Collaboration beer for AIBA

Nice idea. A Collaboration Beer, which has become the highlight of the annual Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA), is created by the previous year’s Champion brewers in the Large, Medium and Small Australian Brewery categories.

The 2015 brew, called Girt by Three, will be a celebration of Australia’s rich brewing history as the name implies, along with a hint of the future direction of the industry.

The collaboration between 2014 Champions – that is CUB (Large), Thunder Road Brewing (Medium) and 3 Ravens (Small) – shares experience and innovation across three diverse elements of Australian beer. All the breweries are in the State of Victoria and the three brewers will produce a beer featuring old and new world influences with a view to explore and expand the future of the Australian Pale Ale style.

They will use a classic English yeast strain, an old English malt variety, refined sugars and Pride of Ringwood hops for bittering, plus modern Australian aroma hops for “New World” character. The brewers visited hop fields in north-east Victoria at picking time and selected the varieties they required. The old tradition of blending in aged beer from the cellars of all three breweries will also be employed.

It’s understood that the beer will be available at the AIBA dinner in May and probably at the exhibitors’ tasting the next day. Apart from that there aren’t any plans for further distribution.