The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria has cancelled the 2020 Australian International Beer Awards citing COVID-19.

The organisation announced back in June that it had organised a new judging schedule with a virtual awards presentation in September, prior to the resurgence of COVID-19 in hotspots across Victoria and recently New South Wales.

Articles published under the media release byline are news produced by the relevant business and remain unedited by Brews News. This statement was circulated by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria.

Due to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the social distancing measures in place, The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) has made the decision to cancel the Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA).

In making this decision, the health of our judges and volunteers has remained the priority. With a large reliance on the international beer community to support the AIBA with entries and judges, it was not possible to stage an international award program during the current global health crisis.

The RASV will be providing a full refund to exhibitors for any entry fees paid. With no AIBA in 2020, we will be using this time to review and make improvements to the program.

Commencing as a small domestic program in 1987, the AIBA has since grown into the largest annual beer competition in the world assessing both draught and packaged beer and attracting more than 2500 entries from more than 400 breweries in 26 countries.

We thank exhibitors for their patience and understanding and look forward to your support when the Australian International Beer Awards return bigger and better in 2021.

If you have questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.