In partnership with Howatson+Company, Australia’s original craft brewery, Matilda Bay, has launched Rejected Ales, a limited-edition collection of the 27 near perfect brews they rejected on the way to crafting the award-winning Original Ale.

Obsessed with quality and relentlessly pursuing perfection in everything they do; Matilda Bay’s Master Brewer had no hesitation in rejecting beer that by another brewery’s standards might have been good enough. Rather than keeping these almost perfect beers a secret, the brewery has canned them and made them available to the public to prove just how good their Original Ale is.

“We’ve crafted beer to perfection our own way since 1983. If a batch doesn’t meet our impeccably high standards, we reject it. It might be a bit commercially reckless, but it’s just the way we do things around here. So, to demonstrate our dedication to crafting the perfect beer, we’re letting Aussies try our not quite perfect enough Rejected Ales. Which, after our Original Ale, are hopefully the second best beers you’ll taste”, says Matilda Bay’s Founder and Master Brewer, Phil Sexton.

The Rejected Ales are starting to pick up beer awards around the country. Just like Original Ale did last year.

With names like ‘Yeah…nah’, ‘Keep dreaming’ and ‘Ballpark’, each of the 27 Rejected Ale cans tells a story of its rejection. These have been brought to life in OOH, radio, press, social, DM, retailer integration, and in store activations. It’s Matilda Bay’s first above the line campaign in more than eight years.

Howatson+Company executive creative director, Gavin Chimes, adds: “They say nothing tastes as sweet as success, but at Matilda Bay, failure is delicious too. Now we’ve put that failure in cans for people to try.

“We worked closely with the Matilda Bay brewers to capture the details of their arduous journey. We opened old wounds and old logbooks. And crafted every aspect of our campaign. It was only fitting, considering how much craft they put into their beer.”