Edinburgh’s Bellfield Brewery scooped the top prize at last week’s Scottish Beer Awards, being named Scottish Brewery of the Year.
Set up in 2015 by a group of friends from Portobello, Edinburgh, Bellfield’s taproom and beer garden is a popular choice for visitors and locals because of the brewhouse on site. Bellfield was specially commended by the judges for its community ethos.
The judges said that Bellfield Brewery had “carefully and systematically developed the brewery with growth in all areas. They have a strong link with community and people, which is the very ethos that beer is based on.”
The brewery won three medals in the taste categories. Vienna Secession Lager won gold for best amber or dark beer, its craft lager won silver for best lager, and Wild Shore Saison won bronze (out of 27 finalists) for best session beer.
New product development has been a big focus for the brewery over the last three years, led by head brewer Keith Robertson. Bellfield now boasts a range of more than 20 beers, from refreshing and crisp lagers and pilsners to IPAs, ales, and stouts.
Bellfield also has a growing reputation for the excellence of its cask beers, which are especially popular with customers in the brewery’s taproom and beer garden in Abbeyhill, and in pubs across Scotland.
The previous week at the SIBA-run Indie Beer Scotland awards, Bellfield’s Vienna Secession Lager won gold in the session lager in keg competition and silver in the overall champion of keg category. Its Lucky Spence IPA (3.5% ABV) won gold in the keg session pale ale and gold in the cask session pale ale category. Lucky Spence was also awarded bronze in the overall champion of the cask competition.
“We are over the moon to be recognised as Scottish Brewery of the Year 2023, given the quality and track record of the other finalists,” said Bellfield founder and chief executive Alistair Brown.
“When we started Bellfield, our sole objective was to produce great tasting beers that were accessible to as many people as possible — being both vegan and gluten free — and to have fun doing it. For our beers to be consistently winning awards like this from industry experts hopefully demonstrates we are meeting this objective.
“We have built an amazing team, and these awards are testament to their ability, commitment, and hard work. Bellfield is all about people. We are a living wage employer, the team have shares in the business, and we support local businesses and community groups whenever possible.
“Our continued growth across all areas of the business has been recognised by the judging panel, and this growth is 100% down to the efforts of the whole Bellfield team.”
