Quantock Brewery and Wye Valley Brewery have taken home overall champion gold in the cask and keg awards at the SIBA Independent Beer Awards 2020, with Eight Arch Brewing Co brewing the best bottled or canned beer.
The overall champion cask beer is Quantock’s 5.1% ABV Titanium, an aromatic West Coast style American IPA with citrus, pine, and tropical fruit notes.
James Higgins accepted the cask award, alongside the rest of the Quantock team at BeerX UK, and said: “It’s a phenomenal achievement. We’ve picked up a few awards with this beer, but this is the big one and it means so much. Titanium uses Ekuanot and Citra hops, and we think it’s tasting better than ever, but we’re absolutely speechless to win aganst the calibre of beers in the competition.”
In the craft keg competition, it was Wye Valley who took home the overall gold with its 4.5% 1985 lager, which combines British and European hops in a German Kolsch-style beer.
The brewery’s Jack Morris said: “To win the overall keg with a clean, crisp lager, against such in-your-face and super-hoppy beers is massive for us. It’s a great beer that manages to do everything you want a lager to do, but have a little extra hop bite, with some nice orange and clementine aromas and flavour. We are really proud of it.”
In the can and bottle competition, it was Eigth Arch’s 4.2% Square Logic pale ale, which combines fruit-filled hops and huge drinkability, which topped the list.
Eight Arch founder, Steve Farrell, said: “We never expected to win, and it’s great to see a lower ABV beer winning against such huge rival beers of an amazing calibre. We’ve only been going for four years, and canning our beers for two, so to take the top award with a canned beer is massive. The beer has got loads of Citra hops, which give it a tropical flavour, but it’s still dry and has a crispness, too.”
SIBA competitions chair, Guy Sheppard, who brews at Exe Valley, in Devon, said: “The SIBA Independent Beer Awards 2020 were our biggest ever, and with an incredibly high standard of beer across the board. These three beers are the very best of the best in the UK, and the brewers should be hugely proud of their achievement. Huge congratulations to them and the rest of the winners across the competition!”
Full list of winners
Cask beers, overall champion: gold, Quantock, Titanium; silver, Windswept, Wolf; bronze, SWannay, Orkney Blast.
Cask beers, dark up to 4.4% ABV: gold, Padstow, Pilot; silver, Sulwarth, Black Galloway; bronze, Long Man, Old Man.
Cask beers, British bitters up to 4.4% ABV: gold, Purity, Pure Gold; silver, Glamorgan, Cwrw Gorslas; bronze, Blackedge, West Coast.
Cask beers, premium bitters, 4.5% to 6.4% ABV: gold, Backyard Brewhouse, Gold; silver, Strathaven, Claverhouse; bronze, Mantle, Hoodwinked.
Cask beers, session IPA up to 4.3% ABV: gold, Swannay, Banyon; silver, Eight Arch, Square Logic; bronze, Big Bog, Hinkypunk.
Cask beers, premium pale ales, 4.4% to 5.4% ABV: gold, Quantock, Titanium; silver, Hophurst, APA; bronze, Windswept, Hurricane.
Cask beers, IPA 5.5% to 6.4% ABV: gold, Swannay, Orkney Blast; silver, Ilkley, Lotus; bronze, Blue Monkey, Infinity Plus 1.
Cask beers, speciality light beers: gold, Milestone, Raspberry Wheat Beer; silver, Windswept, Weizen; Hophurst, Milkshake IPA.
Cask beers, speciality mid to dark beers: gold, Blackedge, Black Port; silver, Plain Ales, Inncognito; bronze, Grafton, Caramel Stout.
Cask beers, strong beers 6.5% ABV and over: gold, Grainstore, Nip; silver, Brass Castle, Annexation; bronze, Gun, Zamzama.
Packaged beers, overall champion: gold, Eight Arch, Square Logic; silver, Hawkshead, Unfashionably Late; bronze, Signature Brew, Anthology.
Packaged beers, British dark beers up to 4.4% ABV: gold, Cairngorm, Black Gold; silver, Gun, Parabellum; bronze, White Horse, Oxford Dark Blue.
Packaged beers, British dark beers 4.5% to 6.4% ABV: gold, Weal Ales, Centwealial Milk Stout; silver, Cronx, Entire; bronze, George’s, Hopmonster Mad Dog Mild.
Packaged beers, British bitters up to 4.4% ABV: gold, Stonhenge, Heel Stone; silver, Dancing Duck, 22; bronze, Acorn, Yorkshire Pride.
Packaged beers, premium bitter 4.5% to 6.4%: gold, Hadrian Border, Grainger Ale; silver, Redemption, Hopspur; bronze, Fyne Ales, Avalanche.
