yeah Yeah, I might not be able to hear you once again. The beast the piece of resistance every year is when Larry comes up. we flood the We flood the venue with yellow tins and debauchery begins. But um let's go have a look what's going on in there.
01:08:58
Speaker
Give us the tour. You've been hyping this up before as Craig, so... It's just a... great It's just a vibe, right? We talked about... spirit Hi everyone!
01:09:11
Speaker
ta da whatso
01:09:15
Speaker
sorryy time
01:09:22
Speaker
There you go there we go. Doesn't take much to get a bunch of Queenslanders singing. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you, team. And we hope to see Larry up the up the top of the lane. my main Main character energy there. Yeah, yeah. Nice one. Cheers, Chris. Cheers, mate. Talk soon. Cheers, guys. Now, um i in the chat, I think we've had a lot more comments coming through. um I want to hear about the beers that that you voted for. It might not be ah the ones that hit the top 10. It might be the smaller release beers that i that you truly loved. So jump on the on the chat. Tell us about what your favourite beers were. And just to set the scene, get you in the mood, we've asked a couple more legends what theirs were for the year. Let's go to that.
01:10:04
Speaker
So my standout beer of the year in the Gabs Hottest 100 of 2024 is the Heiker Horizon Hazy Pale Ale. It is an absolute banger. First and foremost, it's a Queensland beer, so it's my local beer and that sort of thing. um It's so smooth and sessionable and easy to drink and it's just and it's just got all those awesome tropical fruit moat notes and i I love it. It's great, so get it. Hello here from To All My Friends.
01:10:33
Speaker
giving you my 2024 beer, my favorite beer. I'm going with the Nipah from a local brewery ambush brewing here in Canberra. This is their Enter the Nectar Dome, packed full of nectar on hops and a little bit of a little bit of Victoria as well.
01:10:50
Speaker
It's back to basics for Neepers. It's a hazy juice bomb. So yeah, this is my favorite beer of 2024. If you want to know a little bit more about it, head on over to ah to all my friends bar on YouTube and you can hear me sit down with the brewer and go through the beer in a lot more detail. Cheers to all my friends.
01:11:09
Speaker
There you go, just a couple more. So jump in the chat and I do have to say as well, um we're going to give out a free Crafty Cabal membership for some of the best comments ah in the chat today. So we'll we'll look at it in deep dive detail after the show. Crafty Cabal is our loyalty club but we run. It's an annual fee of $99 and you're going to get a huge amount of value back in these deals, giveaways. tough cost of living times, deals, giveaways, beers, special events. We often run them throughout the year. So jump on craftycabal.com to check that out. um Now, James, I think you've been busy texting away and reaching out to some of the new brewers that have debuted in the hottest one.
01:11:51
Speaker
what are What are the sort of messages you're getting back? Well I've had one just come in from Nick at one drop. Fucking Cheers Legend. Pretty insane. They're a fucking double fruited smoothie sour made the top ten. Now that wasn't me swearing. If the kids watching at home, this is me we're reading it out. um Only sour on the board. So so there you go.
01:12:06
Speaker
um Cheers, Nick. um But no, we had ah Grace from Reckless. and She's actually in a bit of a quandary and says they're just amazed, not even at the brewery. Very unexpected, but so, so awesome. I'm now trying to find a babysitter so I can get to the brewery and celebrate with the crew. And talking about the crew, they're all awesome. a Huge shout out to the brewers. Hopefully I find a babysitter before I've had too many BX lagers to drive.
01:12:28
Speaker
and We heard back from Jeff at Seeker and says they're all over the moon. They're really grateful for the support for their
New Entrants and Celebrations
01:12:33
Speaker
brewery. The passion is 100 percent. um Future Magic who debuted for the first time earlier. Sean said the result got announced just as the tap room opened. So all their customers got walk walked in to be greeted by an excited Sonia in the tap room launching into an explanation of what it all means to us. Really happy with that beer. Thrilled that people are getting behind the small community focused breweries. Everything we do is for the community and for and for them to have supported us with votes, we've got this high, we can't thank them enough. um Yeah, Curly Lewis, massive thanks to all the legends that have supported us. Ryan at Margaret River, you know, no better way to capital a big Yiv for them with a big jump in the pines. Thanks everyone for voting.
Poll Results and Brewery Impacts
01:13:10
Speaker
So lots of very happy people out there who have either not been in the poll before or have had ah had a big leap up there. So yeah, and you know, as Kristen said, like, you know, they've noticed about massive change compared to
01:13:23
Speaker
I guess it's been commentary over the last few years of like almost almost more of the same. There's always stories in every poll when you do a bit of you know deep diving and looking at year on year but I'm worried we're not going to make it to the keys in time for our lane at seven o'clock because I've got a lot of analysis and writing to do when this is finished and like no more surprises please just you know. We will make it for the post show drinks don't worry I will be sure of that. um Fantastic results and just hearing some of those messages um you know I know every year breweries bombard their their fans their customers with vote for us messaging but it really does make a ah massive difference to every one of these small local businesses that you're supporting and if they make the list it's putting
01:14:03
Speaker
their beer on show for the rest of the craft beer drinkers around Australia. um Will, anything in the in the chat again? How are we doing? Yeah, yeah, it's popping off. A lot of people, a few favourite beers, obviously, in there. some um Daniel McDonald wanted to shout out Shark Island Brewery and their Shipwreck Hazy. Shiprock, sorry. and We haven't seen that yet, either. So we'll keep an eye closed. Thirsty crow vanilla of milk stout. um Obviously, that's change changed hands a little bit recently.
01:14:31
Speaker
Well, the one that you bet on, 400 pills now, yet to appear. Yeah, yet to appear too, yes, yes. A few people wanted to shout out Karumbin Valley Brewing as well. yeah And, um oh, we might we might actually have the next beer, do we Craig? Let's flip to the list. I think my computer's on like a one result delay. I have to think back to my previous guest.
01:14:51
Speaker
Oh, okay. So we yeah we should have tried to keep him on the line for longer. i should have We've had ah Larry, God, we just missed the yeah the moment when it hit the pole on the countdown. Is it further proof that we don't actually have the results in advance? We definitely do not. What bad timing. but i we would have seen I'm sure if we were still on the line with Kristen that entire venue would have absolutely erupted. So your mates Larry coming in number seven in the list we're seeing there congratulations to the team at your mates. um Okay so now I think we're going to go to another gateway beer potentially. Yeah I think we'll hit up another gateway beer section so another few people from the industry talking about the beers that got them into craft beer.
01:15:39
Speaker
Hey, this is Jocelyn with Hop On Brewery Tours. My epiphany beer in Australia probably would have been Farrell's Hop Hog back in 2010, 2011 when I first moved out here. Somebody recommended it to us when we were out having a coffee and a beer one night and it changed my world. I've had a lot of really amazing beers growing up in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.
Personal Beer Journeys
01:16:02
Speaker
But this is one of the first Australian beers that just had so much flavour and so much bitterness and hop-forwardness that it encouraged me to explore what else was on me, what else was available here in Australia that had those kind of flavours. So Feral Hop Hog, definitely one of the OG epiphany beers for me.
01:16:21
Speaker
Hey, I'm Matt Stewart, host of The Beer Pioneer, which is coming back for Season 2 this week. It launches on January 27th. You can find it online if you, I mean, just search for The Beer Pioneer Matt Stewart. Too easy. Anyway, happy Hottest 100 Day, one of the greatest days of the year, of course. I've been asked to tell you about the beer that sort of got me into craft beer, the gateway beer. And this is hard, I don't know if I've got a simple answer for you. I reckon maybe Stout's probably got me, they were the first ones to get me past just drinking Carlton Draft and VB, you know, like Cascade Stout, that was a big one. And then I remember Bee's Knees, Matilda Bay, with a little hint of honey. That just opened up the world a little bit. Oh, what the hell, what's going on here? Beer can be more than just Carlton Draft.
01:17:06
Speaker
And then I grew up in Moorabbin and two brothers brewery opened up. And that really, really opened the eyes. The chief, I remember that one being a big one. I don't make it anymore, but it was a classic. Anyway, great time there. Hope you're all having a lovely hottest 100. I wish you all the best. I hope your beer comes number one. ah Good day.
