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GABS Festival Beer & Cider is big news

Every year, craft brewers and cider makers from Australia, New Zealand and around the world come together to release a brand new beer or cider for the first time at GABS Craft Beer & Cider Festival.

These ‘Festival Beers & Ciders’, served from our distinctive shipping container bars, are a true showcase of creativity and diversity. Many attract significant media coverage in the lead-up to the events, and all are eligible to win the highly coveted GABS People’s Choice Award at each festival.

Over the years, more than 1,000 Festival Beers & Ciders have started their journey at GABS, and many of these have gone on to become favourite core ranges. Feral’s latest packaged release Shooter’s Juicy IPA began life as a GABS Festival beer in 2018 as did these legends – Taco from Two Birds, Caribbean Haze from Black Hops, Grape Bubble Gum Sour from Currumbin Valley, Karma Citra from Feral, Golden Stout Time from Big Shed and Jedi Juice (now J-Juice) from Hop Nation.

Over to you

Now it’s your turn. You’re invited to register a festival beer or cider brew for GABS 2021.

There’s justone golden rule. A GABS Festival Beer or Cider must be a new brew never before released by the brewery or cidery. It can be made in any style, whether it’s something traditional, perhaps with a twist, or a highly creative brew with exotic ingredients.

Here’s your chance to be part of the fun! All registrations will be considered but unfortunately, as much as we would love to, we can’t take them all!

Learn more and register here

What’s new this year?

• Improved Curation

Once again, we will be putting the spotlight on Festival Beers & Ciders which is what GABS is all about… allowing well-made, unique and creative brews to be trialled by the biggest gathering of craft beer lovers in the country. We will be limiting the number of AUS/NZ Festival Beers & Ciders to a maximum of only 120 taps at all events. This means there will be greater curation of the list, so we encourage you to put forward your best new brew ideas.

• From 50L kegs TO 30L kegs

With the changes to Australian excise arrangements around smaller kegs, this year we would like to ask brewers to provide 30L kegs of their Festival Beers rather than 50L kegs. This will allow us greater flexibility in ensuring we are serving your Festival Beer in the absolute best condition at each festival. Please note we can work with Festival Cider makers on either 30L or 50L kegs (considering the different excise arrangements). Stay tuned for a special offer from Kegstar to arrange your kegs.

More info

For more info on keg quantities, purchase rates, delivery deadlines and more, please visit our Festival Beer & Cider info page HERE.

And to help you complete the registration form, here’s our handy CHEAT SHEET to help you gather the key info in advance.

Once the registration period closes (or until capacity is reached), we will be in touch with further information and to advise the status of your registration.

Learn more and register here