Wirral’s Peerless Brewing Company has been hailed a top North West brewer in the region’s toughest beer challenge – giving a major boost to current expansion plans.
At the SIBA (Society if Independent Brewers) North West Region Beer Competition in Bolton the five year old Birkenhead brewery scooped an array of five accolades; two gold, two silver and a bronze. The fiercely fought event judged more than 300 entries from the region’s top breweries.
Peerless claimed gold for both the recently rolled out Knee Buckler IPA in the strong cask- bitters class and for speciality cask ale Jinja Ninja, while silver awards went to new brew RIOT Stout for premium strength cask ales and silver to Jinja Ninja in the speciality bottled category. RIOT Stout also picked up bronze for bottled porters and stouts. The two gold winners will now be judged at the annual SIBA National BeerX Competition held in Sheffield next March.
Knee Buckler (5.2%abv) is a deep golden cask-conditioned IPA (India Pale Ale) with a ‘zingy hop finish’. It is hopped with US Cascade, Columbus and Citra hops. Jinja Ninja is brewed with root ginger, chillies and lemons and has won several awards both in cask and bottle since it was launched only two years ago. RIOT Stout (7.2%abv) is ‘Russian Imperial Oatmeal Treacle Stout’ ’brewed with lots of oats for a full body and with treacle providing some sweetness’.
The Pool Street brewery has enjoyed sales growth at 30 per cent year-on-year since start up and is now poised for a major investment that will double production capacity to 25 brewer’s barrels (7,200 pints) per brew.
Toasting the success, managing director Steve Briscoe said: “We have again received testimony from our peers that we are brewing some of the very best cask ale in the North West. This is terrific reassurance for the future as we are about to invest in a major expansion to further grow sales as cask ale becomes increasingly popular.”(see Cask Report)*.
“Jinja Ninja already has a great track record of awards, but to see Knee Buckler and RIOT stout, both rolled out only this year, earn these top accolades is just fantastic.”
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“The success is a real tribute to the energy and exceptional talents of our dedicated young brewing team, Mark Powell and Alex Morley, who have been inspired to create these award winning brews.”
Last year won four top SIBA awards and Peerless Pale (3.8%abv) was hailed as the champion standard bitter for the region. Ends/ ref: Peerless PR 39
Note to editors: *The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) was founded in 1980 to represent the UK’s smaller, independent breweries. Today it has some 800 brewer members, on whose behalf it lobbies at Westminster and in Europe. Peerless beers have now won 19 SIBA awards at both regional and national level over the past five years, along with several Camra (Campaign for Real Ale) accolades.
Peerless supplies free trade customers throughout Merseyside, Cheshire and Greater Manchester and reach national pub company outlets in the region under the SIBA Direct Delivery Scheme.
Peerless award winning ales also include:
Storr (4.8%) is a pale and hoppy cask lager. The name is derived from the Old Norse word for strong in tribute to Wirral’s Viking heritage.
Other brands also include Red Rocks (5%abv), Triple Blond (4.1%abv), Viking Gold (4.6%abv), Oatmeal Stout (5.0%abv), and strong ale Full Whack (6%abv) in the core ale portfolio.
Jinja Ninja (4%abv) was first brewed in 2011 as speciality ale with root ginger and chillies for and was at the SIBA National Brewing Awards 2012 it was voted Champion Bottled Speciality Beer.
*Cask Report 2014-15: The annual Cask Report compiled for the brewing industry states:
“There’s a beer revolution going on in Britain – and cask ale is right at its heart. Sales of cask beer, the number of people who drink it, breweries who make it and festivals that celebrate it are all increasing as good quality flavoursome beer continues to gather mainstream interest and popularity.”
www.cask-marque.co.uk/caskmatters
For further media information or interviews and photographs please contact: Steve Hobman, Rhino Public Relations: 07751 578605. email: shobman@rhinopr.freeserve.co.uk