Untapped Brewing Company & Stonehouse Brewery named best brewers in Wales & West at SIBA Independent Beer Awards

May 12, 2018| Neil Walker | SIBA National, wales and west

(L-R) Mike Benner (Chief Executive of SIBA), Alison & Shane Parr (Stonehouse) and Guy Sheppard, (SIBA competitions committee Chair)

Untapped Brewing Company and Stonehouse Brewery took the top awards in SIBA’s Wales & West Independent Beer Awards with their excellent session IPAs, which took place at Ludlow Festival.

“Whoosh” by Untapped Brewing Company based in Raglan, Monmouthshire took home the overall Gold medal in the cask beer competition. Whoosh is seasonal hoppy pale ale packed with clean tropical flavours with a long clean refreshing finish.

“Sunlander” by Stonehouse brewery near Oswestry took home the overall Gold medal in the small pack (bottle and can) competition. Sunlander takes its name from the Australian hops used, very pale ale with a great balance of citrus and floral hops.

Guy Sheppard, SIBA’s competitions committee Chair said;

“Many congratulations to our two worthy overall winners, both of which happen to be session IPAs. Whoosh from Untapped and Sunlander by Stonehouse. Also big congratulations to all our winners across the categories. We had some excellent entries and overall the standard in Ludlow has been really high for all the beers.”

The SIBA Wales & West Independent Beer Awards judge a huge range of beers across a number of styles before the winners from each category go forward to an ‘Overall Champions’ final. It was this ‘best-of-the-best’ final that finds the best winners in cask and small pack, which judges cans and bottles side by side. The beer festival continues at Ludlow castle today, where the public can taste the full range of award winning independent craft beers.

Martyn Darby from Untapped on their cask IPA win said, “We’re delighted to recognised in this way. We’ve got a lot of faith in Whoosh, as it’s been a good performer for us over the last 12 months. This was originally a one off 2017 summer beer, but due to demand we’ve had to keep brewing through the winter, so I’m chuffed we put it into the competition!”

Shane & Alison Parr from Stonehouse Brewery had this to say on their bottled IPA win; “its amazing to win really, it wasn’t that long ago we were putting in our new bottling line in, so to win this award while we’re still finding our feet is amazing.”

Overall Champion of the Cask Competition

Cask British Dark Beers (up to 4.4%)

Cask British Dark Beers (4.5 to 6.4%)

Cask British Bitters (up to 4.4%)

Cask Premium Bitters (4.5 to 6.4%)

Cask Session IPA (up to 4.3%)

Cask Premium PAs (4.4 to 5.4%)

Cask IPA (5.5 to 6.4%)

Cask Speciality Light Beers

Cask Speciality Mid to Dark Beers

Cask Strong Beers 6.5% and over

Champion Bottle/Can Beers

Bottle/Can British Dark Beers (up to 4.4%)

Bottle/Can British Dark Beers (4.5 to 6.4%)

Bottle/Can British Bitters (up to 4.4%)

Bottle/Can Premium Bitters (4.5 to 6.4%)

Bottle/Can Session IPA (up to 4.3%)

Bottle/Can Premium PAs (4.4 to 5.4%)

Bottle/Can IPA (5.5 to 6.4%)

Bottle/Can Imperial IPA (6.5%and over)

Bottle/Can Session Lager & Pilsners

Bottle/Can Premium Lager & Pilsners

 Bottle/Can Speciality Light Beers

Bottle/Can Speciality Mid to Dark Beers

Bottle/Can Strong Beers 6.5% and over

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