Why the Indies is the Only Competition Range Brewing Enters

Range Brewing is known for releasing an ever rotating lineup of hazy pales and IPAs, often to queues of people waiting outside, or online sell outs in a matter of minutes.

Last year, as it scooped three gold medals, two silvers, three bronzes and four trophies at the Independent Beer Awards, people may have been forgiven for asking why the demand brewery, among the leaders of a new wave of brewers focussed on the hoppiest and the juiciest, would bother with something so old fashioned as judges feedback and an awards ceremony.

Gerard Martin, co-founder of Range Brewing, says the Indies is the only beer awards they ever enter. Even when making a new beer every week, the team is still trying to make it with quality and style in mind. Being able to benchmark their methods and quality against industry peers is crucial for growth of the business. 

"We want to go up against independent breweries firstly. We are fiercely independent and we trust the expertise of the judges in that particular competition,” Martin says. “These awards are the only ones we’ve ever done, and the only ones we’ll probably ever do. We entered to see where our IPAs sit and what the judges think of them.”

However, it wasn’t only the IPAs that got accolades on the night, with a bronze medal for its CRISP (German-style Pilsner), which helped the team win Champion Small/Medium Brewery Trophy and a prize of 250kg of hops from Hop Products Australia. Martin says they plan to enter more styles again this year.

“We’re always broadening our styles... we have been evolving some lager recipes over the last few years and we’re getting to a point where we’re really happy with them,” he says. “[We want to know] what we have done with our exploration, and our evolution of that particular style. If we’re happy with it, we want to see if the judges are happy with it.”

Martin says last year’s judging notes are still kept at hand, and have played a key role in development and reflection of the last 12 months.

“We’ve literally just gone over last year’s. They are quite detailed and they really do help us,” he says. “We’ve come so far in a year so it’s pretty crazy to look over those notes and look at where we’ve gone. I think that’s why we do it; it’s part of our calendar.”

While non-hazies are a big focus for this year’s entries, and will play a role in future plans for the brewery, fans of its big IPAs need not worry. With the 250kg of hops from HPA, the team have snagged a stash of new season Galaxy and is using them for a “huge dry hop” of a Triple IPA. A style they rarely make. Martin says people should definitely be excited about that beer, to be released soon.

Indies entries are open now for 2021. Click here for all the details.