Wye Valley Brewery boss wins SIBA accolade
Peter Amor collects his SIBA award
The founder of a favourite South West tipple has been recognised for his contribution to making great beer.
Peter Amor, founder of Wye Valley Brewery, has been awarded the ‘SIBA (Society for Independent Brewers) Silver Tankard Award’ for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the UK Brewing Industry’.
Peter has been part of the British brewing industry for 48 years, starting in 1964 at Guinness’s Park Royal Brewery. By 1979, Peter and his family had moved to Hereford, where he took on the role of distribution manager at H P Bulmer. Peter left Bulmer’s in 1985 to establish Wye Valley Brewery and became landlord of The Barrels pub in Hereford.
Over the last 25 years the Barrel’s has raised over £250, 000 for charity through its annual charity beer festival. It has also been host to several SIBA Wales & West Beer Competitions, including the first SIBA national Keg Beer Competition in 2011.
Peter was one of SIBA’s earliest members and became chairman in 2007. He helped it become the modern professional organisation it is today through formulising it’s aims and policies, and appointing its first full time chief executive. After his 3 year term, Peter continued to work for SIBA as a trustee of the Wales & West region.
In the late 1980s, Peter started brewing HPA (Hereford Pale Ale) – a beer which has won numerous CAMRA awards, and was, at the time, one of the first of its kind. HPA is now the brewery’s best-selling beer. Dorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stout has also been an extremely popular beer, winning the CAMRA Champion Winter Beer of Britain in 2002, and CAMRA Champion Bottle- Conditioned Beer of Britain in 2008.
Peter has also been instrumental in supporting and planning Herefordshire CAMRA’s beer festival – ‘Beer on the Wye’.
Recently, working alongside award-winning beer writer Pete Brown, Peter produced a series of monthly beer-blogs, in which they explored the many special qualities attributed to cask conditioned beer. Through these blogs, Peter hoped to encourage people to ‘come to understand British beer is of local, regional, national and cultural importance’.
Wye Valley Brewery is currently a regional enterprise with a staff of over 40, with 6 of its own tied-estate pubs, and Peter is still licensee at the Barrels pub. Upon receiving his award, Peter said ‘I am very appreciative of the organisation for honouring me in this way – happy brewing everyone’.
Article found at http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Wye-Valley-Brewery-boss-wins-SIBA-accolade/story-18482762-detail/story.html#axzz2OGqxm3cT
