Australians have picked up up four medals in the World Beer Cup announced overnight in the United States.

Celebrating in San Diego: Ross Jurisich and Brad Roger (Stone & Wood), Peta and Brennan Fielding (Burleigh Brewing ) and David Hollyoak (Redoak)

Burleigh Brewing and Redoak collected Gold Medals while Stone & Wood and Endeavour Brewing collected silver. The Gold Medals confirm the international quality of the beers from Burleigh Brewing and Redoak, both of which have previosly been recognised in prestigious international awards.

The World Beer Cup is sometimes referred to as the Olympics of beer due to the competitive First, Second, Third award structure.

It is also interesting to see Stone & Wood recognised as the brewery has previously declined to enter beer awards on the basis that the beer didn’t fit neatly into a style category. While they have taken to calling it a Pacific Ale, it seem to find a place in the English-style summer ale category.

A full list of the awards can be seen here, while the full media release is below.

Medals

Category 51: South German-Style Hefeweizen/Hefeweissbier
85 Entries
Gold: HEF, Burleigh Brewing Co., West Burleigh, Australia
Silver: Baltika N°8 Wheat, Baltika Breweries, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Bronze: Edelweiss Hefetrüb, Brau Union Österreich, Linz, Austria

Category 69: Ordinary or Special Bitter
32 Entries
Gold: Redoak Bitter, Redoak, Sydney, Australia
Silver: Happy Hour Hero Ale, Montana Brewing Co., Billings, MT
Bronze: 8th Street Ale, Four Peaks Brewing Co., Tempe, AZ

Stone & Wood’s Brad Rogers celebrates a medal

Category 66: English-Style Summer Ale
32 Entries
Gold: Cross of Gold: Revolution Brewing, Chicago, IL
Silver: Stone & Wood Pacific Ale, Stone & Wood Brewing Co., Byron Bay, Australia
Bronze: Mother Lode Golden Ale, Laurelwood Brewing Co., Portland, OR

Category 47: Australasian-Style Pale Ale or International-Style Pale Ale
22 Entries
Gold: 805 IPA, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
Silver: Endeavour True Vintage 2011 Reserve Pale Ale, Endeavour True Vintage Beer, Macquarie Centre, Australia
Bronze: Benny’s Pale Ale, Shoreline Brewery, Michigan City, IN

Media Release

2012 WORLD BEER CUP WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Brewers from around the world received awards from an elite international panel of judges in the 2012 Brewers Association World Beer Cup. The ninth bi-annual competition boasted the strongest field of entrants on record, with 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 U.S. states entering 3,921 beers in 95 beer style categories. A 17.7 percent increase over 2010, the entries were eligible for gold, silver and bronze awards in their respective categories. Judges presented a total of 284 awards.

A detailed analysis of the entries and awards can be found in the 2012 World Beer Cup Fact Sheet (PDF).

“It’s called ‘The Olympics of Beer Competition’ for good reason,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association, the U.S.-based trade association that has put on the competition every two years since 1996.

“The event brings together great brewers from all corners of the globe. Plus, the awards are highly regarded. A brewer who wins a World Beer Cup gold award knows that their winning beer represents the best of that beer style in the world. Congratulations to all the winners of the 2012 World Beer Cup. The Brewers Association and the proud sponsors of our event thank all participating brewers for their involvement.”

Judges
The 2012 judging panel was the largest and most international in the history of the World Beer Cup. Judges from 27 countries conducted blind tasting evaluations of the beers to determine the winners. Drawn from the ranks of professional brewers and brewing industry experts, these 211 judges came mostly from international breweries, with some 67 percent from outside the U.S. In addition to the judging panel, over 250 volunteers helped sort beer entries and steward the competition.

The judging criteria are exacting—some categories are not given the full slate of awards if the panel decides that the entries do not merit recognition.

Award Highlights and Trends

Highlights from the competition:

The average number of beers entered per category was 41.

The category with the most entries was American-Style India Pale Ale, with 150 entries. The second most-entered category was Imperial India Pale Ale, with 93 entries. The German-Style Sour Ale category had the fewest number of entries at 11.

The 2012 World Beer Cup saw substantial growth of entries in the American-Style India Pale Ale category. Category entries grew 41.5 percent over 2010 to make it the largest category of the 2012 competition.

Additionally, Champion Brewery and Champion Brewmaster awards are given in each of five brewery categories based on the awards won by each brewery in the given size category.

The five Champion Brewery/Brewmaster award winners are:

• Small Brewing Company Category
  Brauerei Michael Plank, Michael Plank
• Mid-Size Brewing Company Category
  Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Matthew Brynildson
• Large Brewing Company Category
  AB InBev, Claudio Ferro
• Small Brewpub Category
  Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant-Media, Iron Hill Brewery Team
• Large Brewpub Category
  Pelican Pub & Brewery, Darron R S Welch

The complete list of award winners is available for download.