Beer awards provide a tasty shopping list

In late May, the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria released the results of the 2014 Australian International Beer Awards. The even attracted 1560 entries from 294 brewers around the world. The catalogue of results therefore provides a fascinating shopping list for beer drinkers.

The trophy-winners list includes large and small breweries from Australia and overseas. Lion-owned James Boag, for example topped the field of Australian-style lagers; but Sydney Brewery’s Lovedale Lager (now located in the Hunter Valley) won the category for European style lagers.

Trophy winners include brewers from Tasmania, NSW, Victoria, Western Australia, South Korea and Oregon, Missouri and Utah, US.

Perhaps more beneficial for drinkers, though, is a slow troll through the entire mouth-watering catalogue, checking out the gold, silver and bronze medallists in the many categories. The catalogue is available at rasv.com.au

Cascade First Harvest Ale 2014
★★★★
375ml 4-pack
$16–$18

Cascade’s 13th annual ale uses fresh, Tasmanian-grown argyle, brooker and Macquarie hops from the 2014 harvest. The lively, mid-amber and gold ale hits the palate gently with generous, sweet malt flavours. Herbal hops flavours provide a counterfoil to the malt sweetness, leaving a refreshing mildly bitter aftertaste.

Licorne Black Biere Speciale
★★
330ml $4.45

Licorne Black poured a deep mahogany colour with a head that subsided a little too quickly. The lively, sweet, malty palate, though full-bodied and smoothly textured, petered out quickly, leaving a slightly sweet finish and a feeling something was missing. Perhaps I’ve missed something here?