Now in its second year, beer ranking app Untappd has announced the winners of the 2024 Untappd Community Awards.
The Untappd Community Awards recognise the top three beers in all qualifying substyles, ranked by the millions of Untappd user ratings received throughout the calendar year. For a beer to qualify it must have received at least 50 check-ins from 50 unique Untappd community members in that year, with beers then ranked according to their average rating.
Around the world, 7032 breweries from 101 regions were awarded, with a total of 26,004 beers celebrated. In Australia, 126 breweries collected gold, silver and bronze awards across 123 subcategories.
Taking out three prime positions on the podium with the best three overall beers was Bracket Brewing, whose Final Copy was the highest ranked Australian beer with a score of 4.55. Following closely, Triple Mot and Goldilocks Zone received 4.5 and 4.46 respectively.
While the Sydney brewery claimed Australia’s three most popular beers, it also took out the gold, silver and bronze medals in the IPA – Triple New England / Hazy category.
Mike Meletopoulo, Head Brewer at Bracket Brewing, told Beer & Brewer: “We’re incredibly grateful for the community support and love for the beers, 2024 was a really tough year for us, but we’ve remained true to our ways – if we don’t think a beer is great, it won’t make it out of the tanks.
“Final Copy, Triple Mot and Goldilocks Zone are three Triple IPA’s we made heavily featuring hops from New Zealand, and in particular grown by Freestyle Hops. We’ve become huge fans of kiwi hops over the last few years and they’ve become a big part of our house character.
“All three of these TIPA’s had heavy hop additions, in particular Final Copy and Triple Mot, as they were some of the last beers brewed at our old site before we had to move out and we decided that it was better for the hops to be in beer than in storage over the next year. It appears our customers also agree,” he continued.
Reflecting on the nature of the awards, Meletopoulo highlighted just how important community support and engagement is to the brewery’s identity.
“We love beer banter and we love feedback. We may have different opinions, but nonetheless hearing from different perspectives and palates is and always will be incredibly valuable for us. We genuinely care about our beers and beer in general so we want our customers to give us honest feedback.
“One of the most fun and insightful parts of our job is the monthly brewers chats on release days when we get the opportunity to sit down with our regulars, and anyone whos interested, and talk through the new beers,” he stated.
While completing the taproom is still high on the agenda for Bracket Brewing, new beers and refined recipes are also on the horizon.
Indies take top honours
After a momentous year of awards for Blue Mountains brewery Mountain Culture, having topped the GABS Hottest 100 people’s choice poll for the third year running, the brewery also scooped the most medals of any Australian brewery in the Untappd Community Awards.
The brewery claimed a total of 15 gold medals, six silver and five bronze, and Mountain Culture’s top-rated beer by Untappd users in 2024 was Imperial Logic.
It was a great showing for indies, with other breweries to dominate the awards including Slow Lane Brewing (16 medals), One Drop Brewing Co (15), Bacchus Brewing Co. (14), Range Brewing (14), Working Title Brew Co (14) and Hawkers Beer (13).