The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) unveiled three Supreme Champions and 60 medal winners in its National Beer Competition 2015, announced at its BeerX celebration of British beer in Sheffield.
Top honours and the Supreme Champion titles went to: Brass Castle Brewery of Malton, Yorkshire for Burnout in the National Cask Beer Competition; St Austell Brewery for Big Job in the National Bottled Beer Competition; and Wild Beer Company of Evercreech in Somerset for Madness IPA in the National Keg Beer Competition. The Supreme Champions were selected from the Gold medal winners in their competition.
The Supreme Champions, Gold, Silver and Bronze medal-winning beers were chosen at a judging session at BeerX. A panel of industry experts, local licensees, beer writers and drinkers assessed around 150 finalist beers, which had all earned their place in the finals by winning a medal at one of SIBA’s 10 regional beer competitions.
SIBA chairman Guy Sheppard said, “With close to 800 brewers now members of SIBA, competition for our awards is fierce and all our winners can be very proud of their achievement. We congratulate them on brewing beers that have been judged as the best in the country and wish them every success within the vibrant, innovative British brewing industry.”
“For many of our winners and finalists, the BeerX Festival of Beer is a unique opportunity to put their beers in front of new drinkers outside their heartland. Helping our members to expand distribution of their beers has always been one of SIBA’s key goals and we hope that BeerX results in additional sales for many of them.”
Ian Goodall, business director of Brass Castle Brewery, said, “Brass Castle started just four years ago as a one barrel brewery, so we’ve come a long way. Winning awards is always wonderful, but it’s particularly gratifying to win a SIBA Award because it is voted for by fellow brewers and industry peers. We do a lot of beer swaps with brewers in other areas, distributing their beers in return for them taking some of ours, and I’m now expecting my phone to be ringing off the hook.”
Rob Orton, brewing team leader at St Austell Brewery said, “Our head brewer Roger Ryman has created an amazing beer in Big Job, and it’s gratifying to have that recognised. It’s building a following and, as we plan to offer Big Job as a cask ale more frequently, this award will definitely increase interest from pubs.”
All Bronze, Silver and Gold award winners received their certificates and trophies on stage at BeerX from Sheppard and BBC Radio food and drink broadcaster Nigel Barden.
Brief tasting notes on all the winning beers in the SIBA National Beer Competition are available on the BeerX website http://toolbox.siba.co.uk/BeerX15org/beers.asp
Caption (l-r): Nigel Barden, BBC Radio food and drink broadcaster; Ian Goodall, director, Brass Castle Brewery; Rob Orton, brewing team leader, St Austell Brewery; David Barr, technical brewer, St Austell Brewery; Guy Sheppard, SIBA chairman
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Notes to editor:
The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) was founded in 1980 to represent the UK’s smaller, independent breweries. Today it has close to 800 brewer members, on whose behalf it lobbies at Westminster and in Europe. SIBA successfully campaigned for the historic reductions in beer duty in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Budgets.
BeerX is an annual celebration of British beer, organised by SIBA. This year, it takes place at iceSheffield from 18-21 March. The event includes: speeches from some of the beer industry’s leading figures; seminars on a variety of beer-related topics, delivered by experts in their field and the announcement of the National Beer Competition and SIBA Business Awards winners. On 20-21 March, SIBA stages the BeerX Festival of Beer, the biggest beer festival to offer drinkers a choice of cask, keg and bottled beers from across the country.
Issued by: Society of Independent Brewers
Further information: Tony Jerome, director of communications & membership
tony.jerome@siba.co.uk / 07736 948186
Ros Shiel
ros@shielporter.com / 07841 694137