4 Brothers Brewing claim gold at 2021 Independent Beer Awards for Fat Hefe wheat ale

At the start of the year, the 4 Brothers Brewing crew set three goals and with their gold medal win, they’ve managed to achieve them all.

Beer lovers of Toowoomba have known about the quality of brews served up by 4 Brothers Brewing, and now they’ve got the gold medal to prove it.

The Toowoomba-based brewery took this year’s Independent Beer Awards by storm, claiming five medals including their first ever gold.

Their European-style wheat ale, Fat Hefe, impressed the judges, while their blueberry lager, coffee porter and signature Toowoomba Lager were also award-winners.

4 Brothers Brewing founder and managing director Adrian Cubit said it was pleasing to be recognised by industry peers for their hard work this year.

“At the start of the year we set three goals: to open our new venue, to increase our brewing capacity with new equipment and to grab at least one gold medal from the two beer awards we entered in this year,” he said.

“So with our new equipment finally set to arrive early next week, we’re pretty thrilled we’ve managed to nail all of those goals.”

Richard Adamson, IBA chair, said both the number of entries and medals - with 75 per cent of receiving a medal based achieving high quality benchmarks - was incredible to see after a tough 18 months.

“It shows that quality is on the up for indie beer, which is great for everyone,” Mr Adamson said.

“I think it’s amazing that we can get a record number of entries given the challenging circumstances faced by most breweries this year, especially considering the many lockdowns and limitations with production.”

Gallery and socials from Oktoberfest pub crawl at 4 Brothers Brewing, Konig’s Biergarten

The awards were live streamed from all corners of the country for the second year running due to Covid uncertainty, and were broadcast from 10 official live cross parties around Australia, and other celebrations in taprooms and bars throughout the country.

Kylie Lethbridge, IBA chief executive officer, said it was such a special night.

“It was great to feel like the whole IBA team was part of each celebration, even though we couldn’t be together as an industry after yet another difficult year,” she said.

“I am positive that 2022 will see us finally being able to be in the same place at the same time for the Indies Awards, but the virtual ceremony is certainly a brilliant way to ensure that our members and industry stakeholders have a chance to party and to raise a toast to indie beer and the brewers who excelled this year.”