It’s time to get ready for the country’s biggest and most influential poll in Craft Beer again
Since it started in 2008, the GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beer people's choice poll has revealed the consumer trends and breweries shaping the craft beer landscape. Now considered one of the biggest polls of its type in the world, the campaign makes conversations about craft beer the topic of the day. With an average of 30% of the Hottest 100 list rotating each year and separate celebrations of new brews and independent brews, it the biggest consumer craft beer marketing campaign of the year.
The GABS Hottest 100 is all about the craft beer drinker as they get to nominate their five favourite brews of the year! For breweries, it is an incredible way to celebrate your full range of beers, to give your consumers the opportunity express their appreciation for your brew, to expose your brand to tens of thousands of consumers and be part of the conversation promoting the collective industry.
Here's how to get involved.
REGISTER
Register your beers for the poll
VOTE
Make your voice heard and pick your faves
PROMOTE
Encourage your fans to vote (and maybe win!)
PARTY
Host a Hottest 100 Countdown Party
PARTNER
Join us to present the Hottest 100 poll
Key Dates
REGISTER
Nominate your eligible beers.
The Hottest 100 has updated eligibility criteria to ensure products entered must be in the spirit of the production methods, ingredients and flavours born out of the innovation of the modern craft beer revolution. You can find all the information on eligibility in the T&C’s below.
Nominate all your beers available for public consumption in 2023.
Here’s how it works…
The nomination form is live on the GABS Trade Hub from 15 November.
Provide contact details for your key Hottest 100 team members
To make things easy, if you have submitted beers in previous years, these will prefill in the nomination form. Please select the beers that are still eligible for 2023.
For new beers, enter the name, style (from drop-down), ABV and upload a can/label render or tap decal of your eligible beers (see terms below)
Submit ASAP to ensure your beers are in the poll BEFORE voting opens on the 1st December. Beers may be added by yourselves or consumers at any time during the poll.
Submissions received after Sunday, 26th November (AU) or Sunday, 3rd December (NZ) will not guarantee that your beers will be featured on the voting portal when voting opens. We are working hard to upload your beers to the voting portal as soon as possible.
Finally, a reminder of the terms and conditions to keep in mind.
GABS HOTTEST 100 CRAFT BEERS TERMS & CONDITIONS
Please make sure you add all beers that were available in 2023… you’d be amazed at how many beer fans will want to vote for even your smallest releases and last thing we want to do is deprive a craft consumer of their democratic right to vote for their personal favourtite. Please note that if we receive requests from people wanting to vote for an eligible beer you haven’t listed, it may automatically be added to the list.
VOTING. Only one vote (for five different beers) is permitted per person, and a valid email address must be submitted for each vote to be counted. GABS reserves the right to remove votes, or voting behaviour, that appear to break this rule, be manufactured, or we deem to be false or not in the spirit of the poll.
ELIGIBILITY. Beers must have been brewed in Australia (for the Aussie poll) or New Zealand (for the Kiwi poll) and sold in kegs, cans or bottles in the 2023 calendar year. GABS reserves the right to reject entries should the submission be deemed ineligible or include information we deem to be false.
CRAFT BEER STATUS. All Australian craft brands that are brewed in Australia, regardless of ownership, are eligible to enter the Aussie poll. Likewise, all New Zealand craft brands, regardless of ownership, are eligible to enter the Kiwi poll. International craft brands brewed in either country (eg. Brooklyn Brewery, Goose Island, BrewDog, Lagunitas) are ineligible. Beer brands deemed by GABS as ‘non-craft’ (eg. Crown Lager, Toohey’s, Steinlager) are also ineligible.
Qualifying craft beer products must be in the spirit of the production methods, ingredients and flavours born out of the innovation of the modern craft beer revolution. They should not mimic RTD’s and should be at a minimum brewed and fermented using four essential ingredients: yeast, hops, water and malted grain and recognised by consumers as a craft beer.
In addition, for further clarity beer is a beverage that is brewed, and:
is the product of the yeast fermentation of an aqueous extract of predominantly malted or unmalted cereals, but may also contain other sources of carbohydrates
contains hops, or extracts of hops, or other bitters so that the beverage has no less than 4 international bitterness units (or comparable bitterness if other bitters are used)
may have spirit distilled from beer added to it, but only if that spirit does not add more than 0.5% to the total volume of the final product
may have other substances (including flavours) added to it, but in the case of other substances that contain alcohol (other than beer spirit), the alcohol does not add more than 0.5% to the total volume of the final product
contains no more than 4% by weight of sugars (monosaccharide and disaccharide)
does not contain any artificial sweeteners
INCENTIVES. No brands or breweries other than GABS are permitted to offer prizes, incentives or inducements of any value in exchange for votes for beers, or promote the poll in a way that could be perceived as such. Brands and breweries are not permitted to ask for proof of votes. We ask you please respect all your fellow breweries in our great industry and adhere to this one golden rule! Please ensure all your staff members are aware of the rule. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding your campaign to ensure it’s within the spirit of the rules.
