The beer drinkers have voted – Kaiju! takes home second title

THE curtain has been drawn on Bendigo on the Hop 2025 with the best of the bunch picked by punters in the Best Festival Beer and Best Venue People’s Choice Awards just announced.

Cult Melbourne brewery Kaiju! Beer won best beer for the second consecutive year with its polemic six per cent Blueberry Terpene Sour, tremendously described by its makers as a “full-blown interdimensional blueberry hit, captured in liquid form and fermented with the kind of logic that gets you kicked out of science class.”

Second place went to Hepburn Springs Brewing Co.’s 6.5 per cent Chocolate Vanilla Porter (brewed with specialty grains and infused with chocolate and vanilla), while Mountain Culture Beer Co.’s Rocky Mountain High New England Hazy IPA (5.8 per cent) was voted third.

In the hotly contested venue category, The Hub on McCrae Street, operated by The Hop Supply Co. bottle shop and hosting Cornella Beer, Mountain Culture, Rocky Ridge Brewing Co. and The Zythologist on the day, came out on top.

Babylon Lounge and Garden Bar in Pall Mall, which hosted Kaiju!, was voted second and the Rifle Brigade Hotel in View Street (Bridge Road Brewers/Bells Beach Brewing) secured third.

Tash Thompson from the Cambrian Hotel, who manned the bar at The Hub for the majority of the event, said the vibe was as good as it’s ever been in the decade-long Festival’s history.

“The atmosphere was really good, it was pumping, the music was great,” she said.

“It was all about helping people enjoy that space but also making sure they didn’t have to wait too long for a beer.

“Scotty Toll (Hop Supply Co.) did a great job and we loved working with him.”

Her favourite brew on the day personally, Cornella’s Forest Fruits Gose (4.6 per cent), didn’t make the podium.

“I thought it was a great beer,” she said.

“It wasn’t super sour, it was really refreshing, it wasn’t too sweet and had a drier finish.

“On a hot day you could certainly drink a few of those.

“That would go down really nice.”