It’s that time of year again; it’s time for my Golden Pint Awards. If you’re new to the concept; it was a beer blogging movement started in the UK – where they challenged people to critically assess their best beer moments of the year. Basically it’s a celebration of best beers had during the year by people who know the most about beer, or at least think they do!

This is amazingly, the tenth consecutive year I’ve done this now and, like I say every year, it’s getting harder rather than easier! After the ridiculousness that was last year, I’ve made a concerted effort to get this post up before February & we’re finally in the right year! We are finally getting this up as a composite piece, so if you want to hear some of our deliberating/thought process listen to the podcast before reading further. If you can’t be bothered/don’t want to hear me and Dylan talk about beer for almost 2 hours, I mean who wouldn’t, please continue reading below.

Show Notes

Best Beer Media (2:50)

Biggest Disappointment (6:20)

Best Non-Alcoholic Beer (10:07)

Best Australian Bottled Beer (12:12)

Best Australian Canned Beer (14:22)

Best International Bottled Beer (16:06)

Best International Canned Beer (18:54)

Best New Brewery (23:48)

Best International Brewery (25:58)

Best Australian Brewery (29:39)

  • Top 26 Breweries in no particular order
    • Bentspoke
    • Sobremesa
    • Exit
    • Banks
    • Holgate
    • Dainton
    • King River
    • Dollar Bill
    • Future Mountain
    • Blackman’s
    • Uraidla
    • La Sirene
    • Range
    • Hawkers
    • Hop Nation
    • Wolf of the Willows
    • Deeds
    • Stomping Ground
    • Otherside
    • Molly Rose
    • Mountain Culture
    • Burnley
    • Innate
    • Two Rupees
    • Hepburn Springs
    • Wildflower
  • Top 10 (1:08:59)
    • La Sirene
    • Hawkers
    • Hop Nation
    • Deeds
    • Stomping Ground
    • Molly Rose
    • Uraidla
    • Future Mountain
    • Range
    • Wildflower

Fair to say that 2021 didn’t pan out the way we’d all hoped. Victoria spent another 4 months in lockdown & had plenty of restrictions when we weren’t. This led to a few categories having very few options for winners, although thankfully I think we had worthy winners in all categories. 2021 was a year where simple beers were back in vogue, after years of advocating for it 2021 was definitely the year of the craft lager! I think we’ll see more lower ABV stuff, particularly farmhouse stuff in 2022. Fingers crossed that 2022 looks more like 2019 than 2021 & we can get back out & about!

Best Australian Draught Beer – Wolf of the Willows XPA I was so pleased to be able to get to try this beer at the source in late-October. It’s criminally underrated! I reckon it is pound for pound the best XPA/American Pale Ale going around. It strikes that perfect balance between malt & hops and goes down dangerously easily. I think in a year where beer became simple again, this is a worthy winner. It’s a beer you don’t need to think about, but when you do it’s got more than enough going on.

Best Australian Bottled Beer – La Sirene Age & Beauty (12:12) This stunning beer from La Sirene is going back to back! It’s a genuinely world class mixed fermentation beer. Read last years post if you want more detailed tasting notes, it may be the best Australian beer I’ve had to date. Dylan agreeing really adds icing to the cake.

Best Australian Canned Beer – One Drop New Zealand Pilsner (14:22) I know people get very excited about One Drop because of their Hazy IPAs & Sours, but for me the beer that converted me was this beautiful Pilsner. It’s got real Emerson’s Pilsner vibes for me, with notes of gooseberry, vinous & grass. It finishes beautifully dry & crisp; I really hope it returns! Dylan: Hop Nation Rattenhund – very hard to argue with this cracking Pilsner!

Best Cask Beer – Tetley’s Smooth Flow Technically I think this was just imitating cask, but I couldn’t go passed it. The Local Taphouse in St Kilda put on some traditional English beers for Good Beer Week this year. They were flying out the door when we visited on the first Saturday, with kegs dropping everytime we went into get beers. Tetley’s Smooth Flow was the pick for me, with layers of caramel nicely balanced with English earthy hops.

Best Overseas Draught Beer – Jester King SPON – Shiraz & Cabernet Sauvignon (2018) I was absolutely blown away by this beer at the Good Beer Week launch at Beer Deluxe. A mix of 20 month old and ~3.5 year old spontaneously fermented beer that was then left to referment on Shiraz & Cab Sauv. The resulting beer was wonderfully complex, quite tart with good fruit & vinous characters.

Best Overseas Bottled Beer – 3 Fonteinen Speling van het Lot X.ii: Druif Muscat Bleu (16:06) I reckon the top 5 international bottles this year would all have been sampled on this same day at Carwyn. 3F welcomed Carwyn to their Partner Bar program and they were all exceptional. This one was the fruitiest grape lambic I’ve ever had, not surprising given the staggering 409 g/L of Muscat Bleu grapes! Dylan: 3 Fonteinen Speling van het Lot VII.xi: Cassis – every one of those beers were exceptional, I’m not surprised we both picked out of this selection! If you get an opportunity to try any of these ridiculous experimental lambics from 3F; do it!

Best Overseas Canned Beer – Garage Project Double Pernicious Weed (18:54) As soon as this beer was announced I thought I’d be talking about it here. Regular readers/listeners would be aware of my love of Pernicious Weed, double was only ever going to be good. It was everything I’d hoped it would be and more! Dylan: Trillium Daily Serving Pomegranate & Blackberry – I’d totally forgotten about this Trillium drop, I remember Dylan raving about them so they must’ve been good!