01:17:26
Speaker
ah you go maddy the beer pioneer with his gateway beer um You know, one of the
Multinational Brands in Craft Polls
01:17:30
Speaker
topics that always comes up in discussion around the Gabs Hotels 100, there's quite a few topics, but one of them is sort of um about ownership and independence and, you know, should we be allowing these the craft brands that are owned by the multinationals into the poll and certainly Gabs addresses this with releases of independent only lists and other subcategory lists following the main poll. um And you know just to give you a bit of background, I can't speak on behalf of Gabs today, but I do know that the original intention of including every beer
01:18:05
Speaker
kind of considered a craft beer in Australia was to include those beers that probably many people consider their gateway beer. I know for myself, it was probably Little Creatures' Pale Owl. I can still remember the first time I tasted that, which is of course now owned by Lion. um Where do you guys stand on this? is is Is this a beer popularity contest that gets a broad broad range of people talking about beer, or is it something we should be changing now to be a bit more about the local independence and and maybe a bit more exclusive?
01:18:35
Speaker
Definitely an interesting one. It's probably been a discussion as old as time itself or certainly as old as the poll itself. um And I, but you know when I got caught up in it, I'd always fall probably on that side going, you know what, and we we want to get more people talking about yeah craft beer. So if people only know stone and wood or they only know whatever, then let's keep it there. um certainly things have evolved and i think having said that even this this poll is evolving you know not only the small guys coming in i've just been having a look at the list so far i think there's only been 16 beers from the major breweries so far the major breweries craft brands last year there were 22 um so unless the top six are all
01:19:16
Speaker
line or CBE brands, then there's going to be a pretty significant drop-off and part of that will be feral, I guess, and yeah going back to independence. And that's what's so important about it, isn't it? It's kind of like, well, you exclude the um the corporate or the multinationals, all of a sudden you don't really know what the temperature is out there. like Like if these beers are dropping, that kind of tells you more that it's it's it's more interesting, I think, personally, why I think multinationals should be included. It's more interesting to see how they move as a way to sort of measure temperature and and and think about breweries and things like that. Because the end of the day, they do drop as a general rule. It might take a little while, but breweries that sell, they drop. And maybe they lose relevance as well, but um there is less interest. And it is a big poll, so no matters. And you wonder with, um you know, less beers from certainly from bigger Indies available more widely. And maybe maybe this message about supporting local is getting through if people aren't, you know, going out and spending so much in retail, maybe they are, you know, supporting going to their local brewery or whatever. and Maybe that is what's cutting through. I mean, it's hard to say without having full visibility of all the votes or what have you.
01:20:20
Speaker
But certainly, you know, that message, you know, we we pushed it hard during Covid, you know, keeping local alive, you know, and that that that message is certainly being pushed and, you know, more as more breweries retreat, you know, in terms of as how far they're sort of pushing their tentacles and trying to win over their local suburbs or their local town or whatever, then that is potentially going to change things. And I do think it's, you know, probably a slow, a more slow build growth for craft beer after, you know, the crazy years have faded.
01:20:50
Speaker
but I think it has more longevity, it has more legs. If you can win over your local community, including the people who might not like any hops in there, you know, any hoppy beers, but they like the fact that you're local and you employ locally and you have a trivia night and you do a meat raffle or whatever it is, like whatever it might be, they come down and go, like Daniel from Hiker said to us on the Queensland Year in Beer podcast, that local breweries are becoming the pub before the pokies.
01:21:14
Speaker
and they're and they're becoming more welcoming to all so all sorts of people. And I think that's a change we're seeing. It's not great for the people who've grown to be 2, 3, 4 million litres and have been hit really hard, but maybe it's going to help put down deeper roots on a more broader way. And so the next wave of growth when people have some money to spend again is coming from a ah stronger platform.
01:21:34
Speaker
And I think um you mentioned exclusion, Will, and and you know if you exclude this, you exclude that. ah You're also excluding potential voters, so you know people who might be at the very start of that journey, of of they've they've always kind of drunk more mainstream beers, and maybe they've picked up a a James Squire or a little creatures.
01:21:57
Speaker
um they've seen advertising around the gabs hottest 100 they're going onto the pole and they're just not seeing that beer there that's a pretty bad experience yeah for someone who's kind of okay i'm just starting out why can't i find my favorite craft yeah um yeah i definitely still We'll go down that path, but we should be more inclusive. I've got a couple of interesting comments on this from the YouTube comment section, one from Matthew Beggs, a big supporter of craft beer, and he says, like, I love the fact that Crown Laga, the first poll Crown Laga was in it. You know, there's always been multi-nationals as part of it, and so it should continue. And Daniel Ridd, our stat man, he also thinks it should be everyone, because, like, think about how good it feels for an indie brewery to outpace all those multinationals, like,
01:22:42
Speaker
which I think um we're we're going to see plenty of them, unless the realist is very different from previous years, we will see um some breweries do way better than ones with much larger budgets, which I think is important as well. What's interesting though, we talked about it sort of off air early, is Byron Bay Brewery's premium lager being in there. I'm sure, you know, there can be debate about whether that should be in there maybe because of the style of beer it is. But we've had a look just sort of quickly while we've been on air and can't find any, well, and not any social media presence for them at all over the last few months. No push, I don't know whether it's been targeted ads or whatever. But that seems like a bit of an anomaly, like how did Byron Bay Brewery's premium lager, which, you know, when there isn't a Byron Bay Brewery anymore, um make it into the poll. So that's just ah a quirk. and And one of the quirk, not related to this um conversation, I'd love to get in there because I am
Surprising Poll Outcomes
01:23:30
Speaker
a nerd.
01:23:30
Speaker
um Capital Brewing's Hang Loose Juice has made the pole again and has actually climbed up the pole and Capital deleted that beer a few weeks ago and have replaced it in their lineup with Hazy Pale instead. So just a little, you know, a couple of oddities in the pole there. There might be someone on the phone in camera right now saying, back into production, back into production. It's all happening. Yeah. um There's a question, I was looking at the question, so Tim Welsh Elliott says ah to to the panel, you're in you're in the industry, what ah what are your gateway beers?
01:24:00
Speaker
I mean, you sort of mentioned yours. that you Yeah, look, I think um Little Creatures Pale would definitely be way up there. um Sierra Nevada, I still remember, obviously not Australian, but just I remember the first sip of that was blew my mind. And even I think um some of the the James Squibby's like, was there a Golden Ale? Yeah, Chancer. Yeah, i you know some of those, but then Feral, Hop Hog was another one that, and even Murray's, we talked about them before as well, they're fred Fred IPA. or I was going to say, I mean i but my my, I guess Gateway beers would be back in the UK, but
01:24:36
Speaker
Yeah, and at the dawn of time as well. Yeah, dawn of time. A year older than New Year. It was an Egyptian bread that had been left out to ferment in the sun. Really tasty. Yeah, my mummy let me have it. So yes, I was going to say, but over here, I think the first or second beer I've ever had after moving to Australia was Mountain Goat Hightail. I ordered it just because it was the beer.
01:24:58
Speaker
I had, you know, it was the beer on the menu I'd never heard of before. But I'd say the one that blew my mind, Murray's again, was their Icon 2 IPA, one of the first double IPAs over here at Beer Deluxe with a good friend of mine, Tom Delmont, who went on to fan Fixation. And he said, you've got to try this. And I just moved here, don't have much money. He's like, it was like $10 a stubby. And I was like, I can't drop $10 on a stubby. And he goes, just have it, have it.
01:25:24
Speaker
That's the bargain beans today, James. But it just blew my eye. I couldn't believe someone in Australia was making a beer like that. And you and you do have those moments, even though I'd been drinking what i I'd say was good beer, real ales and lugs and heifers when I lived in Germany. That was such a... you know I remember it just being so blown away going, I can't believe that that's happening in Australia. um Will, as it of of a younger generation?
01:25:47
Speaker
um Yeah, I mean, um ah one it's funny hearing Maddie Stewart before, um a big one for me was Two Brothers, I remember buying that American Amber Ale Grizz and um it just completely blew me away, like it was hop forward, molt forward, it kind of like had it all and it's why it's interesting talking about you know what beers lead people to craft beer, for me it was that sort of like just nothing I'd experienced ever before, having that like That was great, whereas I don't really think a more accessible craft beer would have blown my mind in that way. Now I'm going to jump in there because I think we've had the next beer number six, Drop. Yeah, time to disco. The screen's still not working. What what is it, James? so ah Range Brewing's disco. So it's you know leapt up the laptop up the charts. um Probably on the back of you know the inspiration of your conversation with them, Will. Yeah, no, that's great to see. They'll be stoked. what What is more exciting is I'm pretty sure the people of um Newstead will be particularly happy because someone said in the comments that they're doing price pints for the prices of whatever the beer came out ah in at. So six pints. Six pints. of disco I mean that's an awesome win for for fans of range and it's an awesome result for range. They will be stoked. um they um We'll see who else comes in but for a brew of that size I know they get a lot of attention there's a lot of hype behind them but they're not massive like to see them really um get up there over these years it's really nice to see and you know you can't predict the future but I reckon that's one of those beers that in four years we'll be talking about it floating around in there still I think once you get up there sometimes you hang around and it's very
01:27:19
Speaker
It's a modern beer, isn't it? Hop forward, pale ale. It's got so yeah everything sort of a lot of beer drinkers are looking for at the moment. yeah So guys, who have we got left to come? Because we've kind of, I guess we can pull that one back. We've got stone and wood. Cooper's still to come, I guess. We've got single fin. yeah Still to come. Beachy. He's gone. Hail. Your mates has already come through. What, is this our is this our final five? Who knows? Who knows? Let's so just put that there. and Yeah. It's like we prepared it. We can go home.
