Winners from across the world have received their trophies for their outstanding beers and ciders at the world’s most historic international beer and cider competition, the International Brewing & Cider Awards.
The prestigious ceremony, held at the Guildhall, London crowned 12 trophy winners – nine beers and three ciders – from around the world in their respective categories.
They included Tokyo-based Spring Valley Brewery’s Juicy Hop which won the Speciality Beer Trophy and Ise Kadoya Beer, also from Japan, who won the Strong Beer award for its Nou ga Trokeru Ultra Heaven 3xIPA.
From the UK, where the awards are judged, Yorkshire’s Elvington Brewery (which only started brewing in 2020) scooped the International Keg Leger Trophy for its Mittel Pils. The equally young Round Corner Brewing from Melton Mowbray won the International Small Pack Ale Trophy.
Malta-based Simonds Farsons Cisk won the Non & Low Alcohol category for its Cisk 0.0 and Jersey’s Liberation Brewing Company received the Cask Conditioned Ale trophy.
Other medal winners from Asia included Japan’s Rokko Beer for their West Coast Session IPA (gold) & Session IPA (silver), Taiwan’s Buckskin Brewery for their WOW Beer (silver) and China’s Shanghai Witchcraft Brewing Co. for their Emperor Qin’s Imperial Stout (gold).
A full list of all 2021 medal and trophy winners can be found on International Brewing & Cider Awards’ website: https://www.brewingawards.org/news/international-brewing-and-cider-award-winners-2021
In the cider awards, Sheppy’s Vintage Cloudy Cider from Taunton-based Sheppy’s Cider, won The International Classic Cider Trophy, while overseas entries triumphed in the other two Trophy categories.
Sidewood Estate from South Australia picked up The International Flavoured Cider Trophy for its Strawberry Apple Cider while Ramborn Cider from Luxembourg won The International Innovative Cider Award for its Ramborn Ice Perry.
Major Trophy Winners included Japan’s Ise Kadoya and Spring Valley breweries
A three-day judging process to decide the winners took place in November 2021 at the National Brewery Centre in Burton-upon-Trent, UK and comprised working professionals in the brewing and cider making industries from across the globe, led by Chair of Beer Judging, Rob McCaig and Chair of Cider Judging, Gabe Cook.
The judges were chosen to reflect the current expertise in the tasting and commercial evaluation of beers and ciders going into the market.
A total of 126 gold, silver and bronze medal winners were also in attendance to collect their awards at the luncheon.
Ruth Evans MBE, Director of the International Brewing & Cider Awards, said: “Despite being forced to postpone the Awards due to the pandemic, we felt it vital to hold the ceremony to publicly recognise and reward the extraordinary products that have emerged over the past couple of years. Awards like these are so important in raising a company’s profile and help their beers and ciders stand out from the crowd.
“We’ve crowned winners from all over the world including Australia, China, Japan, Luxembourg, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, USA and the UK, and it’s wonderful to see so many breweries and cider-markers collecting their awards.
“The International Brewing and Cider Awards are unique as we don’t just award a bronze, silver and gold, we provide every product entered the opportunity to be assessed to a medal standard – and award only the exceptional products. The medals are not simply handed out, they are earned.
“It’s been such an honour to host the International Brewing and Cider Awards and we hope all the winners gain the recognition they deserve.”
The competition, which dates back to 1886, has a long history of championing the world’s best brewers and cider-makers, and the competition’s unique approach to the judging process sets it apart from other awards, earning it the reputation as the ‘Oscars’ of the brewing and cider world.
This time, new categories were announced to reflect key trends that have emerged in the beer and cider markets since the last event in 2019.
In the beer competition, a new Zero Alcohol category was added to reflect the growth and interest in this market segment and in the cider competition a Rosé category has been added to reflect the growing trend for ‘pink’ ciders.
The International Brewing & Cider Awards 2021 are supported by headline sponsors; Barth-Haas Group, Krones and LANXESS. Trophy sponsors include: All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, The British Guild of Beer Writers, IBD, Drinkworld Technology + Marketing, Lallemand, The Morning Advertiser, BrauWelt, BFBI, Barth-Haas, Cider Academy and Cider Manual.