Best Collaboration Beer – Surly/Amager Axe Man Another beer that I was pretty confident I’d adore was Surly’s Axe Man. One of the early features of this blog was my love for the Amager version Todd the Axe Man, & I was always disappointed that I couldn’t try the Surly version. Thankfully that changed this year and the wonderful hop flavour and bitterness translates across from the Danish version to the American version. I’ve said many times that expectation can kill a beer, it certainly didn’t in this case.

Best Overall Beer – La Sirene Age & Beauty I’ve called it the best Australian beer I’ve ever had, that’s surely good enough for Overall Beer! Thoroughly deserved La Sirene team!

Best Branding – Alpha Delta Brewing Little did Alpha Delta know when they launched their brewery in the North of the UK (Newcastle) in late 2019 that their name would become known for something entirely different just a few short months later… But that’s not what we’re here for, their brand is really distinctive and stands out on a shelf. I really like how they look when you line a few of them up as well. I’m still not 100% sure why this small UK brewery is exporting to us, but I’m all for it as their beers are really good!

Best Bottle Label – Coopers Best Extra Stout It couldn’t really be anything else! After the long campaign Dylan & I started, Coopers finally caved and put their wonderful Export Stout into cans. And what cans! 440ml tall cans, wrapped in matte black with the yellow Coopers logo, signifying it’s Best Extra Stout, front and centre. It’s gorgeous! Coopers, please don’t get rid of them!

Best Australian Brewery – Hawkers (29:39) I was so impressed with everything Hawkers did this year. I thought their hoppy stuff was excellent, their lagers were great, whilst their stouts were also phenomenal as always. Double West Coast was the pick of the bunch for me, although Kylie, IIPA & Saint Hildegard could all lay a claim for their beer of the year. Next year I hope to have more of their barrel aged stuff, as I somehow largely avoided it this year. In 2022 I hope to see Hawkers just do more of the same!

Best Overseas Brewery – Garage Project (25:58) In a similar vein, almost every Overseas Can I mentioned on the podcast was a Garage Project hoppy beer. I couldn’t not select them as my Overseas Brewery of the year after that sort of performance. Just like Hawkers they produce a wide range of styles and do it incredibly well. I think one of the things that gets a bit lost is their Wild Workshop stuff, which is phenomenal and making it over here more & more. Their webshop is also really good and has quick delivery! Dylan: 3 Fonteinen – hard to argue with after the ridiculous day we had at Carwyn.

Best New Brewery Opening 2021 – Good Land (23:48) Naturally with Year of the Local I’m relatively on top of who is opening in Victoria at any given point. When I heard that an ex-De Molen brewer was opening in Traralgon I was really excited. That excitement has been justified; they’ve produced a wide variety of style, from Marzen to Belgian Strong Dark to West Coast IPA’s to Table Beer to Australian Sparkling Ale. I can’t think of a clean brewery having as impressive a first year as Good Land did in 2021. Dylan: Love Shack – very hard to argue with this, their Pale is superb & their other beers are more than serviceable.

Pub/Bar of the Year – Carwyn Cellars For the 3 Fonteinen event alone it would have to be Carwyn. They’ve managed to soldier on through the various stages of the pandemic and still kept their reputation as one of the countries leading craft beer venues.

Beer Festival of the Year – Good Beer Week Good Beer Week made its triumphant return this year after being cancelled in 2020 for obvious reasons. We only just got it in as well! With lockdown conditions being reimposed the following week. I can’t remember attending another festival in 2021, I might’ve but if it isn’t instantly coming to mind it isn’t going to topple Australia’s premier beer festival.

Independent Retailer of the Year – Otter’s Promise Otter’s Promise have one of the best ranges in Melbourne. Dan & team always have the new releases I want, plenty of lagers, and one of the best ranges of dark & funky stuff. They also have a good selection of hot sauces & Chappy’s chips on offer. The fact that I’m, just, in their free delivery zone is a real bonus!

Online Retailer of the Year – Blackhearts & Sparrows Blackhearts are getting the nod here for their website and $1 same day delivery. I think the last two years have made us expect more rom companies in regards to delivery & Blackhearts do it as well as anyone! The collaborations they do with brewers & vintners are a nice additional touch & are always really interesting offers (I can’t wait for the recently announced La Sirene one!).

Best Beer Media – Steal This Beer (2:50) I’ve listened to Steal This Beer for 4 or 5 years now. I felt that this year I looked forward to it the most. It was one of those things that helped me get through another year of working from home. Dylan: Brews News – I’m never going to argue with giving Brews News credit for what they do, they’re incredibly important to our industry.

Biggest Disappointment – Stone & Wood Sale (6:20) I like Dylan’s answer so much in our podcast that I’m changing the award to it. I thought the messaging from Stone & Wood around their sale was disgustingly disingenuous. Both of us have previously said that we’re all for people selling out, but to say that independence never mattered to them when it was one of their driving principles is wrong and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Best Non-Alcoholic Beer – Heaps Normal XPA (10:07) Consensus again. There is a reason why everyone thinks this is the best Non-Alcoholic Beer in the country. It’s got good hop character, has good body and really isn’t that indistinguishable from a full strength beer. What more could you ask for from a NA Beer.

And just like that we’re up to date! At least on the Golden Pints front… Hopefully 2022 sees things return closer to normal and we are able to get out and about a little more, which should allow for more discussion in a few of these categories rather than having some default winners. Now we turn our attention to Year of the Local, which with any luck will be finished by the time the next one of these rolls around!

Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!