Despite COVID-19, closed borders and challenging conditions for the region’s breweries, the Asia Beer Championship must go on – even if that means a virtual awards ceremony, social distancing regulations and quarantine periods for organisers.
The Championship offers a regional barometer on the scale and health of Asia’s fast-growing premium beer culture.
Indeed, as the competition enters its third year, the focus continues to be firmly on lifting the region’s beer standards – not on distributing metal accolades for the sake of a quick buck.
“It was difficult to get independent expert feedback on your beers in the region,” shares Charles Guerrier, Competition Director and IBD Beer Sommelier, when discussing the origins of the Championship.
“We wanted to launch the competition to help provide this to brewers to assist their product development.”
“At the same time, it is important to provide a quality benchmark for consumers so they can explore new beers with confidence.”
These dual objectives are particularly resonant to the region’s brewers who face a variety of challenges – logistical, legal, educational, economic (and beyond!) – in their respective journeys to craft better brews.
The Championship’s strategy is to focus on providing a rigorous, intensive end-to-end experience from submission to feedback.
Experts and trained judges
Rather than involving interlopers and celebrities, the competition’s methodology is firmly rooted in global industry best practice – involving everyone from yeast experts to quality control technicians providing knowledge, experience and support to contestants.
Not only must Judges hold relevant accreditation – formal brewing qualifications or beer judge certifications – but judgements are discerning, too: only one medal of each class (Gold, Silver, Bronze) is given out by beer style category each year.
Recognising the pains of a fast-growing and uneven regional beer scene, beers that show a certain standard but do not collect a medal receive a ‘Chairman’s Selection’ award.
As a result of the formality and approach taken in the Championship judging process, victories are celebrated loudly: proud announcements of awards on websites and the occasional dash of patriotic local press coverage.
In this vein, the Championship offers brewers from Seoul to Saigon a rare chance to showcase their unique creations to a much wider audience.
Helping breweries grow
Avi Yashaya, the co-founder of Thailand-based Mahanakhon Beer, won a Bronze for his Wheat Beer in last year’s awards and found it opened doors for the growth of his brewery.
Receiving an award has been a real stamp of quality, which has made us much more presentable locally and desirable for export.”
Heading northeast, Korean breweries have been incredibly successful for growth since the inaugural Championship in 2018 in Singapore, where they won a collective 15 awards and came in second nationally.
Artmonster Brewery in Seoul was the flagbearer at that particular championship, winning six medals and going on to win four in 2019.
“The judges are all extremely knowledgeable and provide welcomed feedback and criticism as needed,” shares Head Brewer Jason Kusowkski.
“The Asia Beer Championship team is working hard to increase the quality and craftsmanship of beer in Asia, and in just a few years I think they have already done a stellar job.”
Paul Edwards, founder of Busan-based Gorilla Brewing Company, was able to “gain an international recognition that has fuelled our growth both domestically and through export” after winning four awards at the 2019 competition.
Many of the same brewers, and a new cohort of emerging breweries, will be competing next month in the Championship’s 2020 incarnation in Singapore.
In a few weeks, beer judges will be sitting down to the unusual experience of grading a large number of hoppy beverages from around Asia in a socially distanced setting. They will remember their elevated role of providing brewers independent expert feedback on their beers – doing their part for lifting the region’s beer scene.
