Session Ale from TWØBAYS has won gold in the Gluten-Free Beer category at the World Beer Cup. It's a remarkable achievement for the Mornington Peninsula-based brewery at the most prestigious beer competition on the planet, which took place in Las Vegas at the end of this year's US Brewers Association Craft Brewers Conference.
The award means the beer has been rated the world's best by judges – only one gold, silver and bronze are awarded in each category at the World Beer Cup – and follows the brewery's success at the 2023 Indies, where Session Ale took out Best Specialty Beer in a category in which it was competing against beers brewed with barley.
Brewery founder Richard Jeffares (above right with head brewer Kristian Martin) took time out from celebrating in Vegas to tell The Crafty Pint about their "bloody exciting night", saying recognition was just starting to seep in as they acknowledged the size of the competition; in 2024, a team of 280 judges assessed 9,300 entries submitted by 2,060 breweries from 50 countries.
He added: "[Head brewer] Kristian [Martin] and I came a week ago to see what’s going on in the GF brewing community over here, so visited Oakland, Seattle and Denver on our way to Vegas, but also to meet with our malt supplier and see her new process equipment – very impressive for a small-scale malt house. And then onto Vegas – which is complete mind fuck when you see this oasis of neon and high-rise in the middle of the desert.
"We had entered a couple of beers in the World Cup – but to win the gold with the Session Ale was amazing. We get very excited when a core range beer wins any award as it really does recognise that your brewing processes are consistent and repeatable – and not necessarily a one-time brew of a limited release."
Putting their win into context beyond the number of beers and brewers taking part in the 2024 awards, this is also a very rare gold for an Australian brewery at a competition that only takes place every second year. Unless I'm mistaken, the Session Ale's triumph is only the fifth gold medal claimed by a local brewing company in the 14 years of The Crafty Pint, with a number of silver and bronze medals picked up by others over that period.
The other golds to make their way back to Australia since we launched in 2010 went to James Squire for Jack of Spades Porter in 2018, James Squire again for The Swindler Summer Ale in 2016 (with Stone & Wood Pacific Ale claiming silver in the same category), and Burleigh Brewing for their Hef and Redoak for Redoak Bitter in 2012. Redoak had previously tasted glory at the awards in 2008 with Framboise Froment – the same year Tooheys Extra Dry won American-Style Lager and James Squire Pilsener took out Bohemian-Style Pilsener.
"We are delighted for the whole team," Richard said, "because everyone back at the brewery plays a huge role in the success of TWØBAYS, but this is massive recognition for Kristian, Grant, Stephen and our packing team for their brewing and packing skill.
"Our brewers have all stepped away from the barley beer world to brew with our difficult malts – millet, buckwheat and rice – and I think the whole gluten-free community thanks them for making us all some great beers!"
Kristian described the win as "big news", adding: "Overwhelming really [and a] crazy result off the back of the Session Ale getting the Indies trophy."
TWØBAYS weren't the only Aussies to pick up a medal on the night. Hop Nation continued their run of success at beer awards with a bronze for The Buzz, the American red ale that was one of their earliest releases and has long been a favourite here at Crafty Towers.
Brewery co-founder Duncan Gibson told The Crafty Pint: "We are pretty stoked. Wish I was in Vegas tonight, but Footscray it is!
"It's the first time we entered and, to be fair, we didn't think we would medal, but just wanted to compete and compare ourselves to the world's best and get some feedback on where our beers sit."
You can view the full list of World Beer Cup 2024 winners here. And read more about TWØBAYS' first half decade of brewing – during which they became the first indie brewer to get beer into the MCG – in this feature from late last year.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
