SIBA unveils ‘the best of the best’ beers at BeerX
The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) has announced three Supreme Champions and 60 medal winners in its National Beer Competition 2014. The winners were unveiled at the organisation’s BeerX event in Sheffield.
(l-r) Nik Milo of Cotswold Spring Brewery; SIBA commercial director Nick Stafford and Jonny Mills of Bristol Beer Factory.
All Gold, Silver and Bronze medal-winning beers were chosen at a judging session on Tuesday which marked the start of BeerX. A panel of around 100 brewers, industry experts, local licensees and beer enthusiasts assessed the 300 finalist beers, which had all earned their place in Sheffield by winning a medal at one of SIBA’s eight regional beer competitions.
All the finalist beers are now on sale at the BeerX Festival of Beer, which is anticipating 2,000 visitors before the event’s close on Saturday evening.
SIBA chief executive Julian Grocock said, “With close to 800 brewers now within SIBA’s membership, competition for a medal is intense at both regional heats and the national final. To win a place at the final judging at BeerX is an achievement in itself and we applaud all our finalist brewers as well as the medal and trophy winners.
“While coming away with an award is of course a tremendous accolade, every brewer here today is a winner. For many of our finalists, the BeerX Festival of Beer is a unique opportunity to put their brews in front of new drinkers outside their heartland. Helping our members to expand distribution of their beers has always been one of SIBA’s key goals and we hope that BeerX results in additional sales for many of them.”
Mark Frankcom of Cotswold Spring Brewery said, “It is an extraordinary accolade to be judged the best cask beer by our peers at this great beer competition. We’re very proud of OSM, which is based on a traditional local recipe and produced from 100% malted ingredients.”
For Bristol Beer Factory, brewer Jonny Mills said, “We are always trying to make the best possible beers, and it is wonderful to win the top award at the best beer competition in the UK.”
All Bronze, Silver and Gold award winners received their certificates and trophies on stage at BeerX from BBC Radio food and drink broadcaster Nigel Barden and SIBA commercial director Nick Stafford.