01:27:55
Speaker
Yeah, let's go home. We're done. Interesting. Time for the after party. Interesting to see the layout there as well, I think. Well, it is. And it's kind of... I mean, we talk about the... You've got, what, a couple? You've got Boulter. Well, Boulter's the only one in there now that is not no longer independent. yeah um So four of the potential five beers still remaining ah now in that independent space, which I think is a fantastic result. yeah um Talk to me more about... what What are your thoughts, James? What are you thinking?
01:28:25
Speaker
Yeah odd well you know is I guess now that we're at the pointy end we are seeing you know similar beers to you know I guess if it if it is those five we should say. um It's gonna be that five. um still I'm still rooting for the foreign appeals now which will we'll go and drink after this much out. yeah um But yeah I mean I think you know perhaps no surprise as if it is those five at the top you know five of those sort of beers at the top. um But I think, again, just looking below that, it has been really, there's there's so many you know other stories in there. And and hopefully, you know, it might put put a bit more of a different spin on the kind conversation that comes from this. um And maybe, you know, some of the smaller breweries that didn't take part this year because they're just so, you know, strapped for cash, strapped for people popular that don't have someone doing socials or marketing anymore and went, you know what, we're not going to make the 100, let's not bother. They might look at it and go, well, hang on.
01:29:15
Speaker
look at where all those breweries came and maybe you know it'll be a but a bit of fresh injection of of you know interest for ah there next year. Are there any breweries in fact that we haven't seen in the list who were in there last year thinking of that reason of of you know potentially you've made the list before do you continue to invest you know maybe not um substantial budgets in marketing and so on but it's definitely time and resource and effort to put me on the spot now i'm going to start looking through the last one one that sort of comes to mind would be someone like brick lane yes um they could jump up but i don't really think any of those beers won't be in there but um yeah they haven't appeared right and um that might be a change in focus that they they weren't sort of hard for one one love pale ale in previous years and ah have um focused came in 39 I'm assuming that's dropped and it would be interesting when you see the sort of later list to see where that might have fallen to. They focus more on low-carb beers now, so it might be more about the changing priorities as a business as well. Just looking down the list, we haven't seen MODIS, the surveys that it has been in the last couple of years. I don't think motor's campaigned at all this year so that would be an example and you know the other reason people might stop it's not just the the pressures and the staff and that kind of thing it's also um you might have changed where you want to sell your beer too like if you're pulling back and you know getting up there helps with conversations with national retailers if you're less interested in that then why bother sort of
01:30:43
Speaker
Yep, no, understood. um Any others standouts there? I think, have we seen Brew Ha Ha just from my own neck of the woods on the sunny coast? No, they had their straw barb, whatever the court was in. it Straw barb sow was in last year at 84, but I guess that had been a ah position drop of 20 positions from the previous years, yeah maybe ah a different focus for those guys. um And where did my where did my Moffat Beach come in?
01:31:09
Speaker
Then the 50s and 50s I think. Moffat Beach was 25 last year, the biggest mover of last year's poll up, 295 positions. And I think, have we seen them? Yeah, no, they were in there. 54, 54 with passenger payload. 54, okay, so it's a very solid result and and a fantastic beer, so well done. yeah um With heads of Noosa right by them. It's something to look now. mean what yeah what ne and Now you know we are getting towards the top end. and if That is the five. it Once again, it is a very pale ale and lager heavy pole with the very notable exceptions. We have to make sure we ah hunt down a wee jamming can for ah for next year if we're invited back.
01:31:53
Speaker
um But yeah, it it is, you know, it is almost exclusively once again. I guess that that's just how things, you know, go the biggest. I mean, gets this sort of regression to the mean or whatever you want to call it that, you know, if there are more voters and there are more breweries pushing that. um And I guess also the realities of beer in Australia this year as well is that, you know, there are less limited releases out there. There's less focus on that apart from a handful of breweries.
01:32:17
Speaker
there's more breweries putting out more approachable affordable you know sort of lower cost beers or whatever because you know they're having to fire and find ways of um matching people's budgets i guess um but in largo james definitely um i think we've seen a little bit of an increase in the yeah styles
01:32:39
Speaker
Another point of interest for us always is the size of beers, so looking through to talk on range again, lights and music, and unless Imperial Stout's about to jump the list, that's a 10% triple hazy IPA. And what was interesting, actually, we commented when it came in earlier, is that it landed right next to Helios's Dionysus oat cream double IPA. So there aren't many big beers in there, but it's interesting to know that people who like big beers like them 41st or 42nd best of all, you know, in that sort of 40ish zone. But yeah, they'd be the two, I'm assuming, you know, two of the biggest ones in there.
01:33:15
Speaker
Just something quickly, I would say that there's been more lagers than in any previous year. Like we were looking back the other day at some of the early years. I think if you go back maybe a decade there was I think one lager made the list. That was a very dirty word then. Yeah and maybe a couple of years after and it has been a steady increase. I mean we probably did our first you know lager and ASOS article maybe six or seven years ago.
01:33:36
Speaker
and it's it's taken a bit longer than that but probably maybe too early yeah maybe well you've got to be ahead of the game yeah and i think you know that that is definitely a thing like i i would say there's probably 15 or so lagers in that list which is you know we we were expecting that sort of number every year after we wrote that article covered oh damn it but we did that with sours back in the day as well Yeah, yeah, yeah, which have dropped off from the list. Just an um interesting on-stars in the comments. um Matthew says, you know, if the poll was held in winter, how would that look? Because I think we've got two dark beers over the whole 100. So they they are very summery sort of beers. And we heard from Sam before talking about the promotion was really just his like, or Hop Nation sort of drive or what they want to sell over summer as well, disco as well with range. So yeah, I think if you moved at the different times, someone else has said like, yeah, you'd you'd have to expect stouts a place higher if maybe we're in the middle of stout season. that There is that element of when the list is held.
01:34:32
Speaker
Yeah certainly I think timing and season seasonality would play a part and but but it's interesting I think you know things like The Hottest 100 it's a ah mass popularity you know finger on the pulse of what's happening at that exact moment when the when the votes are going on. um It is fantastic to see though you still have these real um strong audiences around particular styles and so on we see that with the smaller events like Hop Nation's Blobfish Festival, dedicated to like, sour and wild ferment beers. Love City and Dark Beer Festival, a new one last year in Ballarat in the middle of winter. All the right, all the dark beers. Or the bribery, do their darker days at that festival there, where they're talking all about dark beers. So these things are happening, there's real niche groups all around that are following and supporting those styles of beers.
01:35:20
Speaker
and maybe there was a double smoothie sour festival that we missed where you know that the conditions have you got ten dollars off your ticket if you voted for one drop that's every weekend at one drop there we go we've just had the next beer drop and it is This one, Gage Rhodes, single fin. I'm liking this, how you can move this. Yeah, this is really cool. This is like, very cool. Anthony Green of... This one's confirmed. Light it up. These ones are TBC, we're not sure yet. So, single fin, locked in at number five. um There we go. up Moving back in the poll, one position. Gage Rhodes, massive business. Talk to me about them, James.
