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Spectapular result for beer festival

Fortunately, there is still some room to move at the Royal Exhibition Building for the nation’s best beer festival.

The Great Australasian Beer Spectapular enjoyed record growth last month. And while the main floor of the series was slightly more crowded, event organisers Steve Jeffares and Guy Greenstone know they have some space to work with next year.

While the beer college and bar are key features upstairs, there are also plenty of open areas that remain unused. So that allows expansion and a commitment from the GABS team to go bigger and better.

Just over 16,000 attended the three-day brewing extravaganza in Melbourne, up by 4000 over the five sessions. Last weekend GABS went to Sydney for the first time and 6300 turned up for two sessions.

The Victorian event went through 300,000 85ml tasters!

Around 120 brewers produced one-off brews for GABS 2015. Some will continue with their production while others won’t be revisiting.

In total there were more than 350 beers from 150 Australian and international breweries showcased through samples, stalls or colleges.

“The response to GABS 2015 in Melbourne and Sydney has blown us away, with both events better attended and more successful than we could have hoped for. We feel it really confirms the increasing interest in craft beer, and the uniqueness of our event,” said Greenstone.

America’s Beer Connoisseur Magzine recently rated GABS in the top-20 beer festivals in the world and the latest instalment lived up to the reputation.

“The most exciting thing is that the vast majority of people who attended GABS are new converts to flavoursome beer who will drive future growth of craft beer in Australia,” said Jeffares

He said GABS are hoping to bring the event back to Sydney again next year and will begin talks in the coming months to make this a reality.

For West Aussies unable to make it to the east coast, the Five Bar will have WA beers at GABS in a tap takeover on Wednesday.

Brewcult proved to be the toast of GABS 2015. Their 'Milk and Two Sugars', which included cold-dripped coffee and vanilla beans, was the winner of this year’s Beer & Brewer People’s Choice Best Festival Beer award.