BEER
Kaori Osita, Minoh Beers, Japan
Medals: Bronze for Minoh Stout and Gold for W-IPA
“Winning a medal at this competition, which is one of the most rigorous in the world, is a real achievement, and I’m especially proud that our Stout – a British style of beer – was judged the best by a panel that included British judges; that makes it very meaningful. Our awards reflect the hard work of everyone at the brewery.”
“I’m pleased that a number of Japanese brewers were recognised in Burton; our craft beer category is small so we collaborate more than we compete and success here will help to grow the sector.”
Oliver Fozard, Roosters Brewery, Knaresborough, UK
Medals: Bronze and Gold for Baby-Faced Assassin, Silver for Yankee
“This is one of very few brewing competitions we will pay to enter, because of the calibre of the judges. It’s an honour to be mentioned in the same breath as breweries we look up to. We’re very proud of our success here and will be adding the medal logo to our pump clips.”
Sara Barton, Brewster’s Brewery, Grantham, UK
Silver medal for IPA in cask
“We’re delighted with a Silver for our IPA in cask, having won a Gold medal for the kegged version at the 2015 competition, so we are winning consistently, which is every brewer’s ambition. Success here means a lot to us as beers are judged by some of the best brewers, with the best palates, in the world.”
Keith Galbraith, Galbraith Brewing, Auckland, New Zealand
Medals: Gold for Bohemian Pilsner, Silver for Rurik Stout
“These wins are huge for us and for New Zealand craft beer in general. To be acknowledged by a group of your peers that your ale and lager are of world standard is the peak of my 40-year career.
“At Galbraith’s we make beers for ourselves first and foremost and ask customers to share our vision. We do not produce beer to “fit” into the categories that many beer competitions impose on entries. We find this limiting as most beers begin to taste the same given the tight parameters. The beers that performed so well in this competition have been thrown out of other comps because they didn’t conform. We embrace nonconformity as it lets us express ourselves in the best possible way.”
CIDER
Allen Hogan, Hogan’s Cider, Alcester, UK
Gold medal: Killer Sharp
“We’ve spent the last two years developing a new range of ciders, experimenting with different yeasts and fermentation techniques in the way that craft brewers have done so successfully. The result is a distinctive portfolio including Killer Sharp, a soured cider fermented with Brettanomyces yeast, which we launched last year. Winning a Gold medal is a wonderful endorsement of this new cider and, combined with a Bronze medal won at another competition earlier this year, shows that we are producing a consistent winner. We’re creating a neck-collar showing the medal to go on the bottled version of Killer Sharp, as a way of communicating our success to consumers.”
Emma Meller, Rocquette Cider, Guernsey
Bronze medal: Traditional Rocquette Cider
“We hadn’t entered a competition as prestigious as this before, and to win a medal on our first attempt is a great result for us. We wanted to benchmark our ciders against others from around the world, and knowing they would be judged by expert cider makers was a strong draw. We’re adding the medal logo to our labels and website and have had good local PR, including an interview on BBC Guernsey Radio. Winning is a huge boost for awareness of the Rocquette brand.”
Greg MacNeice, Mac Ivors Cider Co, County Armagh, Northern Ireland
Gold Medals: Traditional Dry Cider, Medium Cider, Plum & Ginger Cider
“After winning the Cider Championship two years ago, we were keen to benchmark our ciders again in an international arena. These awards attract a diverse range of high quality ciders and are judged by professional cider makers who command huge respect, so we were delighted to win three Gold medals at this year’s competition.
“We were particularly pleased to win a Gold medal for our Plum & Ginger Cider, alongside golds for our more traditional ciders. And with three of our ciders now in the running for Champion Cider, we’ll be hoping for a repeat of our success in 2015.”