01:36:05
Speaker
Yeah, well, theyve you know, they they have a presence nationally um and also part of the Good Drinks group that um ah also owns Matzos. They actually shuttered Atomic, which was their sort of craftier beer brand earlier this year, and they the brew pub was taken over by Mountain Culture. um But they do Albi Lager, which is i mainly available in WA, sort of more that sort of Chris Lager sort of style. They have been around for a long time. They're single fiend as well, really. fin Well, and yeah, a single fin. And then the big thing for them was securing the tender ah to poor booze at the Perth Stadium, Optus Stadium, which is massive for them. And I think essentially yeah they aim to to make single fin kind of like the beer of WA. And I think, you know, when when the old Swan Brewery closed debt on down, there was sort of an opportunity to move into that. And I think they've done a pretty good job of of of getting, you know, it has become
01:36:56
Speaker
that sort of, you know, esky beach beer and the one that's sort of on tap everywhere. Just a real easy drinking, you know, gentle, like, I think it's Enigma Hop, sort of easy going summer ale, which captures that, you know, WA beach vibe. and they They have an amazing brew pub on the on the waterfront um where they make some more of their limited releases as well. And yeah, just, ah you know, a bigger operation that just,
01:37:21
Speaker
they They just do make great beers. They've had a previous champion um Australian beer at the Abers a few years ago with their little dove pale ale that they brought back last year. So yeah, just a solid operation making some good beers. And they um they obviously now own Matzos from Broome as well, or originally from Broome. i And we saw Matzos in the poll earlier with their mango beer at at number 50. Being now from the Sunshine Coast, we've just seen Matzos move from, or not move, but expand from Broome to a Sunshine Coast operation, taking over i the the old Imperial Hotel and space up there. Not the Imperial, Joe's watering, sorry. i Which, yeah, has seen them sort of expand there. and And it kind of makes sense, I, you know, moving from Melbourne to Queensland, wasn't super aware of ginger beer and mango beer and things like that. and you Then you change change your climate and suddenly,
01:38:16
Speaker
it's ah Everyone's doing it, so jump on board, you know? um Why not? Will, anything in the comments? what are we Where are we at? um Yeah, yeah, there's a few. I like to comment on our duck. If we did the hottest 100 in winter, we could call it the coldest 100.
01:38:33
Speaker
Oh, that's curious. That's wonderful. But I also like this from ah Lewis Duffy. He said, dark beers are like the screamo songs in the Hottest 100. There's always one or two in there. But they're pretty polarizing music, so it kind of doesn't quite make it in the same way. I think that's that's how I remember those Triple J Hottest 100 parties when we were having them at uni. You'd always ah sort of a screamo song come on. You'd be like, ah do we put an iPod on for a minute, or how do we how do we sort of handle this as a group? Yeah.
01:39:03
Speaker
um Guys, we've got ah about five more minutes until the next beer drops. I don't know if we want to start making our own little predictions, but probably... And we are um just we we are looking at getting someone from Gage Rhodes on that so um as well, so hopefully we'll be able to chat to someone about how they're feeling.
01:39:19
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah is crossed and you know this Yes, the question is getting a bit more sort of political in the comments as well. People are asking about alcohol tax and you know why do we think you know wine doesn't face the same challenges. I guess you know they do have a different tax regime. They probably have been lobbying and had more money and had more friendships, longer lasting with politicians, all these kind of things. But certainly you know we're only a couple of weeks away from another excise tax hike. um It's been in the in the news again with Kaiju going to VA and I guess, you know, be part of the discussion around Hawkers and White Bay ah merging this week and forming a new and new company. So, um yeah, I guess it just shows that like we're here today having this, you know, very positive chat about all these things going on, but against a backdrop of some pretty major challenges. But um yeah, which I guess is why it's nice once a year to get to go and have a bit of but of fun and and and and and chat about chat about these things.
01:40:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's important. Now, we've seen Aaron appear in front of us. Yes. So we've got Aaron from Gage Roads. Aaron, how are you, mate? Gentlemen, how are we? Great. How are you doing? You look like you're in some tropical paradise. ah I'm in the backyard, mate. I'm just enjoying the old single fin. Aaron's coming in at number five. Yeah, yeah that's awesome. How's it feel?
01:40:37
Speaker
Oh, it's fabulous. I think what did we get last year? Six, was it? We think so. I should have it in front of it. You were fourth, actually. No, no. Yeah, they're up one. Six, yes. You're right. Sorry. Yeah, great. Closing in. No, I'm really stoked. 2028 will be coming to you for number one. Just keep coming up one every year. I'm really stoked. I'm absolutely ecstatic with everyone that voted for us.
01:41:04
Speaker
um I think we're probably the number one WA beer, I assume. And that's ah that's um pretty we're pretty stoked with that. Thanks to everyone that voted. This is um clearly my favorite beer of all. And um you know to our team and just everyone who ah put to who put this together for us. like you know We've got our marketing team and all the creatives and everyone. There's always like a little bit that goes on.
01:41:31
Speaker
behind the scenes to to get to this. So yeah, super happy. And how are things in the WA beer scene these days? I know you sort of have been a little bit in a bubble from some of the issues affecting us on the East Coast. Are things still bump of summer and things going well? Yeah, look, ah there's a lot of magic happening at our brewery at the moment. wherere we We're growing really well and we're, we're ah you know, the the the um the woes that are affecting some of the ah rest of the the market obviously we're not immune to any of that and it's obviously it's been a really tough year for everyone but we're going really really really well and I don't know youre like to speak for the other WA brewers I think there's it' it's ah I think the slowdown sort of affected everyone but for us look onwards and upwards you know we've just delisted the company off the stock exchange and um it's really exciting sort of future for us so we're always stoked
01:42:26
Speaker
Yeah, we're certainly seeing some you know positive silence in the WA breweries, like Rocky Ridge have climbed a little bit ah as well to number 16 with their Jindong Juicy and obviously they they opened their brewery in in Melbourne recently. Feral Hop Hog is back as well, one of the the classics. So back in independent ownership and back on the list too, which is pretty cool.
01:42:48
Speaker
Great to see, yeah, great to see. And I texted John Stallwood earlier, who's obviously seen now, I guess, in stewardship of the feral brand, and he said he's got big hopes, but it's 25 years for nail this year and 25 years for little creatures. So you were you were one of the foundation brewers of little creatures, so there's, you know, a lot to celebrate this year. Yeah, it's also 20 years to gauge roads this year as well. Yeah. Oh, you're babies.
01:43:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's a big, it's a big year for WA, WA Brewing. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I remember, I remember, um, when, uh, when I was at Creaches in the early days and John Stallwood was on the scene as well. And that was, that was just another lifetime ago. That was 25, 25 years ago. It just doesn't, doesn't seem real, does it? But, um, anyway, yeah.
01:43:30
Speaker
We all get, we all, it's the only thing that's constant. It's time, mate. It moves on. and Indeed. Now, congratulations. That's a great, great result for you. and enjoy Enjoy the rest of the day. um And yeah, getting this looking bloody lovely in your backyard, so. Awesome. Well, thanks so to the team at Gabs. Thanks, guys. And thanks for everyone that voted. You. Cheers. Thanks, Aaron.
01:43:53
Speaker
There you go, Aaron Herey from Gate Roads, celebrating the the fifth position. One up, sorry, I think I said down before, but no, it was definitely... He knew to correct you, don't worry. Yeah, no, very good. yeah yeah You moved it along the table in a different direction. That's what it was. My order was probably messed up, but there you go. It's interesting you mentioned those anniversaries as well. like We did a lot of stuff with with me hitting the table now. We did a lot of stuff with Holgate for their 25th anniversary last year. I think we maybe commented in something you over the last few months about, we ran so many ten lessons from 10 years after the Crafty Pint last year as well. like and sort of say how It sort of marks the occasion of of so many breweries launching maybe 10 years ago. But to have you know Nail and um
01:44:38
Speaker
little creatures marking 25 years next year, you know the gauge roads 20 like it just shows I guess this re-emphasizes that WA has played such a key role in building the craft beer industry over here. Yeah, are you saying that there's a small group of senior citizens in the craft beer community and we've now got the young up and comers coming through or is this a controversial hot take for No, I just think it's just a reminder, you know, how long some people have been around and, you know, and for people maybe coming into craft beer now and getting into it where it is easy to get and, you know, hoppy pale ales and, you know, nice pills are so readily available that
01:45:15
Speaker
but its you know there's There's been people who've been doing this for a long, long time that have helped build this industry and been through many ups and downs. you know so I think running any business, let alone a brewery for 25 years and and maintaining that independence and often family ownership, it's a massive achievement. and I think it's it's just a testament to the fact that they're still appearing in in contests like this and and very high up the list. it's um They've obviously built and and an incredible business, incredible brand and a wonderful community around them. yeah um I think we've got a few minutes still until the the next. Well I've got a little ah stat update on um as we wait for that so from Daniel Ridd. So single fin's been in the poll eight times and it's never been outside of it hasn't been outside of the top 40 since 2016 so yeah really one of these beers that has had a lot of popularity for a long time. um That's pretty impressive there's a couple of others like that we were talking before when we saw it um
01:46:10
Speaker
Moondog's old mate, like it's always up and about in there and has been for a long time. Great be a great name. I picked up a trophy. What was that two years ago, I think? Yeah, okay. Ooh, some big news for number four. Okay, so just in at number four, we've got Benspoke Brewing Crankshaft, so we can, I can do this one now? Yeah, yes. Am I right? One, two, three. And that one has moved down one crate just to, you know. That one has moved down one, so in third position last year and a long time resident of the podium or at the top five as well. Little winner.
