Utopian Brewing wins twice at the Society of Independent Brewers Digital Beer Awards 2020
Utopian Brewing triumphed this week, taking National Gold Awards in the Bottle/Can Amber to Dark Lager category with their most recent launch a Vienna Keller and the Bottle/Can Strong Beers 6.5% category with their Maibock style ‘Rainbock’ lager, launched to support the Devon Community Foundation Coronavirus Response Recovery Fund. This made them the only brewery to take home two National Gold titles at the SIBA Digital Beer Awards 2020.
Organised by the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) and open to all independent breweries in the UK, the Digital Beer Awards 2020 were a landmark competition, entered by over 180 British breweries. The awards saw almost 500 different beers judged by 50 expert tasters across two live video judging days.
Expert beer judges, beer sommeliers and experienced brewers made up the judging panel and judged the entries against internationally recognised beer styles to determine which were most deserving of awards.
“The quality of beer in the UK has never been higher and the variety and flavour of beers submitted for the Digital Beer Awards was astounding. The UK is quite simply brewing some of the best beer anywhere in the World and in these awards showcased the full breadth of beer styles now available from independent craft breweries – from modern IPA and Pales Ales, Belgian style saisons and sour beers, to traditional British beers such as bitters, stouts and porters.” Competition Chair Guy Sheppard said.
Richard Archer, co-Founder and Managing Director at Utopian, said “We are absolutely delighted to have won these awards which is testament to the outstanding skill and hard work of head brewer Jeremy Swainson and his small team in the brew house.” He went on to say “It is also great for us to see some more recognition for lager which is sadly often overlooked in the independent sector. As these awards help to demonstrate, there is a huge range of interesting lager styles out there to be explored. Getting this recognition for our, all British grown, twist on some of those classics is a real joy. We hope this will help more people recognise that lager really doesn’t need to just be bland and fizzy. Jeremy’s wonderful take on the Vienna Keller style being an absolute case in point.”
Guy Sheppard congratulated winners and praised the quality of entries overall:
“Congratulations to our very worthy winners who really did have to beat stiff competition from the rest of the UK to take the top spots, the quality of entries was incredibly high and testament to the passion and talent of British brewers in these trying times. I’d like to thank all of the breweries who took the time to enter the competition and send in their beers for judging.”
