Devon’s Otter Brewery is celebrating a clutch of awards after entering both its cask ale and bottled beers into two prestigious food and drink competitions.

Otter Head (bottled) and Otter Amber (cask) have both won a silver at Taste of the West’s annual Food & Drink Awards. The cask version of Head also won a bronze in the same category after being judged against entries from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.

 

Otter Head has also received a coveted gold star at this year’s Great Taste Awards after being blind tasted by a highly respected panel of food and drink experts including chefs Mark Hix and Anthony Worrall Thompson, Tom Parker-Bowles and Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans. Now in their 16^th year, the awards are organised by the Guild of Fine Food and give consumers a recognised mark of excellence underpinned by rigorous judging standards.

 

Well known for its environmentally friendly approach to producing beer, the Otter Brewery was established in 1990 by David and Mary Ann McCaig and is now one of the South West’s leading suppliers of cask conditioned beer. Otter Head was created in 1993 after public demand for a strong beer to sit alongside the already popular Otter Bright, Bitter and Ale and because of its strength and distinctive flavour is now considered a connoisseurs tipple.

 

Earlier this year, Otter Amber was awarded silver at the Tuckers Maltings Beer Festival in Newton Abbot less than a month after being unveiled as part of National Cask Ale week. It is now available across the South West and fills the gap in strength between Otter Bitter (3.6%) and Otter Ale (4.5%). It was developed in response to a huge demand from local landlords for a 4.0% Devon beer.

 

 

“This recent accolade from Taste of the West is a great one for our team to have when you consider Amber only went into production in April. Beer is Britain’s drink, and in the same way that people are passionate about sourcing their food locally, they are equally as interested in buying from their local brewer. Cask ale continues to show tremendous growth across the country and we’re thrilled to be a part of this resurgence” added Patrick McCaig.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 1:25 pm and is filed under south west. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.