01:46:45
Speaker
Yeah, Ben spoke in in Canberra. We might try and get the the guys over there on the line. yeah yeah um But yeah obviously ah another incredible independent beer. um Yeah, give us more of a background there as well, James. Well, I think getting an IPA you know onto the top of the pole as they did and keeping it up there um is quite something. I know Hot Pogg is the same ABV and It was, I guess, was tagged in IPA back in the days when they did its three-peat. But I think to have a 5.8% beer with a pretty you know solid malt base as well as your flagship is a pretty ballsy move. And I think to to to do that, to stick to it, and to maintain it up there is quite something. Obviously, they've had other beers in the list today. I think Barley Griffin dropped a bit earlier. Sprocket, which I always tell Richard is my favorite of their IPAs, has actually fallen down to into the lower echelons. It's a great IPA, Sprocket. It's the IPA lover's IPA. Yeah, and so, but I think, you know, yeah I'm sure they'll, you know, there' be they'll be delighted to be a slut. They're probably a bit of disappointment that it's not on the podium this year. But, you know, again, for an IPA to be up there in these, you know, days where maybe, you know, that sort of, there was that big IPA sort of push for a few years. and That's maybe dropped off a little bit for, you know, other people getting older or just saving money or whatever. So anyway, congratulations to Rich and Tracy for another, another top five finish.
01:48:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's awesome. ah It's probably... Coopers are going to be interesting because, well, I still think so. It's probably going to win, but um Coopers has a lot of fans. It's already had three beers in the top 100. It's the original Pale Ale. You could say maybe Australia's original craft beer.
01:48:29
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see what happens there because it yeah it's it's an audience we potentially don't talk to um is a um you know in the crafty part, but um yeah, we'll see how we go.
01:48:43
Speaker
um Sorry, just a message. yeah um Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. you know It's a different audience. I would think people who are voting for Cooper's, they would i would sort of all vote for Cooper's beers kind of alone. You kind of wonder if they're engaging that much with other craft beers or anything like that. um But yeah, it'd be interesting. Yeah, it's certainly, I think if you're a Cooper's drinker, you're a Cooper's drinker. um You know, tried and true and and they've been around for, what is it now, 400 years or what's the, 180, 100 and something? A lot of years, guys. 160 plus. And family owned the entire time. I think we just saw news this week that
01:49:20
Speaker
uh Dr Tim is handing over handing over the reins um yeah obviously with the the business in a pretty good position i mean there was one one year they didn't even enter the poll not that um not that long ago but they've actually made a steady gained pretty much every year since they came back in. um And I think you know there's there's also in the in the world at the minute a bit of a sort of um that that leading into nostalgia, people looking into sort of more classic brands, older brands, um and you know people rediscovering the the joys to be found in you know Cooper's Green or Cooper's Red. um ah Lovely Saison style beers. and
01:49:57
Speaker
So yeah it did good we're just trying to get Ben spoke on the line at the moment but I'm being told it's it's being a bit of a push. Do we think it's time to crack a beer? You had me at hello. um you just say yeahillia i do think stay like I'll crack the warm one on the on the bar. don't do that i do have I do have to drive home anyway. Richard would have words. Richard will love seeing this um once we get him. I think Matt maybe we can get me a glass at some point, can't you Matt, so we can share one. No, we can't do anything else.
01:50:30
Speaker
um But you know, that that is pretty interesting like to see where Cooper's does land out of them. We're aware that some of Boulter's other beers have fallen away. Cooper's, I mean, we're going to probably have to talk a lot more about Cooper's in a minute, but um they ah can't think I can't think that they would have made a podium before. No.
01:50:47
Speaker
No, so this this is a ah story there in itself. yeah um and Of course, Boulter and and Mountain Culture status quo still to come, potentially. No one really believes me when I say that, but we actually don't have the results. We have no insight into what's going on. Well, interestingly, like we you and I did used to get full visits. Well, when you were running the poll, and we would spend several days back and forth late nights actually sort of crunching the numbers, making sure or that the the the biggest, the highest climbers, biggest fallers, just sort of and some checking our results were actually accurate. And then... That was when we first fell in love, James. Trading late night, you know, text messages. I'd be on a camping holiday with my family going, you won't see Dad for three days now. there is The draft results are in. But then obviously, you know, that changed a few years ago. and I believe down to sort of gambling concerns, you know, sort of maybe maybe the results had leaked out or what have you.
01:51:40
Speaker
yeah um And I think, I do believe, Craig, I don't want to drop you in here there, but it was the year that you turned up for the poll countdown in a Ferrari with a mink fur coat on, is that right? And i think I think diamond studs in both ears. Now, maybe you can't admit it until the statute of limitations has passed, but I do believe that was that was the issue. Yeah, look, I mean, you know, how I make my money is is my own business, really, James. um and Yeah, well that's that's you really built up to that one. That was a long time in there. No, no, and I think as we're talking gambling, just sort of remember, you know, if next time you are considering buying a slab of Great North and Crisp, maybe take a look at this list and realise what you could be buying.
01:52:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's awful. I didn't even get that that was a joke, let alone a joke. Very good. and We have some just a few shout outs in the comments. Someone saying Ranger absolutely killing it right now. Really big respect to Ranger Mountain Culture for having excellent flagships and pumping out two years two new beers every single great week. which is yeah like It's intense. it is It is so hectic, isn't it? Yeah, like, um, so many people have slowed down on that front and they just haven't. I mean, twos and understatement often, like they, they're delivering so much interesting beer all the time. Like it's it's a really different business model to what we traditionally know of in terms of craft beer. And I think we might almost be good to cut it on, uh, on the, the cross from bent spoke. Ed, can you hear us?
01:53:13
Speaker
And I'll bear with his team. We can see him. I'm not sure if you can see him, but he looks great. Like really happy, chuffed, excited. Yeah, we don't think he can hear us now, but we can't hear him. The wonders of technology, guys. Never do a live podcast, they said.
01:53:31
Speaker
ah but um But however, he might like to know in the comments, Connor Ryan is saying that Crankshaft is probably his favorite beer added Canberra. So there you go. And someone else avoided said, Crankshaft deserves number one, but it's nonetheless impressive that an IPA is in the top five, which you have to agree with that. And, you know, harnessing that ACT audience as well. I mean, we we read through the states before and the kind of overall poll numbers. And I think ACT is absolutely you know, punching above its weight in terms of population. Of course, you um have you've only really had two major breweries. There's been a few other ones over the years, like smaller operations, but it's always been Benspoken Capital. And, you know, I don't know if people, is there a loyalty thing in Canberra? I'm not too familiar with it. Well, it'd be interesting to see maybe in in future years where there's Cypher breakthrough. um So ah when we did our Year in Beer podcast, everyone we spoke to in ACT
01:54:27
Speaker
brought up Cypher, how well they've done in embracing, the yeah bringing the community through the doors of their brew pub. and But also they embarked, talking about limited releases, they embarked on a new canned limited release every single week this year. And apparently the the quality was was through the roof. and So it'd be interesting to see if, you know, we can get ah get a third Canberra brewer um onto the lineup for 2025.
01:54:49
Speaker
Yeah, fantastic. And I think we should be getting the first of our podium beers in a moment. I don't know if you've had it come through yet, but as I said before, my computer seems to be on um a one-year delay. Maybe it's still set to Queensland.
01:55:05
Speaker
Oh my god. One hour and 30 years behind. i But we'll announce that as soon as it comes up. um Yeah, what else is happening? Someone just wanted to shout out Cypher as well, making really delicious beers, but it takes time to get know um noticed. um But for his opinion, that um they and taste better than Capitals. He's very impressed with them. He said wow surpassed. Surpassed. There you go.
01:55:32
Speaker
No, I think yeah they they were definitely something, I guess for people living in Canberra, there are some other smaller, you know, Zia Holtz has been there making German style beers for a long time, there are other smaller breweries around the region, but I think, you know, for a lot of people, Capital and Bensburg did such a great job of getting into every bottle shop and every bar, that I think to have someone like that come up come along.
01:55:52
Speaker
with, you know, the wherewithal to do that many limited reviews. So there have been a lot of double IPAs, a lot of hazy IPAs, that kind of thing, and sort of provide a, you know, a third option. Well, Gab's team is certainly keeping us on tenterhooks here. Well, you know, never too late. Never too late to 100 results, guys. They hadn't realised foreign appeals, and it's very hard to get in a can. That's what it is, Will. They're still searching for it.
01:56:15
Speaker
but Look, you know, we've we've got some time to fill. I feel like ah we can't crack these cans yet, unless they appear. yeah that' game i I do have to say, we we couldn't get Ben Spoke on the line. we've We've got a little screen down here where we could see them kind of whispering and so on. but right it's in Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Wow. Uh, ladies and gentlemen. What? Okay. Here we go. We've got. Ulta XPA number three. Very, very interesting.
