1) Psst, hey you. Yeah, you, the brewer reading this. Come here, I’ve got a knowledge bomb to drop on you. Some information that will change your world. You know that GABS festival thing? Yeah, it’s good, aye. Well, you want to win the People’s Choice award? It comes with a trophy and who doesn’t like a trophy? Everyone likes a trophy, even the ones who act all cool and say it doesn’t matter to them. Anyway, you want to win that trophy? Here’s the tip – brew a sweet beer.

2) Yeah, okay, that’s really hardly a big secret. When it comes to the aggregated palates of GABS patrons, sweet is the big winner. Here are some of the reason winners.

2016: Bacchus Peanut Brittle gose
2015: Brewcult’s Milk and Two Sugars stout
2014: La Sirene Praline Belgian ale
2013: Bacchus White Chocolate and Raspberry pilsner

You’ve got to go all the way back to the first year of the award in 2012 to find a non-sweet winner – that was Yeastie Boys’ Gunnamatta.

3) The 2017 winner didn’t buck the trend either. That went to Stockade’s The Mountie, a maple imperial stout. I didn’t try this at GABS – partially because it’s a 12 per cent beer and my GABS plan is to drink as little beer as possible from those tiny plastic cups and use the glass instead. And a full glass of a 12 per center at a beer festival is a very risky move.

4) So the first time I got to try it was after the brewer had thrown it into bottles. I can say that first mouthful was rather unimpressive – it was so sweet it tasted like I was drinking straight maple syrup. But it was a different matter once my palate had acclimatised a bit – that’s when the maple folds into the beer rather than sitting on the top. The flavours are of maple and raisin but it doesn’t taste super sweet (or maybe it was so sweet it blocked my sweetness receptors). It’s a good beer and another example of the fact the Stockade brewers know what they’re doing.

5) I just wish they’d pay a bit more attention to their labels. Some of their past efforts have been great (eg 8 Bit IPA) while others have been a bit offputting (The Sesh and Red Light Robot – the latter of which featured robots doing it doggy style). The Mountie features a pantsless mountie pouring maple syrup down his chest while clutching a big maple leaf to his nether regions. Some will see it as just a bit of fun but to me, it’s a bit tacky.

Free or paid for: I picked up a bottle of The Mountie during a small spending spree at Cellabrations at Warilla Hotel.