The British Guild of Beer Writers has shortlisted 30 journalists, writers, bloggers and broadcasters in its Annual Awards. The winners and runners up in nine categories will be unveiled at the Guild’s annual Awards presentation and dinner on 29 November.
The finalists were selected by judges Keith Miller, food and drink commissioning editor at The Daily Telegraph; Bruce Smith, brewer at Maltsmiths Brewing; David Cunningham, programme director at There’s A Beer for That, the campaign to reignite Britain’s love of beer and the current Beer Writer of the Year, Pete Brown, who chaired the panel.
Judges read, viewed and listened to some 130 entries which included books, newspaper and magazine articles, both printed and online, as well as blogs, radio broadcasts and podcasts.
Brown said: “Whittling the large field of high quality entries down to a shortlist was a challenge; in some categories, work that would have been in contention to win in past years didn’t make the cut this time, simply because there was so much good stuff. Everyone on the shortlist should be proud of having reached this stage.
“We were especially pleased to see several entrants progress to the shortlist on their first submission into the Awards, particularly in the new Citizen Communicator Award for amateur writers. The best entrants in all categories demonstrated a sure grasp of their subject, coupled with a talent for storytelling, whether they did this through books, press articles, blog posts or videos.
“The quality, breadth of topics covered and diversity of media used by our finalists shows that beer writing is indeed in good health. We look forward to toasting all our shortlisted writers, and announcing the winners, at our dinner next month.”
The Awards dinner will be held at the Park Lane Hotel on Piccadilly on 29 November. Guests enjoy a four-course dinner with beers matched to each course, beers before and after the meal. The event is open to non-Guild members, for more information visit: Annual Awards Dinner
GUILD OF BEER WRITERS ANNUAL AWARDS 2017: THE SHORTLIST
Guild Award for Best Citizen Beer Communicator (new award)
- Peter Alexander
- Oli Haydon
- Matthew Hickman
- Rebecca Pate
There’s A Beer For That Award for Best Beer Broadcaster
- Jonny Garrett, Craft Beer Channel
- Jane Peyton, The Food Programme
- Breandán Kearney, The Belgian Smaak Podcast
- Lucy Stevenson & Louise Mulroy: We Made A Beer
Guild Award for Best Young Beer Writer
- Csaba Babak: posts on Beer Means Business and other websites
- James Beeson: posts on Morning Advertiser and Beeson on Beer
- Rob Davies: articles in The Guardian
- Joe Tindall: posts on Fatal Glass of Beer
St Austell Brewery Award for Best Beer and Travel Writer
- Stephen Beaumont & Tim Webb: World Atlas of Beer (2nd edition)
- Chris Elston: Elston’s Beer Blog
- Jonny Garrett: Craft Beer Channel
- Adrian Tierney Jones: Beer in So Many Words and press articles
Guild Award for Best Beer Writer – Corporate Communications
- Beer Hawk: Hoptical magazine
- Beer Merchants: magazine
- Camden Brewery: Beer School materials
- Carlsberg UK: Crafted brochure
Maltsmiths Brewery Award for Best Beer Communicator – Online
- Martyn Cornell: Zythophile
- Matt Curtis: Total Ales/Good Beer Hunting
- Jonny Garrett: Craft Beer Channel
- Emma Inch: Fermentation Radio
- Breandán Kearney: Belgiansmaak
- Annabel Smith: Cask Marque website
Fuller’s London Pride Award for Best Beer Writer – Trade Media
- James Beeson: articles in Morning Advertiser
- Susanna Forbes: articles in Imbibe
- Adrian Tierney-Jones: various press articles
Adnams Award for Best Beer Writer – Regional Media
- Boak & Bailey: articles in Devon Life
- Emma Inch: Fermentation Radio
- Alastair Gilmour: Cheers magazine
- Simon Jenkins: The Yorkshire Beer Bible book
Shepherd Neame Award for Best Beer Writer – National Media
- Adrian Tierney-Jones: Seven Moods of Craft Beer book and press articles
- Roger Protz: IPA A Legend in Our Time book and press articles
- Breandán Kearney: articles in Belgian Beer & Food magazine and other titles
- Will Hawkes: articles in Financial Times, Guardian and other titles
- Katrien Bruyland: article in Original Gravity
Caption to attached image: winners at the Guild of Beer Writers Awards presentation 2016
The Guild is grateful to the following sponsors, whose support makes possible our annual awards and dinner:
Adnams
Established in 1872, Adnams combines innovation with tradition. Behind the walls of its Victorian-looking building, it has some of the most advanced and energy-efficient brewing equipment in Europe and constantly experiments with new, innovative techniques. Adnams brews a range of beers which reflect its heritage but also challenge conventions. They use locally-grown East Anglian grains of malted barley, rye, wheat and oats wherever popular and deploy a number of different hop varieties from Britain as well as across the world – all of which contribute to their beers’ individual characters.
