St Austell Brewery has scooped four Gold Awards after a quartet of its ales were judged by brewing industry experts as among finest beers in the UK.
St Austell took home more Golds than any other brewery at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) South West Beer Festival and was the only Cornish brewer to claim one of the top accolades.
It comes hard on the heels of St Austell Brewery being crowned the UK's Regional Brewer of the Year.
The SIBA South West Beer Festival is the largest beer festival in the region, with around 250 beers represented from more than 50 breweries in the South West - so St Austell had some serious competition. Judges awarded Golds to:
- Black Prince - Best mild
- Admirals Ale - Best bottled bitter
- Proper Job (bottled) - Best bottled strong beer
- Proper Job (cask) - Best cask strong beer
James Staughton, managing director of St Austell Brewery, said: "To win four Golds is a fantastic achievement against strong opposition and it's a tribute to the hard work and dedication of the entire brewing team for the distinctiveness, quality and consistency of our ales."
Only last month (March) St Austell Brewery won the ultimate UK pub industry accolade by beating off some of the biggest names in the country to become the UK's Regional Brewer of the Year at The Publican Awards 2009. The award recognised not only the quality of its beers but also its vibrant and successful estate of 169 pubs and award-winning staff, food and training.
It has all added up to a busy start to the year for the Brewery with two significant investments on the back of soaring demand for its award-winning ales both regionally and nationally.
Work started on a major £700,000 project to build a new in-house bottling line, which opens in June, and the doors opened on the Brewery's new Cornwall Distribution Centre in St Columb Major to serve as a regional hub for all its 2000 customers in Cornwall.
Sales of St Austell Brewery's flagship Tribute Ale have risen for eight consecutive years since ins launch in 2001, and by an amazing 20 per cent in the past 12 months, continuing the meteoric success of the beer which has become the first and only Cornish beer to make it into the UK Top 10 of premium cask ales. Other highlights in the last six months for St Austell Brewery include:
- Top quality chefs, Rick Stein and Paul Ripley have taken on St Austell Brewery pubs (The Cornish Arms, St Merryn and the St Kew Inn, St Kew, respectively).
- St Austell Brewery was awarded Food Company of the Year at the prestigious Publican Food and Drink Awards in November 2008.
- A national deal with Waitrose for Tribute to be sold in selected larger stores across the country - existing national listings for Tribute with Asda and Sainsbury as well as being sold across the South West in Tesco, Co-op, Spar and Thresher stores.
- Admiral's Ale being voted the best packaged beer in the world at the International Beer Challenge
- Admiral's Ale securing a national listing with Sainsbury's, in addition to existing regional listings with Asda and Waitrose.
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