Packaged beers, session IPA up to 4.3% ABV: gold, Eight Arch, Square Logic; silver, Salopian, Oracle; bronze, Calverley’s Pale Ale, Citra, Simcoe, Mosaic.
Packaged beers, premium pale ale 4.4% to 5.4% ABV: gold, Wood, Coracle; silver, Firebrand, Wes Coast Session IPA; Bank Top, Palamino Rising.
Packaged beers, IPA 5.5% to 6.4% ABV: gold, Wimbledon, Wimbledon IPA; silver, Eight Arch, Corbel; bronze, Rooster’s, Baby Faced Assassin.
Packaged beers, imperial IPA, 6.5% ABV and over: gold, Hawkshead, Unfashionably Late; silver, Wildcard, DDH IPA; bronze, Ossett, Alpaca.
Packaged beers, session lagers and Pilsners: gold, Rebellion, Lager; silver, Glamorgan, Welsh Lager; bronze, Daleside, Lager.
Packaged beers, premium lagers and Pilsners: gold, Powderkeg, Cut Loose; silver, Ferry Ales, Lincoln Lager; bronze, Joseph Holt, Diamond.
Packaged beers, speciality light beers: gold, Loch Lomond, Come On Pilgrim; silver, Windsor and Eton, Uprising’s Caught by the Fuzz; bronze, Norfolk Brewhouse, Jackalope.
Packaged beers, speciality mid to dark beers: gold, Westerham, Wally Winker’s Death by Chocolate; Stewart, Not Your Buddy, Guy; bronze, Titanic, Plum Porter.
Packaged beers, sours, spontaneous fermentation beers: gold, Elgood & Sons, Coolship Fruit; silver, Fyne Ales, Origins Brewing, Acres; bronze, Hawkshead, Key Lime Tau.
Packaged beers, strong beers 6.5% ABV and over: gold, Signature Brew, Anthology; silver, Harviestoun, Old Engine Oil Engineers Reserve; bronze, Firebrand, Imperial Stout.
Keg beers, overall champion: gold, Wye Valley, 1985; Purity, Mad Goose; Purity, Longhorn IPA.
Keg beers, British dark beers up to 4.4% ABV: gold, Neckstamper, Bonebox Cooler; silver, Dawkins, East Bristol Session Porter; bronze, Wold Top, Headland Red.
Keg beers, British dark beers 4.5% to 6.4% ABV: gold, Grain, Slate; silver, Hophurst, Porteresque; bronze, Buring Sky, Robust Porter.
Keg beers, British bitters up to 4.4% ABV: gold, Purity, Mad Goose; silver, Bollington, Inception; bronze, Arkells, Hurricane Ale.
Keg beers, premium bitter 4.5% to 6.4% ABV: gold, Purity, Longhorn IPA; silver, RedWillow, Wreckless, bronze, Turpin’s, Dragon’s Bite.
Keg beers, session IPA up to 4.3% ABV: gold, Dig Falls, Colloidoscope; silver, Tring, Oatmeal Pale; Timothy Taylor’s, Hoptical Storm.
Keg beers, premium pale ales, 4.4% to 5.4% ABV: gold, Stewart, Cascadian East; silver, Vocation, Heart and Soul; bronze, Purity, Session IPA.
Keg beers, IPA 5.4% to 6.4% ABV: gold, To The Moon, Apollo v2; silver, Firebrand, NEIPA; bronze, Tap East, IPA.
Keg beers, imperial IPA 6.5% ABV and over: gold, Padstow, Sundowner 2.0; silver, Grain, Lignum Vitae; bronze, Neckstamper, Bite Your Neck In.
Keg beers, session lagers and Pilsners: gold, Zerodegrees Bristol, Cloud Waltz; silver, Wolf, Crafty Wolf; bronze, Loch Leven, Shining Knight.
Keg beers, premium lagers and Pilsners: gold, Wye Valley, 1985; silver, Brinstage, Woolyback Lager; bronze, Utopian, Unfiltered Lager.
Keg beers, speciality light beers: gold, Vocation, Cooler Shaker; silver, Adnams, Earl Grey Lager, bronze, Truman’s, Bow Bells.
Keg beers, speciality mid to dark beers: gold, Gipsy Hill, Outlooker; silver, Dawkins, Foresters Black Caramel; bronze, Beartown, Smores.
Keg beers, sours and spontaneous beers: gold, Fyne Ales, Origins Brewing, Beams; silver, Gloucester, Golden Sour; bronze, Crate, Citra Sour.
Keg beers, strong beers 6.5% ABV and over: gold, North, Transmission; silver, Geipel, Bock; bronze, Hophurst, Bitter Sweet Symphony.
