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<\/p>\nA COLLABORATION between two respected Surf Coast producers has resulted in a medal winning performance at this year\u2019s Australian International Beer Awards.<\/p>\n
Bells Beach Brewing teamed up with Mikro Coffee Roasters to create the Bird Rock Brown which was awarded a gold medal up against the best brews from around the world.<\/p>\n
The Torquay-based brewery also took home three silver medals for the Hells Bells XPA, EVO\u2019S ESB and Rincon Raspberry Sour.<\/p>\n
Bells Beach Brewing co-owner Jeff Crow said the team \u2013 including fellow co-owners and brewers Adam Smith and Jono Moscrop \u2013 were excited because their intention was only ever to create \u201creally good beers that are easy to drink and that we enjoy ourselves\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said medals were not a top priority but still a big bonus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t generally take the medals all that serious so it was a real surprise,\u201d Jeff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s really nice is that it\u2019s the world\u2019s largest beer competition across 38 countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was also nice that the Bird Rock Brown was the only gold medal awarded in the category so we are pretty happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Bird Rock Brown is a smooth brown ale combining malty richness, coffee from Mikro and classic British hops.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you love coffee it\u2019s a great beer. It\u2019s a traditional English brown ale which is actually light,\u201d Jeff explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we say it\u2019s a brown a lot of people who don\u2019t know brown ales think it\u2019s a stout or porter but it\u2019s not \u2026 for alcohol it\u2019s actually one of our lighter beers we make.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s one of our most flavoursome beers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mikro boys brewed us a special blend \u2026 then we brew the coffee here and literally pour the espresso into the beer to get that true coffee flavour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really, really enjoyable beer. Some people might think it\u2019s a winter time beer but we sell just as much in the summer time.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff said the judges informed them the silver medal winning Rincon Raspberry Sour rated high on every criteria but was entered in the wrong category.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we put it into the fruit beer category instead of the sour category so it actually did exceptionally well in the wrong category,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you read all their comments you think \u2018if you took that and put it into the sour it\u2019s easily a gold medal \u2026 so we need to read a bit more carefully,\u201d he added, with a laugh.<\/p>\n But Jeff said they were proud of all their medal winning brews.<\/p>\n \u201cThe XPA is a good one as well because it\u2019s a really tricky style, it\u2019s purely an Australian style beer and it\u2019s quite popular at the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe EVO\u2019s ESB is a seasonal beer that we bring out every year \u2013 it\u2019s an Extra Special Bitter which some people call an English Special Bitter \u2026 and our three brewers are all English so its success might have something to do with the origins of the people who are making the beer.\u201d<\/p>\n Bells Beach Brewing has two taproom venues at 22 Baines Crescent, Torquay, and 2\/73b Little Malop Street, Geelong.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/IMG_3390-300x225.jpg\")