Traditional Scottish Ales, based in Stirling, earned the award through its support for the revival of the Lade Inn near Callander.

TSA was chosen from ten category winners in the competition, which was introduced by SIBA in 2006 to demonstrate the quality of the businesses run by the society’s members.

The judges of the category recognising the best support for an on-trade customer said TSA’s entry had captured the essence of the class to perfection.

In backing the restoration of the Lade Inn from concept to realisation, the brewery showed what targeted on-trade support is about and what it can achieve. Involvement with the local craft business that bought the property, from the early planning stages, through cellar installations and staff cellar training in handling cask ales, to developing a range of beers exclusive to the pub, meant that TSA effectively offered itself as a key consultant to the project.
Its ongoing support — for the creation of Scotland’s only real ale shop, now established at the premises, and for the staging of a beer festival at the pub — gave further evidence of the outstanding merit of the entry.

The runner-up in the overall awards was Nottingham’s Castle Rock Brewery, which won the category for best public relations initiative for its support of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

Each month, Castle Rock launches a new veer to a brand-new recipe, with names such as Wood Anemone, Bittern, White Admiral and Cranefly, and the brewery donates 10p from every pint sold to support the trust’s wildlife protection projects. The annual contribution is £3,000 a year, which is worth £30,000 to the trust because the Government matches each pound raised with £9 generated from landfill taxes.

Third place in the overall awards went to Thornbridge Hall Brewing Co at Ashford in the Water in the Peak District of Derbyshire, which won the class for best promotion initiative. The brewery formed a partnership with Sheffield University to set up Brew Team 07, which engaged a group of students — with no affinity for or knowledge about real ale – in a process of brewing education, culminating in the brewing of beer, by students, for students, to go on sale in university bars and help launch a new student village development.

SIBA offers congratualtions to all winners, and thanks all those who took the time to enter.