BEER NEWS - September 2008

Triple Karmeliet Success

Belgium's Triple Karmeliet 'three grain' ale has picked up three important awards at the World Beer Awards 2008. The Abbey style beer was honoured with the title of World’s Best Ale as well as being named World’s Best Pale Ale and World’s Best Strong Pale Ale at the annual award, organised by Beers of the World Magazine. The beer is now available in Waitrose for £1.79 for a 33cl bottle. The ABV is 8 percent. Triple Karmeliet is a triple grain beer brewed by the seventh-generation Flemish family-brewery of Bosteels, who have been based in the town of Buggenhout for over 200 years. Judges said: "Sweet nose with hints of orange peel, vanilla, banana and spices. These flavours are noticeable in the mouth, along with a honeyed sweetness...Complex and harmonious...Tastes very strong but still quite delicate. Very good...Superb - complex and refreshing."

Co-op is a lightweight

The Co-operative is to become the first retailer to employ lightweight glass for its own-brand ales range. The initiative will save 131.5 tonnes of glass and 90 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. Currently being rolled-out, the initiative will be complete by the end of this month. The Co-operative's own-label ales range includes Fairtrade Bumble Bee Honey Ale, the Organic Fairtrade Premium Ale and Goldminer Ale, all from one of the UK's leading small breweries, Freeminer of Gloucestershire. Nicola Jenkin, Beverage Category Manager at WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) , said: "We are very pleased that The Co-operative is rolling out its glass lightweighting policy to include its own-brand premium Ales range. We hope it will continue to be replicated widely across the sector."

Sainsbury's Beer Competition

Earlier in the year Sainsbury's commissioned an expert panel of judges led by our own Roger Protz to select sixteen finalists from over one hundred beers that entered the 2008 Sainsbury's Beer Competition. Each has won a contract that sees 40,000 bottles of their brew go on-sale in Sainsbury's stores between August and October. The two best-selling varieties will then be crowned overall winners, securing a contract to sell their beer in all Sainsbury's supermarkets for six months from October. Many of the brewers that reached the final stage of the competition are independent and family run. Throughout the Spring, support and advice was given to all finalists from Sainsbury's beer buying, marketing, PR and branding teams and from industry specialists, The Morrice Partnership. The Finalists are:

Bath Ales Limited – Barnstormer - Bristol
Red Rat Craft Brewery, Suffolk – Crazy Dog Ale – Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
St. Peters Brewery - St Peter’s Amarillo Ale – Bungay, Suffolk
Cairngorm Brewery Company – Trade Winds – Aviemore, Scotland
Ridgeway Brewing – Beer of the Gods – Reading
Frederic Robinson Ltd – Ginger Tom – Stockport, Cheshire
Copper Dragon, Scotts 1816 – Skipton, North Yorkshire
Okell and Sons Limited – Dr Okells IPA – Isle of Man
Sharp’s Brewery – Honey Spice Wheat Beer – Cornwall
Williams Brothers – Harvest Sun – Alloa, Scotland
Williams Brothers – Good Times – Alloa, Scotland
Holden’s Brewery – Golden Glow – Dudley, West Midlands
Hampshire Brewery – Pendragon - Romsey
Highgate Brewery – Highgate Old Ale – Walsall, West Midlands
Greene King – Greene King Sun Dance – Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Arundel Brewery – Prizefighter – West Sussex

Bonkers Conkers!

Bonkers Conkers is Greene King’s new seasonal brew, launched for September after it went down a storm at the Great British Beer Festival. The new ale is said to be reminiscent of fresh conkers from horse-chestnut trees with subtle, nutty flavours and hints of spices - "the perfect brew to accompany an autumnal evening at the pub," according to Greene King. Events manager for Greene King Brewing Company, Tracy Rookyard, says: “We took six beers to the Great British Beer festival and Bonkers Conkers really flew off the stand. On the Saturday, Bonkers Conkers sold out at with three hours of the festival still to go." Greene King head brewer John Bexon says, "Matching beer to a pub menu is not an exact science, but personally I would enjoy the fruity characters and a crisp bitterness of Bonkers Conkers with rich, flavoursome pies such as steak and ale, or chicken and mushroom." The 4.1% ABV beer will be

New beer e-book

Martyn Cornell has just published a new "e-book", available for download from www.thecornerpub.co.uk for £5.00, called Amber Gold & Black: the Story of Britain's Great Beers. We enjoyed Martyn's last book - Beer: The Story of the Pint - and this follow-up concentrates on the development of Britain's different beer styles, and ranges from the familiar (porter, bitter, mild, stout) to the deeply obscure (white ale, daucus ale, mum). The book runs to 223 pages, and Martyn says "This ebook is a celebration of the depths of British beer, a look at the roots of the styles we enjoy today, as well as those ales and beers we have lost, and a study into how the liquids that fill our beer glasses, amber gold and black, developed over the years."

New Lifesaver beer brings cheer for RNLI

A specially commissioned beer produced by Morecambe-based Brysons Brewery will help raise funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The Lancashire brewery's Lifesaver Bitter was inspired by the work of the RNLI's Morecambe lifeboat volunteers, particularly the part they played during the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster, when 26 Chinese cocklers lost their lives. Five pence from every pint of beer sold will be donated to the lifeboat charity. The Lifesaver Bitter, which has a distinctive RNLI lifeboat design on its label, is said to be a "rich golden beer with a floral honey aroma and a taste that combines bitterness with soft fruit." Michael Guy, Morecambe RNLI lifeboat Operations Manager, said:

Scotland’s BEST surges up the Top Ten

Scotland’s number one selling draught ale, Belhaven Best has moved up the rankings to number 5 in the Top 100 Scottish On Trade alcohol brands. Official Beer of Scottish Rugby and The Scottish Golf Union, Belhaven Best, is now ranked as the 5th best-selling alcohol brand in Scotland. It has moved up from 9th position last year, and jumped ahead of some of the best-selling lagers, according to the latest figures to May 2008 by Nielsen. The Nielsen findings also show that the brand is one of the few to be showing strong growth in on-trade volume and is increasing market share every year, despite the decline in the ale market as a whole. Bill Hughes, Managing Director, Drinks Division, Belhaven Brewery says, “We’re really thrilled with the growth that Belhaven Best has achieved this year. It is testament to Belhaven Best’s popularity with fans of quality ale. It is also very encouraging that Belhaven Best continues to perform well, particularly during tough times for the licensed trade.”