The Australian craft beer twitterverse, blogger verse and Facebook pages are all abuzz with the news that the 4th Annual Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll is now open for voting. The poll is put on by the Local Taphouses at Darlinghurst and St. Kilda (two places you should visit often) and is being jointly supported by the two best sources of Australian craft beer news – The Crafty Pint and Australian Brews News.
It’s definitely worth having a vote, but just scrolling through the 800+ beers in the drop-down is a real eye-opener. At Back of the Ferry, we’d thought we made a dint in the range of Australian beers, but when you look at the list of beers and the number of brewers that make them – we’ll never come close. A large part of the reason is that many of these beers are only available in the city or state in which they are brewed. For example, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Nail Brewing beer in NSW (though I haven’t been to the Warners Bay bottlo), I haven’t laid eyes on a Seven Sheds and I hadn’t heard of Wagga Wagga’s Thirsty Crow who have a massive 10+ beers on the list until I did some scrolling. A second reason is that you’d have to be drinking over 2 beers a day and travel as often as Kevin Rudd to get around Australia at the right time to sample the hundreds of seasonals that are released each year.
I’m not complaining by any stretch. How different from 25 years ago when a trip to Melbourne meant VB, Carlton or Fosters, a trip to Brisbane meant XXXX, a trip to Adelaide meant West End, Southwark or (thank heavens) Coopers, a trip to Perth meant Swan or Emu or a trip to Sydney meant Tooheys, Tooths or Reschs. It is a fantastic revolution and one that Back of the Ferry will continue to enjoy participating in.
Have a vote and keep your eye out for the Top 100 to be announced on Australia Day.
back of the ferry 
And the tough part is trying to narrow it down to just five as well, my current ‘Top 5’ beers of 2011 has 12 beers in it, I’m trying to re-taste some of those 12 to cull the list, but there are so many limited releases that I can’t get again, The only ‘definately in’ so far is Ferals’s Hop Hog
Oh and Nail has to be one of the harder beers in Australia to find, I’ve never seen it in Melbourne either, even in the uber crafty bottleshops. Did pick up a Seven Shed Dark spiced Ale last night though, looking forward to that when the weather gets a bit colder.
Leon – with you there on the Hop Hog. Had it again last night. It is just the ducks nuts!