Get to know four of the lesser-known award-winning breweries

Beer writer James Smith looks at four lesser-known breweries that have collected some big recent awards.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of attending awards ceremonies is seeing a lesser-known brewer called to the stage, not least because they’re often so taken aback their acceptance speeches are a mix of bafflement and expletives. Here, then, are four breweries you’ve probably never heard of that won big at the local beer industry’s two biggest nights, the Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA) and The Indies.

MoffatBeachBrewingCo.

“I’d like to thank my wife for allowing me to become a professional drinker,” said a clearly shocked Matt Wilson as he and wife Sharon collected the Champion Small Brewery trophy at The Indies in Sydney. The recognition came a mere five years after he’d decided to start homebrewing to better understand the beers they were pouring at their cafe in Moffat Beach, Queensland. What’s more, it was just two years after he had “pretty brutal” feedback on beers he’d previously entered. Matt took it on board, identified an issue in his process, won medals the following year and took another step up this year. That said, the brewer – whose career path has included rugby, the army and finance – says his wife played a key role too. “The beers I was brewing at home were better than those I was brewing at work [they’d installed a 300-litre brewery in a quiet spot in the cafe],” he says. “Shaz stopped me drinking any beer other than what was at work, so that hurried me up!” For now, the only place to try Moffat Beach beers is on tap at their venue. Typically, you’ll find a mix of hop-forward, easydrinking, and darker beers.

Beerland Brewing.

In the past year or so, Perth has finally become home to the amount of brewpubs you’d expect of the place so often acknowledged as the birthplace of Australia’s modern beer scene. Yet there is one that predates the likes of Nowhereman, Blasta and Bright Tank Brewing by a few years. Northbridge Brewing Company opened in 2014 as part of a redevelopment of Northbridge Piazza and can easily be tagged a ‘gateway’ venue. There’s a brewery onsite, but also plenty of screens showing sport, plus big-brand lagers on tap and promotions such as eating challenges that indicate it’s not focused solely on luring the beer geeks.

In the early years, its beers were of the gateway ilk too (and the core range remains there or thereabouts), but the brewers have spread their wings in many directions. There’s now a second Beerland brewpub, Whitfords, in a suburban shopping mall, and increasing the opportunities to experiment. At May’s AIBA dinner, Beerland won a number of golds and trophies. It appeared nobody was there to collect them until their biggest win of the night: Champion Australian Beer for its Wheat. Reluctantly,

Ken Arrowsmith, a WA brewing legend brought out of retirement to head up Beerland’s brewing team, took to the stage – the face of the now deeply unfashionable

Emu Bitter winning big with a tiny brand in a beer world unrecognisable from his early days in brewing.

Brownstone Micro Brewery.

This tiny brewpub in Melbourne’s Dandenong won’t register for many beer lovers, but it won this year’s AIBA trophy for Best New Exhibitor and is a quite unique set-up. The owners brought in welltravelled brewer and consultant Steve Henderson to design its beers and he’s since used it as a training ground for young brewers, including Tallboy & Moose’s Dan Hall.

His most recent charge is Kris Domagala, a homebrewer of 20 years who first brewed commercially in Queensland a decade ago. He then went into programming, but returned to brewing at Brownstone in 2017. Kris grabbed the opportunity with both hands, challenging himself to keep all five beers on tap at one time, despite only having one fermenter, then taking out AIBA silverware after entering his pale ale and IPA. The plan now is to embark on his own brewing venture and open a brewpub, so it could soon be time for another Brownstone apprenticeship.

BlackFont Brewhouse.

If you wanted to create a cult beer brand, you couldn’t do it much better than those behind Marrickville’s BlackFont Brewhouse.

The Sydney venue squeezes in a 12-tap bar among benches and shelves stacked with ingredients, accessed via the garage door of a former printing press. There’s no signage. It’s typically open three hours a week, sometimes a little more, and occasionally not at all for weeks or months. Beers are brewed in tiny batches, ranging from sours to barrel-aged stouts. What’s more, founder and brewer Michael Wallace shuns the media (although he has a social media presence so people know when to call in). All would matter little if the beers were average, but BlackFont has made a habit of collecting trophies at The Indies with its Saison De Ville in 2017 and 2018.