The Drinks Association has reimagined the beer sub-categories at the 2019 Australian Drinks Awards.
Previously judged across just two sub-categories - Domestic and International - beer has been segmented this year into four sub-categories.
Thrive Research has judged the winners of each sub-category via a survey of 4000 target consumers.
"The beer brand sub-categories have changed from Domestic and International to the industry classifications of Classic, Contemporary, Premium and Craft," noted Thrive Insights Director Chris Papadimitriou.
"This means the number of beer awards increase from six to 12," he explained. "Respondents would not notice this change as it's simply a brand classification update, rather than a survey change.
Drinks Association CEO Georgia Lennon added: "After consultation with our members and the brewing community at large, we decided to change the sub-categories to better reflect how beer is classified within the drinks industry.
"This offers a far more nuanced playing field for finalists, one that truly reflects each brand's popularity and impact on consumers."
Last year's winners were:
Emerging Brand of the Year
Beer (Domestic): Pirate Life (Carlton & United Breweries)
Beer (Imported): Goose Island (Carlton & United Breweries)
Most Distinctive Brand of the Year
Beer (Domestic): Young Henrys (Young Henrys)
Beer (Imported): Guinness (Lion)
Fan Favourite of the Year
Beer (Domestic) : Victoria Bitter (Carlton and United Breweries)
Beer (Imported): Corona (Carlton and United Breweries)
"We can't wait to reveal the winners of the 2019 awards and celebrate with them at Doltone House on August 22," Lennon said.
New wine category added to the Awards
The Drinks Association has also added rosé as a brand category to reflect booming sales of pink wine in Australia and around the globe.
"The process for selecting winners has remained the same however we have additional categories and awards, in total the number of brand awards increases from 33 to 42," Papadimitriou said.
"And I can say that the voting for some of the categories have been very close. With the inclusion of some exciting new categories, the awards will be bigger and better than ever."
The top 200 drinks brands have been automatically considered for the Fan Favourite, Most Distinctive Brand and Gaining in Popularity awards, with Manildra, IRI and BevChain sponsoring the respective awards.
The Gaining in Popularity category replaces Emerging Brand of the Year and reflects consumers' perceptions of brands they regard as currently trending in retail.
The Australian Drinks Awards will be held in Sydney, on August 22, 2019.