Poll Indicates Next Big Thing in Craft Beer

India Pale Ale’s dominance of the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll is arguably the first sign that Australian craft beer drinkers may follow the US in embracing the somewhat polarising beers of this style.

In the US, IPAs accounted for less than eight per cent of the craft category in 2008, according to off-premise scan data. By the second half of last year they were expected to exceed 27.5 per cent.

“That type of share growth would be incredible in a static category, but craft brewing is on pace to have a total volume this year three times larger than it was in 2008,” said US Brewers Association economist Bart Watson.

This effectively means that IPA - a highly hopped, typically high alcohol style - has now reached volume in the US more than ten times that of 2008.

It’s a trend that has been keenly observed by Australian craft brewers such as Stone & Wood, which in December launched Fixation Brewing Company, a distinct label that is ‘fixated’ on one thing and one thing only: IPAs.

“Like it or not, we do follow the trends in the US,” said Stone & Wood co-founder Ross Jurisich.

“The sophistication of the Australian drinker is only growing. They’re becoming more adventurous in their drinking repertoire. They are looking for big bold flavours.”

However, even Jurisich was surprised by the results of this year’s Hottest 100 poll, which saw 30 different India Pale Ales make it into the list.

Pirate Life IIPA

Adelaide debutant Pirate Life Brewing incredibly claimed third place with its IIPA, an 8.8 per cent ABV Imperial IPA.

“If there was any endorsement for our decision to move in this direction with Fixation, this poll’s been it - that’s for sure,” Jurisich said at the close of voting.

The country’s biggest brewer, Lion, has IPAs within the ranges of its proprietary craft beer labels, James Squire and Little Creatures.

It remains to be seen whether this year’s poll will cause Carlton & United Breweries to re-evaluate its strategy of walking away from the pointy end of the craft segment in favour of a more mass market approach, with the expansion of Fat Yak into the Yak Ales franchise.

Tim Ovadia, CUB’s head of brands – craft & Australian premium, last year declared there was no future in “extreme craft beers with high Bitterness Units and super-high hoppiness levels”.

“That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. It’ll never cross over to a broader group,” he told Australian Brews News.

In the meantime, the first mover advantage is there for small brewers like Feral, Pirate Life and Fixation to exploit.

It brings to mind comments by Steve Grossman, Brewery Ambassador for Sierra Nevada, the USA’s second largest independent craft brewery.

At a Q&A session in Sydney, Grossman nominated the brewery’s failure to anticipate the growth of IPA, when asked whether Sierra Nevada had made any missteps in spite of its success.

“We were a little conservative…We should have got an IPA out for the mass market a bit sooner,” he conceded. “We relied on Pale Ale.”

See the February/March issue of drinks trade for the full story.

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