| It’s been a rich couple of years for beer awards at Arkell’s Brewery near Swindon, Wiltshire and the brewery’s reception is fast running out of wall space to show them all off.
Arkell’s has won awards from a range of organisations, including the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), Taste of the West and the World Beer Awards. These include a gold and silver award in the SIBA national beer competition for 1843 Craft lager in the last two years. Also in the SIBA regional competition last month Moonlight picked up a silver, Tinge of Ginge a bronze and another gold for the 1843 Craft lager. Taste of the West awarded the brewery a hearty five awards: Golds for Kingsdown and Bee’s Organic, silvers for Moonlight and The Master, and a highly commended for Wiltshire Gold. The British Bottling Institute rewarded Arkell’s with a silver for Moonlight in its nationwide competition and the National Honey Show rewarded Arkell’s with its gold award for its Bee’s Organic, which contains organic honey to sweeten the brew. One highlight award for head brewer Alex Arkell were silver for Moonlight ale and bronze for Bee’s Organic in the World Beer Awards late last year. “The World Beer Awards are the global awards selecting the best internationally recognised beer styles,” said Alex. “The annual tasting selects the ‘World’s Best Beers’ to consumers and the trade throughout the world. We were beyond delighted to learn that we’d won the first year of entering them. “Our beers are being judged against their peers, and there are more and more breweries opening up every year,” he added. According to the Campaign for Real Ale, there are now 1,424 breweries across the UK, after 204 opened in the past year. “The competition is growing, so to do so well against an increasing number of breweries is fantastic,” said Alex. “Our success is thanks to the significant investment we’re making in new brew house equipment, around £1 million over the last few years which has improved the consistency of our beers, and the broadening of our range to cater for changing tastes and flavours. “Most of all it’s a big pat on the back for our brew house team who work alongside me brewing all our beer in the traditional way every week, and our brilliant draymen who make sure that every barrel and bottle arrives at our pubs in tip top condition every delivery.”
Nicky Godding Press officer, Arkell’s Brewery
|
9th June 2016