Bodmin-based Harbour Brewing Company has reached the regional final of Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt.
In heats around the UK, Sainsbury’s customers and beer experts judged more than 150 beers from 70 breweries, reducing the list to five winning beers from each of four UK regions.
In the south west region Harbour won not one but two coveted spots in the final five, with its IPA and Porter No 6. IPA is an interpretation of a classic British style of strong pale ale, highly hopped to preserve it on a long journey from London to India in the days of the Empire. Porter No 6 is in the style of a classic Victorian London porter, dark and rich in flavour.
Sainsbury’s established the Great British Beer Hunt two years to champion Britain’s growing band of artisan brewers and to encourage their customers to try a more diverse range of British beers. The top two beers in the national final of the competition, to be staged in October, will win a much coveted six-month residency on the supermarket’s beer shelves across the country.
The beers which have made the regional finals will be on sale in Sainsbury’s stores for a limited period in September. The three best sellers from each region will go forward to the national final.
“What makes our success in this competition all the more encouraging to us is that Sainsbury’s customers have had a say in the vote,” said Harbour Brewing Company partner Eddie Lofthouse.
“We don’t brew beer to win competitions, we brew beer for people to enjoy, and that everyday drinkers have given us their vote with not just one but two beers in the south west is fantastic.”
He added: “As independent brewers without access to huge numbers of pubs, we rely greatly on bottled beer sales so we consider the Great British Beer Hunt a very important competition for us. And it’s great to be flying the flag for Cornwall in a national competition, too.”
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NOTES TO EDITORS
Harbour Brewing Company was launched in 2012 on a farm site a couple of miles outside of Bodmin, in Cornwall, operating on ten-barrel, American-designed plant. Business partners Eddie Lofthouse and brewer Rhys Powell hatched their plan to open a new brewery having met in a pub in Padstow. Rhys, originally from South Wales, is a Heriot Watt trained brewer who had been working at Sharp’s, in North Cornwall. Eddie has experience in hospitality, having run the family business, The Atlantic Hotel and Doom Bar in New Polzeath, on the North Cornwall coast.
For further information contact Eddie Lofthouse or Rhys Powell on 01208 832131.