For the second year in its three-year existence, the 2009 Sydney Royal Beer Competition failed to award any gold medals. Surprising perhaps, considering that last year there were six gold medals from among 102 entries, while none of this year’s increased field of 148 managed to attain the required 90 points or above out of 100.

It should be pointed out that the gold medal standard at the RSBC is marginally higher than other local competitions where the equivalent of 85 per cent is sufficient for the top award. Even so, it has to reflect on the overall standard of entries when judges couldn’t find a single glittering medal from among this year’s field.

The judging panels’ summarizing comments on individual classes suggested that many beers lacked aromatic characters and overall quality was down on last year. The former may reflect on spiralling hop prices, with some imported varieties tripling in price over the past 12 months; no surprise then, if brewers are trimming their recipes accordingly.

Similarly, the quality of local malted barley has probably suffered under the widespread drought conditions, with some marginal grain slipping through which in better growing years might have been considered marginal or even sub-standard for brewing. As it is run under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW, it’s appropriate that the results of the RSBC should be seen as part of the larger agricultural picture.

Cream will still rise to the top, as it were, and it was noticeable that many of last year’s gold medalist beers took out silver in the most recent competition, and multiple silver medallists included the much-decorated Redoak Brewery, Murray’s Craft Brewing Company, Schwartz Brewery, Moo Brew and Matilda Bay Brewing – the latter also produced the 2008 Championship Beer in Alpha Pale Ale.

Draught beer was included at the RSBC for the first time this year and the rather select field produced a significantly higher ratio of medals compared to the bottled beer classes. While the logistics of serving draught beer in such competitions are far more complex than for bottles, organizers of the RSBC hope this section will grow considerably in ongoing years.

In its relatively short life-time the RSBC has proven a tough hunting ground for gold medal aspirants but the 19 silver medals awarded in this year’s competition still represent the highest quality in the local beer scene.

Willie Simpson was a judge at the 2009 RSBC.

SRBC 2009 SILVER MEDALS

Bottled beer:

St Arnou Pilsner – St Arnou Premium Beers, NSW

Redoak Rauch – Redoak, NSW

Redoak IPA

Redoak Special Strong Bitter

Redoak Porter

Schwartz Pale Ale – Schwartz Brewery, NSW

Alpha Pale Ale – Matilda Bay Brewing, Victoria

Redback Original – Matilda Bay Brewing, Victoria

Redback Mild – Matilda Bay Brewing, Victoria

Old Admiral – Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel, NSW

Ace of Spades Stout – Brewboys, SA

Murray’s Wild Thing Imperial Stout – Murray’s Craft Brewing Company, NSW

Murray’s Anniversary Ale

Baron’s Lemon Myrtle Witbier – Barons Brewing, NSW

Draught beer:

Murray’s Nirvana Pale Ale – Murray’s Craft Brewing Company, NSW

Schwartz Pale Ale – Schwartz Brewery, NSW

Wicked Elf Pale Ale – Little Brewing Company, NSW

Moo Brew Pale Ale – Moo Brew, Tasmania

Moo Brew Hefeweizen