I was at Nottingham Beer Festival last Thursday - more on which at a later date - where the SIBA Beer Of The Midlands award was being judged. The results can be found here.
I'm a bit skeptical why a monthly special such as Screech Owl is allowed to enter such a competition. I didn't drink the beer so cannot comment on its quality, but to enter such a competition, I feel the beer should be produced for more than one month and then discontinued, which would have been the case with this beer brewed under the Natural Selection banner.
Castle Rock may decide on the back of this victory to produce the beer more regularly, but I don't suspect that was the intention, and if the beer had not have placed, we would not have seen it again.
Northamptonshire breweries only carried off two bronzes, with Frog Island Croak and Stagger, and Potbelly Crazy Daze. Congratulations to them, but I'm suprised Beijing Black didn't feature or any of the Great Oakley beers. Oh well, there's always next year!
3 comments:
Your link to the results page is bust.
I wasn't fully aware of these awards until now. (I tend to ignore the details of the various 'award-winning' rosettes attached to pump clips.)
I wouldn't feel too aggrieved for Northants. There's a limit to how scientific the results from a small tasting panel at a beer festival can be. And it seems unlikely that something could go from being top of its category one year to not being in the running at all the next. Do beers really change/deteriorate that much in 12 months?
Still, congrats to Castle Rock on their triple gold - they are a favourite of mine.
Hopefully that link is fixed now.
It's not unknown for monthly/special brews to win awards and then be brewed regularly. Harvest Pale itself is a case in point (if I remember rightly).
CR will be brewing the beer again for their estate and considering it as a permenant addition in the New Year.
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