British beers triumph at World Beer Awards
Beers from Edinburgh Beer Factory, Long Man Brewery, Big Drop Brewing Co, Hook Norton, Stewart Brewing and Harvey’s came top in styles from Mild to Imperial Stout at the awards, which took place in London on 10 August.
More than 1,900 beers in 72 categories, and from more than 36 countries, entered into this year’s awards, which were judged via blind tastings by a panel of experts.
The winners will now go through to a final round that will be held in London, where 100 international brewers, industry experts and journalists will taste and vote on the World’s Best Beers 2017 in eight categories. The winners will be announced on 21 September.
Global beer revolution
European Chairman of the World Beer Awards Adrian Tierney-Jones said that the standard at this year’s awards demonstrated “that the global beer revolution is not going to go away any time soon”.
“We have winners from the traditional brewing countries of Belgium and Germany, while the brewing powerhouse that is North America is also represented,” he said.
“However, the emerging brewing nation of Brazil also excites me immensely, which is why we held, for the first time, a round one in Brazil for all Brazilian entries.”
Maidenhead-based Big Drop Brewing Co won in the Best Low Strength Pale Beer category with its Citrus Pale Ale. The brewery’s founder Rob Fink said that the awards were “the icing on the cake” of the brewery’s first year of operations.
Considerable care and craft
The winners by style for each country were also announced at the event. Surrey-based Hogs Back Brewery won two gold medals in the UK 4% – 5% ABV Bitter and UK Czech-style Pale Lager categories for its TEA and Hogstar English Craft Lager respectively.
Hogs Back Brewery’s managing director Rupert Thompson said: “We devote considerable care and craft to making both TEA and Hogstar authentic and distinctive beers that are enjoyed as much by mainstream beer drinkers as they are by craft aficionados.
“TEA is brewed with 100% Surrey-grown Fuggles hops, while Hogstar is brewed with five hops including our own English Cascade grown in our hop garden, as well as a Czech/Germany and American hop variety, making it a genuinely international beer with a unique English twist.”
The full list of winners at The World Beer Awards can be found online here.
