Hunter Gin producer takes home Gold at the Australian Gin Awards
On August 31st the 2020 Australian Gin Awards were announced and not surprisingly, to all the local gin lovers out there, quite a few Hunter gin producers were amongst the medal recipients.
Over two days 250 gins across 6 different categories were judged with 22 Gold, 67 Silver, and 97 bronze medals being awarded, and amongst the big winners from the Hunter was the Amato by Styx Brewery.
With the Australian Gin scene seeming to evolve at 100 miles an hour, the Australian Gin Awards were founded in 2017 by the Australian Gin Distillers Association Inc, as a way of keeping pace and providing Australian gin distillers with their own awards platform, and to shine a light on the excellence of gin production.
Relatively new to the Gin producing scene Styx Brewery owner Analee Isbister said,
"It's amazing to get a gold, the only one in the Hunter. It's the first year that we've entered so it's taken me a bit my surprise, these things usually take some time."
Created as a part of a collaboration with Japanese restaurant Nagisa on Honeysuckle, the idea evolved following several conversations with Nagisa Manager Yohei,
"We go to Nagisa all the time, and when we mentioned to Yohei that we were planning on distilling gin he got very excited and that's when we talked about collaborating.
"We made about four different versions and Yohei critiqued them each before we decided on which one to produce."
If you're keen to try the Gold Medal awarded Amato you can get your hands on a bottle either via the Styx Brewery website or direct from Nagisa.
Other local award winners were Earp Brothers and Newcastle Distillery who each took out a variety of Silver and Bronze medals, the full list of Hunter award winners are as follows:
CATEGORY 2. CONTEMPORARY GIN
GOLD Styx Brewery Amato
BRONZE Styx Brewery Achilles Gin
CATEGORY 5. AUSTRALIAN NAVY GIN
BRONZE Styx Brewery Achilles Gin -Bullock Island
CATEGORY 1. CLASSIC DRY GIN
SILVER Earp Distilling Co. Gin 8
SILVER Newcastle Distilling Co Dry Gin
CATEGORY 3. MATURED GIN
BRONZE Earp Distilling Co. Gin 8 Barrel Aged
BRONZE Earp Distilling Co. Port Side Barrel Aged
BRONZE Newcastle Distilling Co Bathtub Gin
CATEGORY 6. FLAVOURED
BRONZE Newcastle Distilling Co Infusion Gin – Strawberry