Industry Alcoholic beverage Products Beer | Headquarters Melbourne, Australia | |
Owner Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria | ||
Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA) is an annual brewing competition that commenced in 1992.
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The AIBA is undertaken by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) in conjunction with the University of Ballarat. Judging of the awards is conducted at Melbourne Showgrounds, with the Awards presentation dinner held during Good Beer Week in Melbourne, Australia.
The awards were originally called the ‘National Beer and Brewing Awards’. In 1995 the awards became an international competition, with a field of 201 competitors and entries from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Canada, Indonesia, Malta and Tonga. It was at these awards that the first international winner was announced, Cisk Export Premium Lager by Simonds Farsons Cisk of Malta winning the Grand Champion Beer award.
The AIBA are now the second largest competition of their kind in the world, with 1,480 entries by 270 brewers from 35 countries in 2013.
Competitors must pay to enter in order to be judged. Only the trophies awarded in over 75 classes are strictly competitive; the unlimited number of gold, silver and bronze awards are based on meeting points thresholds in blind tastings.