The Avoca Hotel has taken out Gourmet Traveller top beer list award for the third year running.
Located less than two hours from Geelong and Melbourne and less than an hour from Ballarat, Avoca is a vibrant rural town located in the heart of Pyrenees. Known as one of the state’s first goldfields, Avoca isn’t just home to award-winning wineries (Blue Pyrenees Estate, Summerfield Winery and Mount Avoca), but it’s also home to an award-winning beer list.
The key takeaways
- The Avoca Hotel has taken out the award for the Best Beer List in Australia
- The list features more than 200 beers from all around the world
- This is the third year the hotel has won the title
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Yes, there’s an actual award for a venue and their selection of frosty amber nectar…
Meet your Gourmet Traveller 2020 champion, The Avoca Hotel – an essential stop for anyone wishing to experience dining at its finest while visiting the Pyrenees or Grampians in Victoria’s west.
Announced late last year, The Avoca Hotel was awarded Australia’s Best Beer List at Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards for the third year running. Launched in 1993 by Rob and Judy Hirst and Tucker Seabrook, Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards were created to recognise and reward the hard work and talent of sommeliers as well as the enormous investment in time and resources by business owners to develop quality wine (and beer) lists and cellars.
Recognising the Victorian pub’s vast selection, credit has been given to hotel owner, Ian Urquhart, who has beautifully curated an ever-changing list that looks both locally and overseas for inspiration in 11 pages of beers – complete with tasting notes to help customers with their choice of beverage. Listing more than 200 different types of ales, the beers are broken up into the types – light ale and lager; pilsner and kolsch; golden, reserve and dark lager; wheat beer; gose; pale, blonde and golden ale; amber ale and red ale; India and American pale ale; seasonal and traditional ale; Belgian Abbey-style ale; strong ale; brown ale, black ale and porter; stout; fruit beer and sour beer; lambic beer; gluten-free beer; and ginger and root beer. The list of categories alone is longer than some venues beer lists.
Alongside some familiar names, the beauty of this pub is you’ll also find many uncommon imported boutique beers from all over the world – ones that you would have never heard of before. It might be completely impossible to get through the whole list, but that’s the beauty in it – you never have to drink the same thing twice. It’s the breadth and depth of the beer list that sets it apart – as well as the sheer quality that it embraces.
If you’re more into wine, the pub shines here as well, featuring 274 different wines on the menu (20 by the glass), which is equally as impressive as their list of beers. And if you needed more convincing, The Avoca has even received Trip Advisor’s Certificate of Excellence for the last six years in a row and has been awarded Hall of Fame status.
Other winning regional businesses for 2020 included Mitchell Harris Wines from Ballarat who took out the Readers’ Choice Award, and Laura in Merricks for Best Country Restaurant, alongside Melbourne’s renowned Attica who took out the top award of Wine List of the Year.
Not bad for a country town hotel in a region known for its wine, not bad at all.
The Avoca Hotel is located at 115 High St, Avoca. Check out the full list of winners here.