DO NOT. Fall for any dodgy websites, agencies, adverts or individuals offering to secure legitimate votes with fake email addresses for a fee, favour or otherwise. Not only is that not in the spirit of the rules but it’s a huge disrespect to all your peers in the industry. Our audit and security mechanisms inevitably weed these out and it immediately leads to the brand/brewery and/or voter being disqualified.
BREACH. Any breaches of the above terms, intentional or otherwise, will lead to the brand/brewery and/or voter being disqualified. GABS’ decision on all matters related to the integrity of the poll is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Details of breach may be publicly released.
Please make sure you add all beers that were available in 2023… you’d be amazed at how many beer fans will want to vote for even your smallest releases! Please note that if we receive requests from people wanting to vote for a beer you haven’t listed, we will ask you to add this, or, if eleigible we will add it ourselves. As well as the being in the running for the Hottest 100 list, your beers may also be eligible for our sublists - the ‘GABS Hottest Indie Beers’ and ‘GABS Hottest New Beers’.
promote
Campaign Platforms
GABS run a national awareness campaign across multiple channels, including Out of Home Advertising, Social Organic & Paid Ads , EDMs and PR Media Announcements. As expected, GABS socials go into overdrive during the campaign. Post include call to action to vote, profiling of entrants, awareness of the countdown parties and celebration of the campaign achievers.
Encourage your fans to vote.
Once voting opens, we will provide a bunch of marketing assets for you to help spread the word. Once available, please feel free to download and use as you like. Ideas include:
Print and display the GABS Hottest 100 poster (can be printed up to A0 size )
Update your Facebook cover photo
Share the campaign on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
Add an email signature and link to your team’s emails
Or feel free to design your own campaign using the official GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beers logo
Our official hashtag is #GABSHottest100. Please tag away (and encourage your fans as well) to be part of the conversation.
Please note though that no incentives or inducements for voting can be offered. This is to ensure a fair playing field amongst breweries, and is strictly enforced.
East Coast Canning + Printing (ECCP) are the Official Hottest 100 Can Printing partner.
ECCP are passionate about providing high quality mobile canning and digitally printed cans for beverage producers of all sizes. As Australia’s FIRST digital direct-to-can printer, with a 1 layer minimum order, the possibility for breweries of any scale to seamlessly incorporate the Hottest 100 voting QR code onto their cans is now a reality. Breweries interested in finding out more should contact them ASAP below.
PARTY
Host a Hottest 100 Countdown event.
Compared to the Melbourne Cup for craft beer, the GABS Hottest 100 Countdown will take place on Sat 27 Jan (AUS) and Sat 10 Feb (NZ). Craft beer fans can follow the GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beers official countdowns at events around each country, supported by live podcasts and social media.
The results are delivered online over a pulsating five and half hours. They are also streamed live directly to over 60 official countdown party venues around the country, each with beer taps flowing freely as hundreds of fans gather to celebrate the occasion.
Just like the Melbourne Cup, you can also bet on the outcome of the GABS Hottest 100 with the bookies!
If you're a craft beer bar, venue or brewpub, be part of the fun by hosting a countdown event, and we'll help promote it!
Even better, we'll also give every venue who registers a Hottest 100 countdown event two tickets to a 2024 GABS festival.
Also, did we mention…
HOTTEST 100 BEERS BINGO!
It’s everyone’s favourite game for your punters to play as they follow along with the countdown. In the week leading up to the countdown, you’ll be able to download five different Bingo Cards below which you can print for your patrons to use. As the countdown progresses, punters cross off the correct beers as they appear. First one to complete their card yells BINGO! Prizes at your discretion.
Here’s what to do...
Decide what you’d like to do on the day and register your interest below.
We’ll list your event on the Hottest 100 webpage, and help promote your event to our extensive audience (although we do very much rely on you to promote the event to your fans as well).
After the event, we’ll also email you a link to a designed Results Poster if you would like to display this.
COUNTDOWN SCHEDULE
CHAMPIONS
The Champions
As we enter the 15th year of the GABS Hottest 100, there is no doubt the champions of previous years have not only earned their way into the GABS Hottest 100 Hall of Fame as consumers favourite craft beers of choice. They have all also stood the test of time and remain leading core range beers of their respective breweries today!
FEATURED IN
partner
Join us in celebration of great craft beer.
More than any other beer awards, the ‘people’s choice’ nature of the GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beers poll makes it an incredible platform to engage craft beer lovers around Australia and New Zealand.
We’d love to chat to you about partnership opportunities as we grow the poll further in the years ahead.
