Grey Trees Brewery and Purple Moose Brewery took the top awards in SIBA’s Wales & West Independent Beer Awards, which took place at Ludlow Festival yesterday. The American hopped ‘Afghan Pale Ale’ by Grey Trees Brewery took home the overall Gold in the cask beer competition, whereas the rich and chocolatey ‘Chocolate Moose’ by Purple Moose took home the overall Gold in the small pack (bottle and can competition). “Two very different but equally excellent beers won the overall Champion Golds in the SIBA Wales & West Independent Beer Awards. Judges had a tough job separating the pack as the standard was extremely high once again and lucky beer festival attendees will be scrambling to try these beers – now officially the best independent craft beers in the Wales & West region. Massive congratulations to Grey Trees & Purple Moose!” Buster Grant, SIBA Chairman. The SIBA Wales & West Independent Beer Awards judge a huge range of beers across a number of styles before the winners from each category go forward to an ‘Overall Champions’ final. It was this ‘best-of-the-best’ final that finds the best winners in cask and small pack, which judges cans and bottles side by side. The beer festival continues at Ludlow castle today, where the public can taste the full range of award winning independent craft beers. Grey Trees Brewery, which started with a mission to get local people excited and enthusiastic about drinking ‘proper beer’ again as apposed to global lager, is run by Ray Davies, who had this to say on their win, “Fantastic! This has been a great year for the brewery and it is brilliant to see an IPA win the overall regional cask award. I would like to thank all of my family and everyone at the brewery for their support and hard work.” The Purple Moose Brewery is a ’40-Barrel’ micro-brewery based in the historic harbour town of Porthmadog, North Wales, close to the mountains of Snowdonia. Brewer Lawrence Washington from Purple Moose commented “This is amazing news for the brewery with so many great breweries in the Wales & West SIBA region. To win the overall small pack award is testament to how far we have come as a brewing business.” Full Winners List Overall Champion of the Cask Beer Competition Sponsored by SPAsoft Ltd
Cask Standard Mild & Brown Ales Sponsored by Muntons PLC
Cask Standard Bitters & Pale Ales Sponsored by Murphy & Son Ltd
Cask Best Bitters & Pale Ales Sponsored by Charles Faram & Co. Ltd
Cask Premium Bitters & Pale Ales Sponsored by Rankin Brothers & Sons
Cask Strong Bitters & Pale Ales Sponsored by Brewers Select
Cask Premium Strong Beers Sponsored by Rastal GmbH & Co KG
Cask Porters, Stouts, Old Ales, Strong Milds & Strong Brown Ales Sponsored by Bulk Storage & Process Systems Ltd
Cask Speciality Light Beers Sponsored by Crisp Malting Group
Cask Speciality Mid to Dark Beers
Overall Champion of the Small Pack Competition Sponsored by Brewers Select
Small Pack Standard Mild & Brown Ales
Small Pack Standard Bitters & Pale Ales
Small Pack Premium Bitters & Pale Ales Sponsored by Beatson Clark Ltd
Small Pack Strong Bitters & Pale Ales
Small Pack Premium Strong Beers |
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