Oakham Ales ‘Icon’ named best cask beer in the East of England at prestigious awards
Oakham Ales have added to their trophy cabinet with an overall Gold at the SIBA East Independent Beer Awards 2024, beating brewers from across the East of England, stretching from North Lincolnshire down to Essex and Hertfordshire, as well Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
Oakham’s ‘Icon’, a 5% abv cask-aged IPA, was named the Overall Champion of the Cask in a final round judging against winners from the various beer style categories. The beer is described by Oakham as having “vibrant berry flavours and earthy, pine resin complexity of Mosaic combine brilliantly with the pronounced grapefruit, orange and tangerine notes of Centennial and the punchy tropical fruit characteristics of Citra”. All of the category winners from the awards will now go on to battle it out at the National finals in Liverpool next year.
The prestigious awards, run by the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA), and held at Elgood’s Brewery in Wisbech prior to their beer festival, are judged by brewers and beer experts and seen very much as the brewers’ choice awards in the industry.
Andy Slee, SIBA Chief Executive was on hand to present this year’s awards and was full of praise for the winners; “The Elgood’s beer festival is a highlight of the calendar for beer lovers in the East of England and those lucky enough to attend over the weekend were the first to taste what are now officially the regions best beers. Competition was incredibly tough this year with superb beers across the board, but I’d like to say a particular congratulations to this year’s overall winners Oakham – very well done and well deserved.”
Taking the Overall Silver in 2024 was Brentwood Brewery, followed by Baker’s Dozen in Bronze, both breweries were in attendance at the awards and had this to say on their wins;
“This is our most popular beer, so great to see it voted Gold in the Imperial and Strong, and even better Silver in the Overall Category – so yeah very, very pleased and a big well done to all the guys back at the brewery and the brewing team.” Dan Curtis, Brentwood Brewery.
“Really delighted because Dean [Head Brewer] is really happy with this beer and he loves it, so he’s going to be delighted and gutted that he’s not here to collect the award himself! We first brewed it 6 years ago and have just reintroduced it, looking to put it into our core range, so this is great news.” Jill Baker, Baker’s Dozen.
The competition took place immediately before the opening of the Elgood’s Brewery Beer Festival 2024, taking place at Elgood’s Brewery in Wisbech, which continued over the weekend. The festival features beers from Independent Craft Breweries and gives beer-lovers the chance to be the first to try the region’s newly award-winning beers.
Full winners list: Click here
Photos from the judging and awards presentation: Click here
