Sydney Beer Week has again shown it is about good beer in all of its forms, says its General Manager Liam Pereira.

Sydney Craft Beer Week, which began in 2011, was purchased by Dave’s Travel and Events Group in December 2016 and was last year rebranded dropping ‘craft’ from the title.

Pereira said that the decision came from wanting the Festival to be a celebration of all beer and following where the market is changing.

“Craft is becoming less and less of a focus now,” Pereira explained.

“It’s more about bringing everything together – moving away from just craft and towards the quality of the beers.”

Pereira said that for his team of five, the aim is to raise the stakes of Sydney Beer Week.

“Sydney being an alpha city in the world, we believe that we should have a beer festival that showcases that as well.

“It’s really just a celebration of beer and a chance to harvest a new generation of lovers of great beer for the industry.”

The new look also saw the introduction of an awards component to the festival to ensure that there was one event that would focus on the people in the beer industry.

“The thing with any beer week is that there’s always so much focus on events and consumers that we wanted to at least an event to celebrate the people in the industry as well,” Pereira said.

“Holding it towards the end of the festival was a bit of a way for us to say thank you to the event holders and breweries involved and celebrate with each other the things that we do without consumers.

“So, we looked at some categories that would highlight the people doing great things in the industry and the breweries.

“It’s a low key event that’s a good way for us to get together and celebrate the things that we do.

“It can be a bit of a thankless task sometimes so I think for all of us it’s a great when we can get together and acknowledge all the great things people are doing.

“It’s a fast evolving industry and we’re in a massive period of growth. We’re growing up a little bit as an industry as a whole,” he said.

Pereira said that for him, the highlight of the festival was the scope and range of events and taking good beer out of the inner west and and the CBD and taking it to all of Sydney.

Sydney Beer Week Award winners

Best Sydney Beer Presented by Hopco

Winner: Akasha Brewing Company: Hopsmith IPA

Best Sydney Beer Retailer Presented by Multi-Colour Aust + NZ

Winner: Beer Cartel

Best Brewery Cellar Door Presented by Kegstar

Winner: Akasha Brewing Company

Best Sydney Beer Venue Presented by Triple M

Winner: Bitter Phew

Best New Sydney Brewery Presented by Bintani

Winner: Yulli’s Brews

Best Sydney Sales Rep Presented by Four Points by Sheraton, Sydney Central Park

Winner: Jackson Davey: Wayward Brewing Co

Best Industry Beer Personality Presented by Cryer Malt

Winner: Dylan Hayes: Bitter Phew

Best SBW Beer Ambassador Presented by Goose Island

Winner: Tim Hodge: SydneyBeer

SBW Legend Award Presented by Sahm/JM Style

Winner: Richard Adamson: Young Henrys