01:56:45
Speaker
boter xpa previous champion for how many times? Twice? Three times. Twice? Twice. Back to back wins I think they were um coming in third place so we will try to get to Boulter on the cross and we'll just keep talking and filling and doing all the fun things that podcast host dude. Well I was thinking about one one of the things we hadn't sort of touched upon, we may well we we may have touched upon it a little bit but we haven't gone into sort of great detail is sort of looking at how the polls evolved over the years as well yeah um and I think sort of you know um
01:57:21
Speaker
in the In the very early years, we talked about the sort of the diversity in the poll, because for those that don't know, it started off as a as of i guess a fun vote for the staff. People have been yelling at each other ever since. It started off as if there was a fun vote for um you know staff and and ah punters at the local tap assets in Kilda. So it really was just the people who were going to one of Melbourne's pioneer and craft beer venues. And it was probably only really from 2010 onwards.
01:57:50
Speaker
um when um you know myself and Matt at Brews News we sort of joined forces with them to help try and push the the poll a bit further um it probably took a while for anyone you know some of the other states really would want to get on board unless they had beers coming to the east coast because it was such a sort of heavily weighted east coast thing um but I think you know if you look back sort of a decade or so it really was a really good snapshot each year of where the industry was heading in terms of, yeah because there were imperial stats, there were barrel aged beers, there were funky sour beers, like it was really you know you could sort of see who was making waves and I guess the industry was still pushing outwards in terms of styles as well as into new hands and I think it really was that sort of snapshot and I think
01:58:33
Speaker
Over time, the success of the poll and, you know, in getting more mainstream has meant that that sort of has faded and instead it's become, yes, it's become a popularity contest for the most part. And I think just mainly in in a positive sense like a day that people do focus and talk about beer, and a chance for craft beer as a segment to potentially get some mainstream media coverage. And ultimately, if the people are at the top, like it's a real opportunity to try and get some serious you know marketing cut through, as you were saying before, maybe it maybe maybe make their conversations with the the top dogs at Dan's or BWS or Cole's easier.
01:59:13
Speaker
and And further down, you know, if you if you are smaller, just sort of dedicate a bit of time, you know, just try and get a beer in there and have that big party when it comes in, like, you know, with Future Magic and all these people just, they get a beer and it's like, whoo, that's cool, you know? yeah um And I think it's sort of, it's so it has, its days it's become something very different to what it was early on. um But again, to yeah this year it does feel, it's the moving year, you know, it really is like it's, this is, um i it Very interesting top ten. I think people will talk about this for a long time what it changing yeah Cooper's comes in at number one. It'll be the first size on at number one. Yeah, that's a ah Obscure reference that that maybe over tote only a tote for bone for man in the Nick Nick Sandra yeah holy Don't worry Okay, because it's a yeast-forwarded farmhouse beer or traditional beer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. What a scoop, who says on. um But let's do a bolter for a second, obviously maintaining a position on the podium. um Do you think will they've kind of, you know, have they been able to keep that that cache of the brand post, obviously their sale to CUB? Well, it's not number one. There's about 1,400 other breweries that would have killed for that position. Yeah, absolutely. you know um although All the other ones we've moved on the table would have killed for it. but
02:00:34
Speaker
yeah i think potentially i think boltta it's um it's It's become a very national beer. It always was, even before sale, but that Asahi has really plugged it in, I think, to a lot of places. I'm going to... The MCG? Yeah, well, the MCG. What's that? No, but I'm going to quiet country pubs in small towns and and you are seeing it on tap. So it is. everyone that That's led by the biz popularity as well. it's It's out there because they know it will sell. yeah I think all the brands that CB or Asahi bought over that 10 year period this was the one that made the most sense because it already had the sort of I guess the most broad appeal branding and already had an audience that went out beyond even before the Seveza came out had an audience that went out beyond
02:01:17
Speaker
further than any other indie at the time, I think. you're ah Up there were Stone and Wood, you know, their Pacific Ale, and had a reach that probably had and already spread beyond their sort of home turf. It'd be interesting, the the five years um but after after the sale, ah the sort of founders have a deal that you stay on for five years after after the sale goes through, that finished the end of last year. I believe some of the founders and staff have already left or may be leaving.
02:01:43
Speaker
whether that will change anything. I guess the culture is going to be pretty strong and so potentially it won't make any difference but that's something that you know we have already been thinking I'll be interested in to see how it goes this year. We were expecting very much the same but thinking 2025 how will it go because like you know we've seen with Stonewood dropping out the top 10 after being eight last year you know Ferrell disappeared completely for a while after you know i went to Coca-Cola. I think that's going to be pretty interesting. It's a really interesting point because you you kind of um You look at the history of the Bolter brand and there were a number of very high profile surfers as owners and they were quite active in the business. I think you've got, we're trying to get Sterling Howland on the line who brand director and I think he's just done. And Elvis impersonator. And Elvis impersonator and my professional crush. There he is. You have it first here.
02:02:35
Speaker
and obviously Scottie Hargrave as the head brewer, you know, they were, they are personalities and we look like we've got Sterling on the line now, who really have been so instrumental. Hey, we got him. you look very confused, Stells. Yeah, by turn 40, by turn 46, and now done, they had a news technology anymore. Well, congratulations, because you're one of the first live crosses who actually has got the sound working. So well done. I know, nailing it.
02:03:05
Speaker
Sterling, top top three still on the podium. A slight drop down from second last year. How are you feeling, mate? Man, oh, look, we're pumped, like, hang on, let me show you what's going on. We got a little beer garden. We just did our traditional little of photo where they all pile in. um The beer garden's full, the brewery's full, everyone's happy. um Man, look, we're just happy to be on there. I think that's eight now and, oh, we're just stoked. We always, we're just pretty easy to make happy, actually. So, we're pumped.
02:03:38
Speaker
um Congratulations, mate. um we We were just sort of having a conversation about the brand and and discussing, you know, the the the change of ownership and obviously, you know, how how how has that whole experience been for you and and do you feel like it's you're in good position moving forward?
02:03:59
Speaker
man oh yeah we are like look When we sold in 2019, I had a bit of a beer in my bonnet. I wanted to prove that selling didn't mean you became irrelevant and our whole business rallied behind that. and You know, we've seen that little smile go from strength to strength and um become a beer that's loved nationally. um I'm drinking it right now and I'm really proud of the quality that we're still dishing out. And, um you know, all strength to Asahi, they allowed us to continue to run our business.
02:04:32
Speaker
and continue to do what we did every day before that fail. So, um the fact that we still showed up on the podium, you know, is pretty a good feeling. I think, traditionally, you could slide out the back end and know what is quite unceremoniously, you know, and then the fact that we still up on that podium is a really wonderful feeling and, yeah, we're all pretty cool, dude.
02:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, well i thought and you guys have kept doing some pretty cool collaborations with local breweries and international breweries. um I know Mick, who's um one of our ah writers based in Brisbane. I think the last two years, when we've asked him for his favourite beer of the year, it's been one of Scotty's West Coast Pilsners. So good. I know there's been this sort of focus on the Seveser and the XPA is just the beer that's everywhere, but that's certainly been something I guess, yeah all the beers that have come out, you know, the the the more maltier paleo he did this year with the with the hot farm in the States. Is that something that you, I guess, you fought to sort of you know maintain as part of the bolter story?
02:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, and and you know what, we didn't even have to fight. We just wanted to keep doing what we did every day and um but was just make gears that we're going to drink. um We're not going to dish you up anything we never want to drink ourselves just to grab a headline or to do the thing.
02:05:48
Speaker
um and so those beers were just a reflection of what's in the fridge I guess and what we really loved drinking and when Scotty teamed up with a hot farm and put forward this really hoppy beer that was still very malt driven and that P and&W Parlail, I just love that shit because we just love drinking those hot beers you know and um you know you have some A3XBA get all the the limelight I guess but You know, we've got a taproom wall here, it's got 20 beers on it and they are all shaved in colours and styles and that's good beer, right? Meeting pallets, where pallets are at. Yeah, and what were your plans for 2025 then? Obviously, you know, the the five years after the sail are through, you know, is that going to make a big change or do you think it's going to be sort of, you know, much more of the same into the future?
