PMA contributors win top beer accolades

Journalist Ben McFarland was presented with the top accolade as Beer Writer of the Year after being voted top out of seven category winners.

PMA columist Pete Brown scooped the new award for corporate communications. The award for Best Writing for the Beer and Pub Trade was won by Ben McFarland, while the silver award was scooped by PMA contributor Glynn Davis.

Last year’s winner and chairman of the judges Simon Jenkins said: “Ben is really setting the standard for writing about beer. His work is always interesting and informative – and his passion for the subject really shines through everything he writes.

“The exciting thing for myself and my fellow judges was seeing the sheer range of material which is being published about beer – in books, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and online.

“This reflects a fundamental change in Britain’s brewing industry, which has seen huge numbers of micro-brewers and craft brewers posing an increasing challenge to the dominance of the industry’s big boys.

"These brewers have brought hundreds of new beers to the market, and opened up to customers a vast new array of tastes, styles and experiences.”