Formerly known as the Australian Craft Beer Awards, the Indies are a celebration of the very best in Australian independent brewing.

In order to win, Mismatch Lager had to beat a total of 756 entries – the largest number of entries in the awards yet – of which 443 were draught and 313 were packaged.

Based in the Adelaide Hills, Mismatch’s Lager is inspired by the great Helles-style beers of Germany, and Munich in particular. A smooth drinkable beer, it celebrates the famed Hallertau hops.

Mismatch’s Owen Lyons was very surprised by his two wins, having also won the Lager category, and described the feeling as “humbling”.

“It’s just amazing that someone appreciates the fact that we can brew a clean, crisp lager – I’m a bit lost for words,” he told Beer & Brewer.

“We make hoppy beers, we make sour beers, we make lager – our approach is to try and make every beer, which not every brewery does. Our lager is a Helles lager, but we’re a craft brewery so it’s tailored towards the palate of our consumers.

“Still, I think sometimes we can think a little bit too much about craft beer – we try to get a little bit too hoppy, we try to get a bit too fancy. This is just a quaffable lager, you can just drink it and not think about it too much!”

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The Antipodes Water Company in its fifteenth year, is set to release their first commemorative bottle to celebrate their array of world firsts. A limited release sparkling water in both 500ml and 1L sizes, will be released in New Zealand and Australia soon.

The team at Antipodes are extremely proud of their accomplishments so far in 2018. In February Antipodes was crowned the champion sparkling water at the 28th Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting in West Virginia, USA. The single longest running, and world’s most respected water awards. Antipodes was also awarded in the best packaging category.

In March Antipodes was then acknowledged as the champion light sparkling water at the prestigious Gourmet Waters International Contest AVPA (Agency for the Valorisation of Agricultural Products) in Paris, France.

“The team at Antipodes are absolutely delighted with our world firsts!”, said Deborah McLaughlin, General Manager at the Antipodes Water Company, “we can’t wait to see our commemorative labels being served in the many great establishments that sell Antipodes in New Zealand and Australia in 2018.”

Antipodes world firsts go back over a decade, including the first and only mineral water to have achieved carboNZeroCertTM certification, and the first bottled water to be recognised by the United Nations for environmental practices and responsibility.