A mystery which has been running for some years at Arran Brewery has finally been solved with the discovery of a missing award.
For many years the brewery has claimed to have won at least one award for its beers every year since it was founded in 2000. Except for one year, 2004. The brewery team were pretty certain an award was won that year, but couldn’t find any record of it.
But now, spurred on by an idea of creating an ‘award wall’, retail manager Yorick Hinchliffe has at last discovered the missing link. A bronze award for Arran Blonde earned at the 2004 SIBA speciality beer competition.
This will now sit proudly next to Arran Brewery’s other prestigious awards, including world’s best dark brown beer, for Arran Dark, at the 2012 World Beer Awards, a more recently won award for Arran Blonde, and champion speciality beer of Scotland, 2022.
“I couldn’t believe it when I came across the certificate from 2004,” said Yorick. “Finally we had the missing proof, proving that we truly had won an award every year since the founding of the brewery.
“The missing award has been a go-to joke for me on our brewery tours for years. I’ll have to think of a new one now!”
The brewery’s new wall of certificates (or two walls, as it has become, due to the large quantity) can be viewed at the Arran Brewery shop in Cladach, on the Isle of Arran.
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