Redoak’s overnight success in London

Media Release

In London overnight, Redoak brewery won Supreme Champion for its sour beer Chateau Sour against 550 beers from 30 countries. This is the second year running that Redoak has scored the top gong in this international beer competition, after winning in 2013 for its Special Reserve.

The competition

International Beer Challenge 2014 in UK is in its 18th year and prides itself on ‘rewarding quality, celebrating excellence’ . IBC awards gold, silver & bronze awards with the highest scoring beer in each of the 7 categories being awarded category trophy.

The category trophies are then judged to determine the Supreme Champion. One of the judges spoke with David’s sister Kerry who was at the awards ceremony and said they were ‘amazed by the complexity of the beer and how it complemented food so perfectly’.

The brewery

Sydney’s Redoak Brewery has won Supreme Champion at IBC for 2 consecutive years in 2013 and 2014 with its Special Reserve and now the Chateau Sour. This exciting win comes on top of other recent success internationally for the family owned small independent Australian brewery. This brewery is unquestionably Australia’s most awarded brewery and can hold its own up against some of the best breweries in the world such as Samuel Adams, Deschutes Brewery.

The brewer

David Hollyoak, Redoak’s Master Brewer, is fondly called the ‘Willy Wonka of beer’.

Dave was a civil engineer and moved into brewing over 10 years ago and has achieved some of the highest accolades in the beer world. He brews one of the most extensive ranges of beer styles in Australia and many of his beers have won major international trophies.

Just in the past 12 months, David has won 12 international beer awards across different beer styles. This highlights his belief that every beer brewed deserves to be a great beer! Underlying all of his successes, David is extremely passionate about real craft beer and believes this further highlights the fact that small independent Australian brewers are brewing world-class beers.

The beer

The Redoak Chateau Sour is a Flanders Red Ale which is a sour beer brewed to the Flemish regional beer style within Belgian. In Australia, sour beers are an emerging beer category yet the beer style dates back centuries originating first in Belgian. What distinguishes a sour beer most is the wild yeast used which makes the fermentation unpredictable yet a ‘magical’ process too.

David has been tinkering with this beer style for many years and was ‘stoked that such a complex and old style beer had won the award overnight’.

He loves the complexities that his sour beer offers with very low bitterness, sourness of the beer balances the sweetness of the malt and has often felt this beer style was not fully appreciated for its potential.

This beer uses Chateau malts, unique malts made by one of Belgian’s finest and oldest malting company. Put simply, this beer is a ‘whole world experience in a glass’ and this is one beer that will even convert the devoutest of wine drinkers.