02:06:40
Speaker
I'd like to think that it'll be much more of the same in the future. Look, we um just recently, internally, Asahi won what they call the Kando Awards. And the Kando Awards are a recognition of every business they own globally. And Volta took out the Gromp3 in that as their number one brand globally on a bunch of different metrics, from brand excellence, to sales, to revenue, to profitability,
02:07:07
Speaker
all these different things. And what's happened in the last five years in Valtter School have found a founder lead business and I think they see the formula. And I don't think it's ever been done before um when a business has been applied like that. And they've really taken note of our strengths. And um I think they've really gotten those downs in in in the folklore of how this business operates at its best. And I'd love to think they're going to continue to preserve those things.
02:07:36
Speaker
I'd love love love love again like to get some comments for you, Sterling. Actually, the number number two beer has just dropped, which means we'd likely know what the number one is. Cooper's in at number two. Cooper's in at number two with the Cooper's green. What do you reckon?
02:07:50
Speaker
but
02:07:56
Speaker
Indie beer is still relevant. Yeah, no, we've been watching that sort of, you know, sort of creep up the the table in front of us. And so we we were something, is is it going to land at number one? So unless it is foreign appeals and there is going to be mountain culture status quo again, they're good friends of yours, like you've made some beers with them. But um yeah, Cooper's at number two. what What do you make of that? Look,
02:08:19
Speaker
150 years, you know, they've stood the test of time. They're a legacy brewery in this country. They start up in the sky to take great beer. They've always done great beer for legacy. They don't go outside of their wheelhouse. They stay in this lane and they know what they're good at and they'd all pay out to them. You know, they love this Honest 100 and they've been trying for years.
02:08:43
Speaker
to jump on that podium. I don't think they've been on there before and look, that's an amazing testament. I reckon they'll be fucking hooting and hollering down in South Australia. That's for sure. I have to say, Sturls, I don't think I had ah Coopers and Mountain Culture battling it out for number one this year. That was not on my bigger card.
02:09:03
Speaker
I just rolled over in my grave and just gave it to Mountain Culture. That was what I, you know, I was just like, Mountain Culture is going to win. What will we all get after that? yeah yeah yeah Well done. in in mo And what was really cool that I just say is I saw so many beers on debut today. I saw so many beers just climbing up those rankings. um It was absolutely beautiful to see new beers in there, to see our beers reclining and regaining their status.
02:09:33
Speaker
um I honestly think the hottest 100 should be a celebration of the new beers in Australia. um So this goes out to Mike and the gabs crew like let's let's shake shit up you know there's all this booming gloom around the craft beer industry there's all this town talk but it doesn't have to be like that.
02:09:51
Speaker
there's so much great beer being brewed in this country and if we celebrated new beer in this country we're going to rise the tide of this this whole program and and we'll get rid of the fatigue and and any attitude people may have and it'll give new beer an opportunity just to rise to the top and so could I leave it with one thing like let the hottest 100 be the hottest 100 new beers next year. Yeah but Stelz's Coopers are so close.
02:10:22
Speaker
Look, I'm really sorry, Coopers. oh Maybe if we give them one more year, they get number one, and then they can all decide that let's go new beers. Let's make this reinvigorating. I'd hate to be thinking that I'm listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers from 1995 and the Cooks of Gay Todders 100. And look, I say that from a point of view. as We've won this. We've been on the podium for eight years. I'm sick of seeing us up there. You know what I mean? It's like, I'm tired of that. And um I'm really happy for the agriculture, by the way, because I love the day-to-day areas. But um it's a catch-22, but let's go new beers. I'll probably win that too, but it's like, let's get behind new beer, and let's celebrate the craft beer industry evolving, pushing forward, doing great new things. Awesome. Stearls, thank you so much. Thanks, Stearls. Really happy for you guys, and congratulations to you and and the entire team at Bolter. Well done.
02:11:14
Speaker
Amazing, and hey, that set you're on is so fancy. I know, how is it? Yeah, it's beautiful. I don't want to go off, but I know you needed me to get off. I love it. Great to chat. Enjoy the rest of the day, mate. See you soon. Thanks so much, mate. So there you go, Sterling Howland from Boulter. Whilst we were chatting with Sturls, we've had Cooper's drop at number two, which means we pretty much know who the winner's going to be barring... Foreign appeals now.
02:11:44
Speaker
Florida Pilsnart! Still a chance! You never know! Mathematically, you can't say it's not. It could be an act of God. I don't know what might come through, but I mean, like like Stirling said, an amazing result for Coopers. They have been moving. just They've been active. They've been really re-engaging with the Hottest 100 over the last probably five or six years. We seem um seem to still be showing Stirling.
02:12:11
Speaker
You know, a great effort from them. Cooper's sparkling. It's such an iconic Australian beer. And to see it right up there, number two. um Battling it out with Mountain Culture status quo for the number one. Who knows? Cooper's maybe next year. Next year. Yeah, the rivalry you never thought would happen. The rivalry are no one expected.
02:12:27
Speaker
Yeah, no, it is. So we all got a beer. Can we actually? Yeah, let's make a status quo. Hey, I'm feeling it. I'm thirsty. It's been, we in two hours now. Congratulations. Well done. Remember, we're still streaming. So it surpasses even ah aspasses even our conversation with Jade at the Wheatie last year. Jade, you have to try harder than what we do. Our next interview with her. Look, we've got one more beer to announce. it comes out in a couple of minutes. we We all know who it's going to be, but we will try and keep the mystery alive. and and I'm definitely not making the keys at seven o'clock now with Koopas at number two. We'll keep the mystery alive and we will also try to get Mountain Culture on the line to see how they're doing.
02:13:08
Speaker
um They, I think, were celebrating. They've got events at all three of their venues now. We've got Katoomba, Emi Plains and... Redfern. Redfern, the new venue in Sydney. um So like I can imagine it's already going off over there. Awesome comment on YouTube. Sitting here in Malaysia, listening to the hottest 100 music in one ear and the gab's hottest 100 in the other, drinking Cooper's pale ale. Life doesn't get better than that. How good. That's a real identity crisis going on there, isn't it? So I wish I could... It's a great comment, but I think that's the free membership right there. think It's a a visual picture. There was someone saying, ah you know, Daniel, our stats man, saying, ah taking take a look at the new beers list, even a rusted on beer nerd like me only recognises half of them.
02:13:57
Speaker
No, and it's a great point that Sterling makes. and And that is also another point of discussion that comes up again and again and again around should it be just the new beers? Should it be just the Indies? And of course, it's the comparison is with the Triple J hottest 100, which is all new yeah music. um You know, I think maybe there is a time and and that these things should be revisited. Maybe we just do two polls back to back different days, you know. Well, like ah double J do one the day afterwards now, something like that would be fun, but the told we wouldn't be able to host them both.
02:14:27
Speaker
We wouldn't... Come on, we can do it. Can Matt have a beer? Matt can have a beer. Are we bringing Matt Matt us? Mattie Hoffman, our... Here he is. Our producer. The man who's made the magic happen. He's responsible for all the graphics behind here. He's responsible. Alright, we are at five o'clock. Do we have an official... Every time you've seen us looking off the camera going... It's because Matt's telling us... Stop saying... Can you stop James talking for a second? Honestly, James wouldn't be able to turn a light on without him.
02:14:57
Speaker
Look, I think we're we're waiting on ah on an announcement. It's gone five. I don't know. Can we can we get Matt Gator on the line? They're keen to chat once, um but we've got to wait for it to be announced. So, yeah, exciting. um
02:15:18
Speaker
Gotcha. Oh, so we might cut to an ad? We might cut to an ad. Let's do that.
02:15:24
Speaker
At First Choice Liquor Market we offer more choice with over a thousand wines in every store. Over 70 boutique and international gins. More than 50 single malts. And over 140 craft beers. Our team of experts are your first choice for friendly advice. And we're great value with low prices across the store and online. That's why we're your First Choice.
02:15:53
Speaker
Rich, compelling from first choice there. Funnily enough, we're now at the first choice point of the poll. Do you want a segue see what I did there? That's right, I do this for a living, folks. Will any other awesome comments coming in from the chat? um Yeah, interesting um point from Felicity James Williams. What about beers that are less than five years old? So after a certain time, you sort of say, no, you've had your run, so it gives more coverage.
02:16:21
Speaker
yeah So there's a bit of um automatic renewal. So it could be the hottest 100 beers of 2019 to 2024. I'm worried that we're going to give gabs all these ideas and Mike's just going to run with them. It's just a bit of a mouth. It'll be hectic as. So I think we've got the official word. We've had the... Is it foreigner beers? It's not foreigners. Well, I'm so sorry. no We do have mountain culture.
02:16:49
Speaker
Status quo, pale, congratulations. Number one in the GAB's hottest 100 Aussie craft views of 2024. Only the second ever three-peat after Feral Hot Pog. Yes. Yeah, right. We sort of broke up Pacific Ale's reign, didn't it? It's right in the middle there. That's pretty amazing. Feral Hot Pog was, if I'm right, 2020-12.
