Utopian Brewing and Moor Beer named Champions of the South West at inaugural Indie Beer Awards 2025

April 11, 2025| Neil Walker | Brewery News, South West

Utopian Brewing and Moor Beer Co have taken home the top two awards at the newly launched Indie Beer Awards, which took place lastnight at the MaltingsFest beer festival in Newton Abbot.

It was Utopian Brewing’s big and rich German-style ‘Doppelbock’ which took home the Overall Champion Gold in the keg beer competition and Moor Beer Co’s classic English Strong Ale ‘Old Freddy Walker’ which was named Overall Champion Gold in the cask awards.

Ricard Archer, co-founder of Utopian Brewing in Devon, was on hand to collect their award and had this to say on the big win;

“It’s fantastic for us to win, it’s a really marvellous recognition of the work the guys do day in day out in the brewery, just trying to make really great beers for people to enjoy. We’ve been doing this now for six years and having great fun doing it, but to win this is really the pinnacle in the South West for us and everyone is just delighted.”

Utopian’s winning Doppelbock, a strong, dark lager, is perhaps a style that many beer drinkers may not have tried before but Rich adds “Great beer, is great beer, and the Doppelbock style is just a really great way to show off delicious malt flavours and complexity. I’d really recommend people give it a try.”

The awards, which were presented at MaltingsFest opposite Tucker’s Maltings site, are judged by beer sommeliers, master brewers and other expert beer judges from across the industry. Organised by the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA), and formerly called the SIBA Independent Beer Awards, the awards have been renamed the Indie Beer Awards to align with the hugely successful Indie Beer campaign launched last year by the organisation.

“Huge congratulations to all of this year’s winners and in particular Utopian and Moor who took home our Overall Golds in keg and cask respectively. The Overall Champions really are the best of the best in the competition, having already been named their beer style Category Champion and then going up against all of the other beer style winners in a final-round judging. It’s very tough to do and the brewery teams should be hugely proud of what they’ve achieved with these World-class beers.” Neil Walker, Indie Beer Awards host.

Members of the public will get a chance to taste the best beers in the South West at the MaltingFest Beer Festival in Newton Abbot which continues today and tomorrow, with tickets available on the door.

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