Moorhouse’s Brewery has scooped new acclaim for its five strong bottle range at the premier International Beer Challenge.
All of the Lancashire brewer’s five core brews claimed accolades at the fiercely fought annual contest with several hundred entrants from brewers worldwide judged by industry professionals in 62 categories. Both the famous Black Cat ale and Pendle Witches Brew won silver while bronze medals went to Premier Bitter, Pride of Pendle and Blond Witch.
This is the second year of success for the expanded range since the roll out of a new multi-million pound brewery in 2011. The new brewing capacity allowed both Pride of Pendle and Premier Bitter to join the established bottle line up, with all bottles repackaged to strengthen shelf presence.
Mike Hiscock, Moorhouse’s national accounts manager, said: “These awards are great accolades from beer industry professionals. As we step up sales, it is really pleasing to see success for the second year running with the strengthened bottled range produced by the new brewery.
The £4.2m brewing complex means Moorhouse’s is now capable of brewing 1000 brewer’s barrels-a-week or some 15 million pints-a-year. Selected bottles from the range can now be found in leading supermarket chains in the North West including Morrison’s, Tesco, ASDA SPAR and Booths.
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Notes for editors: Founder William Moorhouse established his drinks manufacturing business in Accrington Road, Burnley, Lancashire in 1865. It produced mineral waters and then low strength hop bitters for Temperance Movement bars. Full strength cask-conditioned ale brewing began in the 1970s. It struggled to survive and in 1985 Manchester businessman Bill Parkinson bought the brewery ‘because he liked the beer’ when the brewery produced only ten barrels a week and faced closure. Moorhouse’s has won more many awards since then. Black Cat (3.4%abv) was proclaimed Supreme Champion at the Great British Beer Festival 2000 and the best moderate strength ale at the 2011 Brewing Industry International Awards (BIIA) – the ‘Oscar’s’ of the brewing world. Pride of Pendle (4.1%abv) was hailed as ‘best cask ale in the world’ when voted BIIA Champion Cask Ale in 2004 and Premier Bitter (3.7%abv) also took gold in its class the same year. Pendle Witches Brew has also won several top brewing awards while Blonde Witch, the newest and fastest growing brand, has enjoyed wide acclaim from consumer and industry competitions. The brewery now directly supplies several hundred pubs in the North while its beers are distributed nationally via wholesalers and major UK pub companies.
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