Celebrating class in a glass
The Beautiful Beer Awards were launched in 2006 as a way of recognising and rewarding excellence in beer and have now reached 400 pubs
Some 400 licensees are now displaying a Beautiful Beer Award outside their pub as the scheme — designed to reward those offering "excellence in beer" — gathers momentum.
The 400th plaque was presented by John Grogan MP, chairman of
the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group, to John Gohery, manager of the Audley in London's Mayfair.
The award scheme is part of the industry's Beautiful Beer programme to improve the image of beer. The Beautiful Beer Awards cover the entire beer category — bottled, keg and cask — and are available at two levels: gold for a pub serving excellent beer; platinum for a pub that also offers beer lists, beer and food matching and a variety of beer styles.
All pubs achieving an award receive a Beautiful Beer plaque to display outside, to let customers know they can be guaranteed a great beer inside.
The Audley is part of the Spirit Group, which has been strongly supportive of the awards scheme and very successful at the higher, platinum level: of the 14 pubs to have achieved the platinum award, seven are Spirit houses.
Andrew Knight, managing director for Spirit, comments: "We've embraced the Beautiful Beer scheme for a number of reasons. Like all good quality schemes, it's sufficiently rigorous to present a challenge to the majority of our pubs, so they have to look at everything around the way they serve beer and make improvements where necessary. The result is better beer for our customers, and a plaque for the pub to reward them for their efforts. It's been a great success and we'll continue to support the scheme."
John Grogan adds: "Enjoying a refreshing beer in the pub is one of
the greatest pleasures in life in our country, and drinkers deserve to be given a beautiful beer every time. These awards, which recognise and reward pubs serving excellent beer, are to be applauded. It is good to see support for the scheme growing."
Visit www.beautifulbeer.com for information on the scheme, including the criteria, fees and process involved in achieving the gold and platinum awards.
