Ballarat's own Dollar Bill Brewing has taken out the top gong at the Australian International Beer Awards with one of its brews named Champion Australian Beer.
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The Golden Teeth barrel-aged peach sour ale also took out the title of best fruit beer at the prestigious awards on Thursday night.
The beer is spontaneously fermented with 70 per cent pilsner malt and 30 per cent wheat malt and aged in a barrel for up to two years before being rested on Dementer-certified biodynamic peaches.
In winning the award, Dollar Bill beat some of the bigger names of Victoria's craft beer industry including Champion Victorian Brewery Hop Nation and Two Birds.
Dollar Bill Brewing owners Fiona and Ed Nolle said they were shocked when they were announced as winners.
"They called our name out and then everyone turned around and stood up and started screaming and yelling and cheering for us and then I burst into tears," Ms Nolle said.
"After that, I couldn't speak, I went into absolute shock and Ed had to look after everything and get up there to make the speech. I'm still in shock.
"The nicest part about winning was everyone was just screaming and cheering for us. Everyone was just as surprised and as ecstatic as we were and to get that many fuzzy feels in one room, it was just so full of hugs and love and to feel that is just an amazing emotion."
Ms Nolle said the beer was more about the peaches than the beer itself.
"That's the biggest thing about what we do. It's like a chef with fresh produce, if you don't have the right things, you can't make a great meal," she said.
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"It's like a model. The beer is the actual model and the clothes are fruit and if you put them together, you get a magnificent picture," Mr Nolle added.
It was the second lot of awards that week for Dollar Bill, with the brewery winning two platinum trophies at the Craft Beer Marketing Awards in the United States for the packaging art and stories behind their Parlay and Learning to Breathe beers.
Ms Nolle said the raft of awards proved how strong Ballarat's craft beer industry was.
"Travis Price, who's a local, just did our new t-shirts and we made sure we got Ballarat all over them so when we were in Melbourne for Good Beer Week, everyone knows where we're from," she said.
"All the other brewers from Ballarat, Red Duck, Cubby House and Aunty Jack's are all at GABS as well under a Ballarat stand.
"Ballarat now, I think we've just stamped our names on it, we are the regional craft beer capital of Victoria and we are so proud that Dollar Bill can be part of that."
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