Beer and Bands - Australia Day and the Hottest 100s

Today is Australia Day...a public holiday for celebrating all things Australia (...I think. It tends to be a fairly ambiguous holiday).

In my social circles of Aussie "young ones", we love to use the day to share beers, barbeques and music with mates.

For many of us, the celebrations surround the TripleJ Hottest 100 countdown, a radio poll of the top voted songs from the previous year, which has been running since the 1980s. The broadcast began at midday today and is currently rocking out of various radios throughout our home and backyard.

This year, my ten Triple J Hottest 100 votes (unordered) went to:

• Arcade Fire - Month Of May
• Big Scary - Falling Away
• Big Scary - Tuesday Is Rent Day
• Basement Birds - Waiting For You
• Bedroom Philosopher, The - Northcote (So Hungover)
• Chris Cheney - Distant Sun
• Darren Hanlon - Together In Electric Dreams {Like A Version}
• Jezabels, The - Mace Spray
• National, The - Bloodbuzz Ohio
• Papa Vs Pretty - Heavy Harm

Traditionally, my voted songs never do well in the Hottest 100 poll. However, if any of the above songs are played...I will be drinking a quality Australian craft beer to celebrate! CHEERS!

On the other side...here are my (mostly unfortunate) predictions for the actual top 10:

• Cee-lo Green - Fuck You
• Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National
• Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand
• Yolanda Be Cool & DCup - We No Speak Americano
• Adrian Lux - Teenage Crime
• Art vs Science - Magic Fountain
• Big Jet Plane - Angus & Julie Stone
• Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
• Sia - Clap Your Hands
• Something by Washington

The other top 100 poll released today is The Local Taphouse Hottest 100 Australian Craft Beers. This poll has been running a couple of years now...and looks to have been hijacked a little by Social Media driven campaigns of marketing savy breweries...hence the win by the McLaren Vale Ale...maybe. However, it is still a relatively good indication of which craft beers the wider Australian community is currently drinking (mainly due to distribution accessibility).

The full list was released at about 11:00am today...and can be found on the Local Taphouse blog at: http://thelocaltaphouse.blogspot.com/2011/01/mclaren-vale-ale-gets-most-votes-in.html

(Through my beer journey of the last 3 years, I have tried almost every beer on that list now, with the exception of about five.)

My 5 available votes went to...

• Holgate Beelzebub's Jewels (with only 200 bottles released for the first vintage of this barrel-aged and triple-fermented barley wine, it was never going to make the list...especially when I had 2 of them, which helped my wife and I celebrate our Engagement and Wedding in 2010!)
• Bridge Road Brewers B2 Bomber (the most beautifully unique Australian beer that I enjoyed in 2010)
• Mountain Goat Rapunzel (a powerfully complex and drinkable Belgian Strong ale that blew me away!)
• Red Hill Brewery Imperial Stout (I had so many fantastic Imperial Stouts this year, especially from Australian craft breweries such as Murray's and Moo Brew, but it was the Red Hill Brewery version that kept me going back for more and more!)
• Holgate Brewhouse Big Reg (a wonderfully malty and sessionable Vienna lager...our "go-to" beer when pizza and footy is involved. It is the beer that really turned me to the Australian craft scene and will forever remain a personal favourite!)

And here are some more awesome Aussie beers that I enjoyed over the last year...and would have loved to included in my shortlist...

More info about the Local Taphouse Hottest 100 is available on The Crafty Pint website at: http://craftypint.com/news/post/the-hottest-100-revealed/

And for a quick analysis of the results, check out the Australian Brews News article at: http://www.brewsnews.com.au/2011/01/australias-top-100-announced/

It is not really beer drinking weather today, here in Melbourne, with cloudy skies and the temperature barely nudging 20 degrees. Nonetheless, we are enjoying several of the top rated Aussie craft beers from the Local Taphouse list - such as the Little Creatures Pale Ale, Stone and Wood Pacific Ale, Mountain Goat Steam Ale, Murray's Icon 2IPA, as well as Holgate Mt Macedon Ale.

Lunch is another beer-can-bbq chicken, time time using the only can of beer we had lying around...and maybe the most familiar Aussie macro beer - a VB.