Amber Gold!

Australian brewing's big night came with its fair share of surprises but resulted in a popular winner

A beer from the oldest brewery in the world won Grand Champion at the 2007 Australian International Beer Awards, held on Thursday 19 April.

Weihenstephan Kristall - a crystal-clear, effervescent, filtered wheat beer that's yeast-free and tinged with banana and tropical fruit flavours - took top honours at what is now the second biggest beer competition in the world.

The Kristall received the highest score from judges in a field of more than 900 entries from breweries all over the globe and was a popular winner.

It was also a big win for the beer lovers of Australia. Unlike past AIBA Champs - the recent majority of which have been small, North American micro-breweries - the Kristall is an international beer widely available here in Australia through stockists like Dan Murphy's, Vintage Cellars, selected BWS and quality independent liquor stores. Not since 2001 has it been so easy for the average punter to bag themselves a Grand Champion.

Not that the result came as a surprise to some. The sponsor of the Wheat Beer category in which the Kristall was named Champion? None other than Beer & Brewer Australia magazine!

The Weihenstephan ("Sacred Stephen") brewery has been operating on the same site, overlooking the town of Freising in Germany, since 1040 and was initially a Benedictine monastery but now combines the world's best known University of Brewing with a modern commercial and thriving brewery.

The entire range, which won a total of eight medals at this year's awards, includes two more wheat beers: Hefe (cloudy, spicy) and Dunkel (dark, caramel-like) and two lagers: the flowery, sweet Original and a dark called Tradition, plus a crisp, hoppy Pilsner - all created using best of Bavarian brewing traditions.

Judgement Day

Since it was first believed brewed in 3000BC up until the advent of the Steam Age in the 18th century, styles and strains have varied from town to village to city - all dependent on the available malts, hops and water, not to mention the expertise and dedication of the brewer themselves. With yeasts in the mix, hundreds of styles evolved - from the soft, clean Pilseners of Bohemia to the rich, black stouts of Ireland.

With the international awakening of beer culture in the past four decades has come the task of codifying these disparate styles into guidelines. The two major sets are the Brewers Association (with over 120 styles as used by the AIBA and many other commercial competitions) and the BJCP (the bench mark for home brewed beers with some 80 styles) of which most align with BA guidelines.

Here's what happens when a beer is judged...

Judges taste beers placed in front of them by the stewards, assessing them against AIBA guidelines and awarding each a score out of a maximum 20 points. That score is based on five categories: Appearance - Colour, carbonation, characteristics (3 pts). Aroma - Positive characteristics, aroma faults (5pts). Flavour & Body - General characteristics, bitterness, fermentation products, flavour faults (6pts). Style - appropriate for class (3pts). Technical quality - absence of major faults, balance, drinkability (3pts).

Weihenstephan Kristall 5.4%

Pale straw, lively carbonation settles out into a pillow head of foam. The aroma has fruity hints mingled with honey and spice. The mouthfilling texture is sweet initially, followed by clove notes with subtle underlying banana characters; finishes faintly sweet with little perceptible bitterness. There are certainly bolder interpretations of kristall hefeweizen around but Weihenstephan is an exercise in elegance with a fine balance among clove, banana, tart wheat and gentle fruity characters. WILLIE SIMPSON