Craft Beer Awards 2015: Nothing Better Than a Tasty Crafty Brew

If there’s one thing I love, it’s having a good time with a tasty brew. Which just happened to be on the menu last Friday night. The Craft Beer Awards, the highlight event for Australian Craft Beer Breweries. A night for their effort and passion to be recognised, their originality to be appreciated, and for their beers to be tasted. This year there were more entries than ever before, but even with the added logistic difficulties this posed for the Craft Beer Industry Association, they welcomed the challenge, and it paid off.

Tucked away in the inner city suburb Erskineville is the Commune which was the location for the awards. From the outside the Commune looks like an old warehouse, however, inside reveals an industrial style marvel which is a fantastic urban location for events. Wall art, including installation pieces, line the walls, making for a great vibe in this unique venue. The organisers of the Craft Beer Awards pulled out all the stops, for which we can all give praise to Katherine McLean Event Manager. A velvet rope indicated the entrance to attendees. After signing in, we were given our own beer glasses and a program. The glass bit was an inspired idea. No empty glasses filling up the space, you just keep using the same one. After the glasses we were greeted by servers holding jugs of beer, just longing to be poured. The bar was stocked with the finalists in every category, so all the attendees could sample each of the beers.

Food Rascal catered the event with delicious canapés – including these mouth-watering cheese sticks which were basically orgasmic. They were also serving beef brisket – which had been cooked in their smoked maple syrup – and pulled pork sandwiches on beautiful soft brioche buns. Even though this was a drink event, it felt like a foodie night! To finish off, their servers came around with desserts, including a mouth-watering raspberry chocolate mousse which I would consider marrying, if that option were open to me.

Modus Operandi were one of the big winners of the night, as were Two Birds. However, the overall winner was the very original Watermelon Warhead. A tantalizing name for an interesting drink. It honestly tastes more like champagne than beer, but the craft beer industry is all about supporting innovation and originality, and that beer is definitely bursting with originality.

There was a great atmosphere, even though it was an awards night, there wasn’t a huge amount of pressure. Everyone who attended was there because the craft beer industry is all about quality over quantity, about making the best possible version of your own style, and this event had a lot of style. As the spokesman from Modus Operandi said: ‘we make beer that we love’, and we all do love it.

– Orlaith Costello