Fuller’s London Pride
The Fuller, Smith & Turner partnership was formed in 1845, but brewing has taken place at the site of the current Griffin Brewery since around 1654. It is the only UK brewery to have three different beers named Champion Beer of Britain by CAMRA; collectively London Pride, Chiswick Bitter and ESB have received this accolade five times. Other beers in its extensive and wide-ranging portfolio include Honey Dew, Bengal Lancer, Wild River and Frontier. London Pride is Fuller’s flagship beer. With its well-rounded flavour and rich history, everything about this authentic, characterful beer binds it to our capital city and the people who love it.
Maltsmiths Brewing
Our brewers, Sarah and Bruce, or Maltsmiths as they like to be known, brew tasty, refreshing beers that people love. They tweak, taste, then tweak some more, to perfect their recipes, and they’re always experimenting with new ingredients and tastes. The American style IPA and the Bavarian style Pilsner are our Maltsmiths’ first two beers, brewed at the award winning Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh, and now they’re available across the UK on draught, in bottles and in cans.
Keep up to date with our Maltsmiths as they brew more new recipes from scratch – Twitter: @maltsmiths and Instagram: @MaltsmithsBrewing
Shepherd Neame
Shepherd Neame is an independent family brewery and pub operator based in the medieval market town of Faversham, Kent. Dating back at least 400 years, it is Britain’s oldest brewer and still creates its range of Kentish ales and award-winning lagers using traditional methods with 100% natural ingredients; chalk-filtered mineral water from the artesian well below its site, the finest malting barley and Kentish hops.
Its beer portfolio includes Spitfire Premium Kentish Ale and the new Spitfire Gold, Bishops Finger Kentish Strong Ale and Master Brew. More recent introductions include Spitfire Lager, the contemporary Whitstable Bay Collection and a new collection of limited edition No.18 Yard Brewhouse beers, named after its historic cask store. It also brews a number of high quality international lagers under licence including Asahi and Samuel Adams Boston Lager.
St Austell Brewery
Founded in 1851 by Cornishman Walter Hicks, today St Austell Brewery remains a 100% independent and family owned brewer and pub operator. Its brewery in St Austell produces many of the region’s most popular beers for sale in pubs, bars and supermarkets in the south west, across the UK and overseas. St Austell brews beer with individuality, character and spirit which is true to its vision of what good beer ought to be. Fellow regional brewer and pub company Bath Ales joined the St Austell Brewery family in summer 2016.
St Austell Brewery’s sponsorship of Best Beer & Travel Writer Award is apt as Cornwall is the UK’s favourite domestic holiday location. As well as being served on British Airways flights and in BA lounges all over the world, its flagship beer brand Tribute Cornish pale ale is also served on board Flybe flights and on GWR trains.
There’s A Beer For That
There’s A Beer For That is a campaign to reignite Britain’s love of beer by focusing on the quality, diversity and versatility of beer. Backed by Britain’s Beer Alliance, the campaign seeks to change consumers’ attitudes and behaviours around beer through a number of events, digital activity and media partnerships. It recently launched partnerships with Foodies Festivals and The Guardian to further change the image of beer and place it where consumers can learn, trust and experience great beer and food pairings. There’s A Beer For That offers a range of free of charge programmes and educational materials for trade and run a beer match tool online to search for a perfect beer and food pairing.
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Notes to editors:
The British Guild of Beer Writers was formed in 1988 to help spread the word about beers, brewing and pubs. With more than 300 members, its mission is “to improve the standards of beer writing and improve the public knowledge of beer and pubs.” Its members include the cream of the country’s beer communicators – be they journalists, authors, producers, photographers, illustrators or PR consultants. Supporters of the Guild include: brewers, pub companies, and many suppliers associated with the brewing trade. http://beerguild.co.uk/
Issued on behalf of: British Guild of Beer Writers
By: Ros Shiel
Contact: ros@shielporter.com / 07841 694137