Ballina Information Blog

Australia’s leading boutique brewery, Redoak, has come a long way since a 14-year-old Tintenbar boy brewed up his first batch of ginger beer.

Brother and sister David and Helen Hollyoak, who grew up in Tintenbar, had success at the 2007 European Beer Star Awards, at which Redoak won 2 medals (1 Silver and 1 Bronze) against strong competition. This continues the recognition that Redoak is earning globally for its world-class beers.

Redoak’s results were:

Silver medal: Redoak Rauch (smoked beer category)

Bronze medal: Redoak Oatmeal Stour (sweet stout-cream stout category)

The 2007 European Beer Star Awards is now the world’s third largest beer competition with 575 beers from 28 countries – a 30% increase on previous year. The beers were judged by 54 judges from 12 nations with the winners announced in Nuremberg, Germany.

The competition focuses on the traditional art of European brewing and honours special and authentic beers with a character of their own, beers that stand out in taste and quality and which best fulfil the type criteria. The competition was established four years ago. For more information, go to http://www.european-beer-star.com

Commenting on Redoak’s most recent achievement, David Hollyoak says: “We are thrilled to have achieved world-class recognition for our beers, particularly in the category ‘Smoked Beer’ as this beer is one of the oldest and traditional of beer styles that originated in Bamberg, Germany. So, to win a silver in Germany is very exciting! Especially also considering our beers had the longest journey to get there!”

This latest success is followed closely on from the Australian Hotel Beer Awards where Redoak won the Grand Champion Beer of Show (India Pale Ale) and a swag of other medals. In all, they were awarded:

Australian Ale 1st India Pale Ale

Australian Dark Beer 2nd Wee Heavy Ale

Australian Stout/Porter 1st and 2nd Oatmeal Stout & Holly Porter

Australian Speciality 1st & 2nd Blackberry Wheat Beer & Rauch

The three highest scored beers of the competition are then separately judged and Redoak won first and third Grand Champion Beer of the Show with Redoak India Pale Ale and Redoak Oatmeal Stout respectively.

Redoak Brewery, established in 2004, is wholly Australian owned, developed and operated by sibling founders Janet and David Hollyoak. Its hand-crafted, fresh and locally brewed beers are extremely popular. David developed his passion for brewing beer at the age of 14 when he created a ginger beer on the family property at Tintenbar.

Over the years he has developed his own unique methods of brewing specialty beers and by using some more traditional methods, has created an extensive range of boutique beers available today.

All Redoak beers are created using only the highest quality ingredients, contain no additives, preservatives or added sugars. Redoak beers are not pasteurised and are served fresh. Redoak currently brews over 25 premium beers, numerous different beer styles and was the first brewery in Australia to brew more than 10 of its own beers.

Redoak is Australia’s leader in matching beer and food at Redoak Boutique Beer Café. They have developed with Head Chef (Richard Park), an exquisite menu of dishes which match perfectly to the Redoak beer range. They launched Australia’s first range of beer ice-creams and sorbets.

Redoak beers are available nationally through all Vintage Cellars.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Ballina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.