Stone & Wood Brewing Co, Garage Project and Melbourne’s Brick Lane Brewing dominate at 2024 Melbourne Royal Australian International Beer Awards

The 2024 Melbourne Royal Australian International Beer Awards shone brightly as the best breweries and beers from across Australia and around the world were recognised for brewing excellence at the iconic Victoria Pavilion at Melbourne Showgrounds, on Thursday 16 May.

The Melbourne Royal Australian International Beer Awards program is the world’s largest beer competition that assesses both draught and packaged beer, as well as design and media. This year, the awards attracted over 2500 beer entries from a record-breaking 400 plus breweries from 23 countries, judged by 84 beer experts from around the globe.

New South Wales’ Stone & Wood Brewing Co. won the prestigious title of Champion Australian Beer presented by Cryer Malt for their Hinterland Big Pale, which also took out Best Australian Style Pale Ale presented by KONVOY. The Hinterland Big Pale is the second instalment of their All-Australian Hops Series. Showcasing the essence of two iconic Aussie hops - Eclipse® and Vic Secret™ – they have crafted a beer that's citrusy, juicy, subtly tropical, with hints of pineapple and mandarin.

Well known New Zealand brewery Garage Project, snared four awards, highlighted by Champion International Beer presented by Boortmalt Asia Pacific for their aptly named Chance, Luck & Magic 2021, which also took out Best Belgian or French-Style Ale.

Melbourne’s ever popular Brick Lane Brewing, also dominated by picking up four awards including Champion Victorian Brewery presented by Agriculture Victoria and Champion Large Australian Brewery presented by Barrett Burston Malting.

Other major award winners were:

• Australian Gypsy Brewer Award - Dollar Bill Brewing (Victoria)
• Champion Small Australian Brewery presented by Hop Products Australia (HPA) - King Road Brewing Co (Western Australia)
• Champion Small International Brewery - Three Sisters Brewery (New Zealand)
• Champion Medium Australian Brewery presented by Cryer Malt - Kaiju! Beer (Victoria)
• Champion Medium International Brewery - Behemoth Brewing Company (New Zealand)
• Champion Large International Brewery presented by KONVOY – Garage Project (New Zealand)

With more than 41,000 litres of supplied beer from entrants, the industry’s prized event included four days of intense judging with a total of 84 experts, 30 percent of which were represented by female judges, as well as 15 international judges from 9 different countries.

“The pinnacle event for celebrating excellence, hard work and innovation in the beer and brewing industry, this year’s Melbourne Royal Australian International Beer Awards was an incredible success with a record number of brewers showcasing their passion, and precision for crafting some of the world’s best beer,” said Darren Keating, Melbourne Royal Executive General Manager, Agriculture.

“We are immensely grateful for the extraordinary support from the beer industry and thank all brewers, judges, stewards, sponsors and event staff for ensuring this world-class event remains at the highest level.

“Winning a trophy or medal at the coveted Melbourne Royal Australian International Beer Awards opens many commercial doors and inspires consumer trends, and I extend my congratulations to all winners of medals and trophies.”

The full results list can be found at melbourneroyal.com.au/beer.