The Cheshire Brewhouse “Dane’ish” is among the Great Taste winners of 2016
Great Taste, the world’s most coveted blind-tasted food awards, which celebrates the very best in food and drink, has announced the Great Taste stars of 2016. Out of 10,000 products to be judged. The Cheshire Brewhouse, Congleton Cheshire was awarded a 2-star Great Taste award for its “Dane’ish” craft Cheshire lager. The Judges’ comments were “Cracking nose. You can tell someone’s taken a bit of care in that and knows how to make lager. Soft pleasing mouthfeel. Clever use of hops because the fruitiness comes through at the end to lift that lager finish” “Clear lager malt underpinning a delicate nose”
Judged by over 500 of the most demanding palates, belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs and producers as well as a whole host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. As well as a badge of honour, the unmistakeable black and gold Great Taste label is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product, which has been discovered through hours and hours of blind-tasting by hundreds of judges.
Shane Swindells Head Brewer of The Cheshire Brewhouse entered the awards as it is one of the finest accolades for fine food in the world, “I have been striving to make the finest high quality beers for the past 4 years, using the best British malts and hops I can find. When we first brewed Dane’ish at our brewery at the side of the river Dane in Congleton, Cheshire, I knew we had something very special. This Accolade confirms that & we can now use the Great Taste 2 star logo on every bottle of Dane’ish, to show people just how good this fantastic artisan British hopped Lager is and what wonderful British Ingredients we have available to us in the UK.”
Recognised as a stamp of excellence among consumers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else, with no regard for branding and packaging. Whether it is bread, honey, salami or cereal being judged, all products are removed from their wrapper, jar, box or bottle before being tasted. The judges then savour, confer and re-taste to decide which products are worthy of a 1-, 2- or 3-star award.
There were 10,000 Great Taste entries this year and of those products, 141 have been awarded a 3-star, 878 received a 2-star and 2,520 were awarded a 1-star accolade. The panel of judges included; TV chef and author, Valentine Warner, MasterChef judge and restaurant critic, Charles Campion, fifth generation baker, Tom Herbert from Hobbs House Bakery, and Great British Bake Off winner, Frances Quinn; food buyers from Harrods, Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason, Harvey Nichols and Waitrose and chefs including, James Golding, chef director of THE PIG Hotels, and Kevin Gratton, chef director of HIX Restaurants. These esteemed palates have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winners to finally agree on the 2016 Top 50 Foods, the Golden Fork Trophy winners and the 2016 Supreme Champion.
Great Taste 2016 will reach its exciting finale on Monday 5 September, when the world of fine food gathers at the Royal Garden Hotel in London to find out the Golden Fork winners for each region at an Awards Dinner, with the final applause reserved for the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2016.