02:17:11
Speaker
13 and 14, I think. or your You're meant to be, and your knowledge i that's the only triple threat on the three-peat now. repeat until now yeah um Mountain Culture also debuted at number one. You're stealing my stats, I was going to say these. Well, you know. I know, it's all over now. i Yeah, debuted at number one, Mountain Culture came in obviously 2020.
02:17:38
Speaker
I'll get this right, 22, straight in at number one, the only beer to have done that we mentioned since Pale Owl. And of course, the very first poll, which was Little Creatures Pale. Yeah, number one, number one, and the third, number one in a row. So an amazing result for the team at Mountain Culture. Who I believe are about to join us. Got them on now, we're just confirming whether they can hear us or not. Team Mountain Culture, can you hear us?
02:18:05
Speaker
Oh now they're frozen. We might be alright but I reckon we'll get him back. Surely there's going to be some beer being thrown over people at some stage. our hope normally is I So we've got DJ and it looks like Harriet there and they look pretty excited. They're basically frozen in a well While I've had it messing with Matt at range, just saying, vibes are very high at range. and Unsurprisingly. I did say maybe make sure there's lots of water on the tables. Good call, good call. Yeah, I can imagine it's going off across a lot of places in ah ah around the country at the moment. for
02:18:41
Speaker
Your mates, where we just were a little while ago, through to yeah South Australia, Coopers, Bolton, we obviously saw that as well. Yeah, um yeah hopefully we can get the answers. Yeah, some issues at the end. I think the Toomba is one of the world's great beautiful small cities, but um ahs small cities, small towns. but Very small in this case. I just added about 100,000 people to its population. But um maybe the Wi-Fi isn't that great. That's okay. and well um and I think just sort of recapping before we do get them on for a chat. like
02:19:12
Speaker
I know yeah we're doing this for the first time. so yeah we yeah It might be a reason to sort of hype it up, but this really has been the most fascinating poll in a long, long time. I think you know there's the excitement that was generated when mountain culture shots number one two years ago um was a sort of bit of an injection of fresh interest, I think, yeah in the hottest 100. And I think people... the A lot of the the regular complaints about it, yes, you know we've looked at it now, it's know most of it is parallels, of some form from non-outthroughs to double IPAs and lagers, but you know we're jamming at number 10, Cooper's at number two, you know reckless up there, and dangerous sales. Someone really wanted to shout out Seeker as well in the comments, like breweries like that that are actually tiny and and yeah, jumping up, as Sterling said too.
02:19:58
Speaker
yeah This beer is really tasty. but what hour one it' so it's It's really got something, you know. You're not going to criticise all those voters out there. that No, I think you got it right. I think you got it right this time. i you know we can Yeah, I think they got it got it well. Still waiting to see if we can get them on the line. But yeah, in the meantime, I think this has been an amazing journey. There's this podcast as well and kind of obviously in previous years, I think in two days time, it's our six month anniversary of the podcast. Well there you go, six months, I'm already on TV. We're making it guys, this is it. And you know. Do you reckon we can get this screen in the back of my wagon? It's pretty cool. I'll have to extend the front of our house, but you know, I reckon it'd be pretty cool just to add this to the weekly show.
02:20:49
Speaker
No, very cool. Well, you know, while we're waiting for Mountain Culture to come on board, I do want to thank everyone for watching us through the podcast here. All the viewers, all the Countdown events, all the venues, everyone around the country tuning in and enjoying a craft beer. You met you saw Matt earlier, our producer, we just couldn't do this without him. um And of course... Here we go. Oh, hey, they may have upgraded their NBN just for this chat. Just... Hey, can you hear us? DJ, can you hear us and Harry it? DJ, are you there?
02:21:20
Speaker
Can you hear us? They must need to enable... im understand what i'm hi hear it Hey guys, we can't hear you. No, we can't hear. Try switching it off and then on again. We're hitting the side of the box. Yeah, yeah. looks like can we'll get it we We can hear you. Alright, well, it'll be... Do you guys just want to give us a call on mobile?
02:21:43
Speaker
We could do. Should we try that? Do you want to try DJ? Yeah, want speaker see if we can make this work.
02:21:53
Speaker
I don't know, we probably... Do we want a speaker phone for that? Yeah, put it on speaker and we'll see if that'll mess with Matt's mind. Sorry, Matt. DJ. Oh, it's DJ. We got you. Do we need need him on here as well, though? that's Yes. OK, we need you on there. It's going to cause issues. Congratulations, mate. How you going? DJ just like, oh, we are
Team Reflections and Future Plans
02:22:12
Speaker
happy you. Very well. Very well. had a few status quos on the way there for good good luck. And yeah, gosh, the team is is all all going wild so yeah we're we're very excited
02:22:33
Speaker
ah we We're just upset that the screen had frozen when the the annual beer soaking took place. so yeah if you if If you did get video footage, please tag us and we'll we'll have to share it. I'm sure there'll be plenty of that footage. I'm sure there'll be plenty of that footage. yeah it was it was yeah like Again, every year we've never expected to end up here. Every like every year has just been as
02:23:11
Speaker
in urban night as as As you should be, I have to say, when it came down to Coopers, you're like, is this gonna be, you know, is is this gonna be like the biggest twist yet? You know, the Coopers might take it, but no, and I guess it wasn't, but it certainly helped probably build the stress at your end and build the excitement at our end. I was nervous for them.
02:23:38
Speaker
like, yeah, we were we were like, I don't know, more pumped up this year than I think any year we've been in it. So like, see it roll out. and was ah It was definitely, um it it was quite the countdown. That's for sure. Well, it's time to go and dig a hole.
02:23:59
Speaker
No, no, well congratulations to to you get guys and the whole team. Like it was a real fun campaign. Loved the video in the courtroom with with Pat there, you know, taking taking the lead as your lawyer was it was was hilarious. Looking forward to what seeing what you guys do next year. Yeah, absolutely. Look, we've got a lot in store for next year. Like, you know, it's it's been ah it's been an incredible journey the last couple of years. And, you know, I feel like every year turning over the new year,
02:24:24
Speaker
um more and more excited about being in the industry and more and more excited about what we have coming up. It's definitely going to be a wild and crazy year, that's for sure. so Any questions from you guys? DJ, I don't know if you heard earlier, but we were saying you're the first brewery to claim the three-peat since Farrell's Hop Hog in the hottest 100, so it's a pretty amazing achievement. How do you feel?
02:24:49
Speaker
Like I said, like, you know, we were not expecting to get up there again. Like, every year it's just been, have fun with the campaign, do some fun, engaging stuff that we have a good time with, push the beer forward that we feel like represents mountain culture the most, and I don't know, see what the hell happens. Yes, we got what we were waiting for. Hey. Thanks, guys. Thanks. That's great. That's great.
02:25:21
Speaker
now now show now i don't don't know if you heard but range are doing six dollar pints of uh of their dis disco because it came in at number six are you doing are you are you doing one dollar pints of status quo for the rest of the day look you know i'm not really sure what the liquor license
02:25:45
Speaker
Nice. start well and Great to chat. I'm sure you guys want to get back to the party. Congratulations to you and Harry and the crew. Awesome work. I look forward to catching you guys in person soon. thank you guys so much really appreciate it It's been an amazing year. Thank you for all the support from everybody who you know voted in the campaign that participated in it. We had so much fun with it. And we're just really like so grateful for the ride that we're on and that people still love status quo. So i yeah, I really appreciate it to everybody who took to find the fight on the boat. And yeah, we we'll hopefully get to party with some of you guys soon. For sure. All
Podcast Wrap-Up and Thanks
02:26:21
Speaker
right. Cheers, guys. Enjoy the rest of the night. I'm sure you will.
02:26:23
Speaker
j Nice one and guys that that brings us to a close we have been at the crafty pint podcast team We're super excited to have brought this to you Congratulations to mountain culture to all of the breweries who? Appeared in today's list and everyone who got behind that brewery who voted who supported them who drank their beer And took the minute or two to to cast a vote i Well done um Big thanks to Mattie Hoffman, our producer, to Daniel Reed on the stats line, to stupid old studios here in Brunswick who have been incredible. Bloody legends, yeah yeah, yeah. As you could probably tell, there was a lot of curveballs, particularly in that last half hour, and fuck, they did a good job. There we go, that's swear jar number three for the night. And the last person to swear gets to buy the first one at the after party. Guys, do subscribe to the Crafty Pint podcast. We're out every Thursday, Spotify, Apple podcast, right here on YouTube. We're telling the stories and the people who are shaping craft beer, get behind it. Cheers. Cheers. Thank you, Craig. yes
02:27:29
Speaker
well