A Kiwi homebrewer has left the international beer community in a state of shock after taking out a gold medal at the 2012 Asian Beer Awards for his Pilsner.

Santiago Aon Ratto brewed the winning Pilsner at home on a WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery, creating the first ever beer brewed on such a small scale to win anything at the Asian awards.

What was the secret to his success? Santiago had help from the inventor of the WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery – Ian Williams, himself an award-winning brew master – during the recipe development phase before going on to create the brew himself, in a mere nine days.

“I was very happy with the final product. I’m not a trained brew master and I haven’t had the WilliamsWarn for long, so to make the best pilsner in the Asia Pacific region in just my third batch is absolutely incredible,” says Mr Aon Ratto.

The Pilsner category is the largest in the competition, Ian says, adding that Lager/Pilsner beers representing 95 percent of the world beer market by volume consumption.

“Winning an international award in his personal brewery is a phenomenal achievement.” He says. “Santiago’s pilsner proves that you don’t need to invest millions to make the world’s best beer,” he says.

Something we’re sure will have the commercial brewing sector shaking their heads and wondering what went wrong. And if nothing else it this victory will have homebrewers flocking to stores to see where and when they can get their hands on the same equipment. The word is out that there is a waiting list so those eager to annihilate their mates at the next club comp might have to wait a little while.

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