International Brewing and Cider Awards announce medal winners
The boom in craft brewing and cider making around the world is reflected in the diversity of beers and ciders which won medals on 13 February at the International Brewing Awards and International Cider Awards.
Bronze, Silver and Gold medal winners were announced after three days of judging at the National Brewery Centre in Burton-upon-Trent, where a panel of 43 judges assessed close to 1000 beers and ciders submitted from 50 countries. The medal winners came from 23 different countries and from a broad spectrum of producers from regional micro-brewers to multi-national companies.
Cider entries doubled in number this year, endorsing the organisers’ decision to reintroduce ciders to the competition in 2013. The cider competition will be developed further for 2017, with input from several of the cider makers who judged this year.
The competition continues to extend its international reach, with around 60% of entries this year coming from countries outside the UK. The Awards are unique in requiring that all judges are currently working as brewers or cider makers.
The 10 overall Championship winners – nine beers and one cider – will be unveiled at an Awards luncheon at London Guildhall on 29 April. The list of winners is available from http://www.brewingawards.org/home_1_1_home.html.
The competition was supported, as in previous years, by a number of international brewing-related organisations, including Krones and Barth-Haas as headline sponsors; AB Vickers, Sealed Air and Siemens as industry sponsors and support from Gamko, Centriflow Services and Molson Coors. Trophy sponsors include All Party Parliamentary Beer Group; Bebidas; BFBi, BRAUWELT International; Brewers’ Guardian; British Guild of Beer Writers; drink Technology + Marketing, Institute of Brewing & Distilling and Publican’s Morning Advertiser, while the Japan Craft Beer Association was a partner.
The International Brewing Awards and International Cider Awards will run again in February 2017, with entries open from August 2016.
