Dollar Bill cashes in at beer awards

INVERMAY’S Dollar Bill Brewing has trounced one-thousand seven-hundred and eighty other entries to win Champion Australian Beer at the 2021 Australian International Beer Awards, with its recently released “wild ale”, Gold Teeth.

Responding to the prestigious accolade, Fiona Nolle, who founded the business in 2017 with husband and brewer Ed, said they’re still coming to terms with the overwhelming reaction to their win at the awards ceremony, held at the Melbourne Showgrounds.

“We are happy. We are shocked. We are really, really excited,” she said.

“When the announcement was made, the room just erupted. Everyone stood up, and I’ve been told it’s the first time there’s ever been a standing ovation.

“We had brewer after brewer approach us to say how proud they were – they all know how hard we’ve done it.”

“We’ve had a dream, and we’ve chased it, and now we feel that little bit closer to making it all come together. So we’re on an absolute high.”

Ms Nolle said it was particularly satisfying to triumph on behalf of the Ballarat craft beer scene, with local brewpub Aunty Jack’s also winning a gold medal in the German Style Pilsner category for its Aunty Jack’s Lager.

“Yes, it is special because Ballarat is the craft beer capital of regional Victoria, and I’m pretty sure what we’ve done down here, all of us, we’ve stamped our name all over it,” she said.

“So it’s awesome, and we couldn’t be prouder.”

In the notoriously competitive competition, all entries at the AIBAs were tasted by a panel of expert judges and assessed in terms of appearance, aroma, flavour and body, technical quality and style.

Known as a wild ale because of the technique of fermenting the beer with natural yeasts, Gold Teeth also took out this year’s award for Best Fruit Beer.