Having been in market for little over two years young start-up boutique brewer, Fusion Brewing wins two awards at The Australian International australian beer awards. The winners were announced last night at The Crown Palladium in Melbourne, Australia.

From a field of 1140 entries, Firefly Beer was awarded top prize with a silver medal within the ‘European Lager’ category (Gold was not awarded) and Bluebottle Beer awarded Bronze within the ‘Other styles’ section. The full results are at
www.beerawards.com.au

Director of Fusion Brewing, Scott Douglas was thrilled with the result, “We’re only relatively new however these awards really demonstrate the impact we’ve made. Such recognition really brings the idea of food matching to the forefront and we hope to continue this enhancement of the palettes of Australian diners and beer lovers.”

He continues, “Other companies occasionally claim their beer may vaguely suit a type of food but we create them from the start to be the perfect match - Bluebottle with seafood and Firefly with spicy foods. We use top experts and hundreds of consumers to craft the flavours and these awards are testament as to the quality of beer Fusion Brewing produces.”

These recent awards add to Bluebottle’s win last year as the ‘Best Lager’ at the Australian Beer Awards so it has been a very successful few months for Fusion Brewing.

Fusion’s third beer is in the testing phases for release in the coming months. Scott Douglas has tasted it and is sure it will collect a few awards of its own next year.
Additional information:

The Awards

The Australian International Beer Awards were presented on the 19th March at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne, Australia. The awards were conducted by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria and The University of Ballarat. They are considered Australia’s most coveted beer awards also held in high regard throughout the world.

Fusion Brewing

Fusion Brewing began in 2006 with one clear intention – making boutique beer from the start to be the perfect match to food flavours.

After a year of consumer testing and close consultation with Brian Watson (Fusion Brewing’s head brewer) and Matthew Evans (Acclaimed author, food journalist , gastronomer and food beers consultant to Fusion Brewing), Bluebottle Beer was released to market in November 2007. Bluebottle Beer is also the only beer endorsed by the largest fish market in the Southern Hemisphere – Sydney’s Pyrmont Fish Market.

Fusion’s second beer, firefly, was borne out of the same rigorous testing and matching process and was launched in March 2008.
Fusion’s boutique beers are available in over 700 locations throughout Australia.

The Beers

Bluebottle Beer – designed to complement seafood, it’s a European style lager with gentle bitterness and subtle citrus hints. Bluebottle adds to the delicate flavours of seafood without overpowering the palette.

Firefly Beer – designed to complement spicy foods such as Thai, Indian and Malaysian. Firefly is a Pilsner style beer with fine bead carbonation and an understated sweetness.
Links and Contacts

The

• beer
• beer brewery
• alcohol beer
• beer brewing company
• beer for spicy food

market will explode over the comign years with many new products entering the market.

Press release and information available at Fusion Brewing website: www.fusionbrewing.com.au

For further comment and sales enquiries: Scott Douglas 0411 208 970 and scott@fusionbrewing.com.au

Thanks for stopping by! Please share with us your home brewing experiences, ideas and tips.

Using a Good Beer Making Kit

Lots of time the urge to finally take the plunge into home brewing comes when you went to the brew pub and paid ten dollars for an imported beer of one that was brewed in their pub.  And even if that beer is good, it’s easy to start to suspect that you could do as well making beer and that your beer would be perfectly fresh and would cost a lot less than ten dollars a glass to enjoy this flavor all the time.  When that thought crossed your mind, the home brewer in you is born.

The community of beer lovers is very large as documented in the huge beer sales that stay consistent around the world.  That is why it is almost a shame and a crime when beer is mass produced and bad beer is sold so widely.  It’s a crime because it is so easy to make really good beer.  If you have that desire to enjoy the finest of this ancient recipe and maybe crossing the line to want to BE a maker of great beer, you will find that getting started on this great hobby is far easier than you may have thought.  And yes while you will have to learn a few things about the process of making beer, it will be more fun than any class you took in high school for sure because you are learning to make something you love and you get to drink your final exam!

Unlike school though, once you get down the basic process of home brewing, the variety of “right answers” to how to make a great beer are diverse and fun to play with.  You can try different grains, hops and yeast combinations.  You can adjust when each ingredient is added and learn how to balance the bitter flavor with the hops flavor to give you a deep rich blend or a light beer and all using the same equipment and much the same ingredients.  So with that enticement to the fun and endless variety you can find in a hobby of home brewing, it’s just a matter of getting started.

It’s very easy to fall under the influence of “beer purists” who will advocate very expensive and complicated equipment and using exotic ingredients to make a beer of very high quality and taste.  If you make it a practice to socialize at the home brewing retailer or at home brewing clubs or web sites, it’s easy to pick up that side of the home brewing community that is very particular and advanced in the craft of home brewing.

But it is important to remember that just starting out that you are not a home brewing purist yet!  And its best not to try to be one because starting out, its best to let others help you get some very basic equipment so you can learn the craft of home brewing and develop your skills easily and without so much pressure.  If you spend thousands on very elaborate and hard to operate equipment too soon, you will be frustrated and if the outcome is not just right, you will be disappointed.  So cut yourself some slack and buy just the basics and just learn to make a very down to earth starter batch of beer.  If it is drinkable at all after you step through the process a few times, you are doing great.  And you have all the time in the world to learn your craft and grow until you can afford to be a “beer purist” and be fussy and particular too.

So don’t be ashamed to buy a basic beer making kit at the beer retailer store or online to get you started.  These kits come with all you need in equipment and supplies to step through making your first few batches of beer.  It’s important you give yourself the time to use these starter kits to learn your basic skills.  Then once you have the basics, it will be great fun to buy different types of grains, hops and yeasts and experiment to refine your skills. That is a natural way to learn and away to become along time beer making enthusiasts and enjoy this wonderful hobby for many years to come.

Thanks for stopping by! Please share with us your home brewing experiences, ideas and tips.