20 beers short-listed to go into Sainsbury’s stores nationwide ahead of October grand final

Following an intense round of heats earlier this month in which Sainsbury’s customers and beer experts judged more than 150 beers from 70 breweries across the UK, Sainsbury’s has today announced the regional winners of this year’s Great British Beer Hunt. With bottled ales growing by 13.7% in the last year in supermarkets, breweries across the UK entered their new beers for the chance to win a coveted retail listing.

This year has been more popular than ever and consumers and judges alike have commented on the food-friendly versatility of the beers on show at the regional heats. Amongst the shortlisted 20 are citrus-spiked Infra Red, fiery Black Pepper Ale, tropical Serendipity and spicy Barney’s Brew.

All 156 beers entered into the Great British Beer Hunt 2013 were categorised by region and judged by beer experts – including John Read and Chris Hall from the British Guild of Beer Writers – as well as selected Sainsbury’s customers at four regional beer hunt events across the country during April and May. The five beers which received the highest number of votes at each regional event will go on sale in Sainsbury’s stores for three weeks in September. The three best-selling beers from each region will then go into a grand final on 4^th October, where a panel of experts will select the two overall winners from a line-up of 12. The winners will receive a guaranteed, minimum six-month listing in Sainsbury’s stores across the length and breadth of the country from November this year.

Jack Rutherford, Sainsbury’s Beer Buyer, says: “At the regional beer hunt heats this year, we were really impressed with the high quality of British beer on display, which received excellent feedback from the brewers, beer experts and customers alike. The competition is a fantastic opportunity to put these beers in front of our customers and in the coming weeks we will be working with breweries to get them on shelf at the beginning of September.

Winning beers will be sold in the seasonal aisle in over 300 Sainsbury’s stores for three weeks in September.

Winners by region:

The International Beer Challenge (IBC) is Europe’s premier packaged beer competition and each year, the IBC discovers and rewards the finest beers from across the globe.

The IBC attracts a wide variety of entrants including brewers, shippers, agents, independent retailers, retail chains, supermarkets and wholesalers. Being part of the IBC carries a number of significant benefits.

Apart from being an internationally recognised symbol of quality, the IBC can:

• Raise your brands’ profile, prestige and credibility with retailers and consumers
• Demonstrate your commitment to product quality, innovation and new product development
• Increase product sales
• Boost awareness of your beer
• Be tasted by renowned international industry judges
• Use the IBC awards logo on packaging and as part of your own promotional plan
• Discover how your beer stands up against its competitors in the eyes of our expert judges

Visit www.internationalbeerchallenge.com and download the entry form today. For enquires please contact Steve Blakebrough on 01293 558132 or email steve.blakebrough@offlicencenews.co.uk

Leeds based Microdat, the UK’s leading brewing and manufacturing company, are pleased to announce that David Hallas has been appointed as Business Development Manager. David takes responsibility for driving sales of Microdat quality Keg and Cask brewery range.

David joins from Pyraid8 where he most recently held the role of Senior Recruitment Consultant handling a high-profile, blue chip portfolio of clients and working to broaden the company’s client list.

Commenting on the new appointment, Microdat CEO Maitland Hyslop said, “We welcome David Hallas to Microdat as Business Development Manager. David brings more than a decade of sales and marketing experience to the business and we look forward to working with him. David will be leading on the sale of our mainstream products.”

David’s passion for the business, his knowledge and sales experience is a welcome addition to the Microdat team.

Click here for the GPS May newsletter

Cyclops Beer, the industry body which provides simple descriptions of cask and bottled ales, has now tested and accredited over 1500 British beers. The organisation, formed in 2006, aims to demystify beer making it easier for drinkers to choose a beer based on its appearance, smell and taste as well as its bitterness and sweetness rating. In the last 18 months the number of beers accredited by Cyclops has grown by nearly 20% to 1505.

Mark Tetlow who manages the testing process explains that accreditations are carried out at a laboratory based at Everards brewery:
“We measure the sweetness and bitterness of each beer in the lab, taste it and then carefully select words to describe the look, aroma and taste. We produce tasting notes for breweries using the eye, nose and mouth symbols and descriptors and have around 400 words to choose from. Breweries can use the Cyclops tasting notes on their websites and on pump clips, glasses, beer mats and other point of sale.

“It’s important to use words that people drinking beer in the pub can easily understand rather than anything overly technical or flowery. At Cyclops we want to encourage more drinkers to enjoy their beer and we believe that their choice is made easier by using simple tasting notes and a standard measure of bitterness and sweetness.”

The Cyclops scheme has recently been taken up by retailers such as M&B and Morrisons who find it helpful for their customers. Morrisons has made it a requirement for any bottled ale in their stores to be accredited by Cyclops and the Cyclops tasting notes are used on shelf edges, with beers being organised by colour rather than by brewery in a number of stores so that shoppers can find similar beers to ones which they already know they enjoy. It is also used by distributors such as NDD in their customer brochures for pubs.

Full details of all the beers and breweries can be found at www.cyclopsbeer.co.uk. The most recent beers to have been accredited by Cyclops are from Black Sheep and Box Steam Breweries. The total number of breweries who have signed up for accreditation is 240. Recent research by the Campaign for Real Ale found that 40% of young adults, aged 18-24, who have never tried real ale before would be willing to try it if simple tasting notes explaining what a beer looked, smelt and tasted like were available at the point of sale.

Below is the link to Butcombe Brewery’s new quarterly e-magazine Butcombe Bytes, you can sign up for your own copy at http://butcombe.com/

The magazine includes news, giveaways and details of Butcombe events for publicans – there is a consumer version too.

If you would like any further information or high-res images from the magazine please do let us know.

We hope you enjoy it.

Butcombe Bytes May trade final