Rock-based Sharp’s Brewery has seen a recent gold rush, taking home ten international brewing awards in less than two months. The brewers of the UK’s number 1 cask ale*, Doom Bar were awarded an impressive six medals at the International Beer Challenge 2020, three at the European Beer Star Awards and, most recently won Gold for flagship amber ale Doom Bar at the coveted Brussels Beer Challenge.
Across all three of these prestigious events, over one hundred beers from all over the world were blind tasted by expert judging panels of renowned publicans, brewers, retailers, and professional flavour analysts.
At the International Beer Challenge, considered the ‘ultimate stamp of quality’, Sharp’s Wolf Rock red IPA and Coconut Stout both proved they have the winning ingredients as they came away with shiny silver medals. In addition, Sea Fury, which takes its inspiration from the rough Atlantic seas crashing into the Cornish coast came away with Bronze. As did Chalky’s Bite (Belgian style collaboration with Rick Stein), Camel Valley Pilsner (collaboration with Cornwall’s Camel Valley vineyard) and flagship Doom Bar.
The European Beer Star awards has been operating since 2004 and has become one of the most important beer competitions in the world. European Beer Star prizes are awarded to high quality beers, which are genuine and full of character. This year’s awards saw Sharp’s add two more Gold medals to its already flush award cabinet for Atlantic Pale Ale and Coconut Stout and a Bronze for speciality bitter Sea Fury.
The Brussels Beer Challenge is an annual international beer competition which exists to create a healthy sense of professional competition amongst brewers, to be a platform for international brewers to network and actively promote their product and to generally support beer culture. At this year’s awards, Sharp’s Doom Bar came away with the Gold accolade.
Remarkably, these aren’t the only awards that the Cornwall-based brewery has won this year. The company attained the highest accolade of ‘World’s Best Pale Bitter’ in its ABV range for Sea Fury and ‘UK Best in Category’ for the brewery’s collaboration with Rick Stein, Chalky’s Bite at this year’s World Beer Awards. The team’s innovative new brew and the first scale 0.0% amber ale in the UK market, Doom Bar Zero was awarded Silver which is a phenomenal success for such a young product.
Sharp’s head brewer, Aaron McClure, shared his delight, “Throughout the challenges this year has presented, our commitment to quality and dedication to world class brewing practices hasn’t wavered. I am immensely proud of the brewing awards the team has won this year. Winning these is testament to the people, passion and quality processes which contributes to great beer, which we have in abundance at Sharp’s.”
James Nicholls, marketing controller at Sharp’s Brewery, said, “At all of these awards, you’re being judged by some of the world’s most accomplished beer experts, making them a pretty accurate barometer of who is producing the best beer around the world. Having such a large contingent from our range awarded medals is a testament to the passion, innovation and skill shown by our immensely talented brewers.”
James continued, “There are some phenomenal breweries competing in these awards so to be considered among the best is a real achievement. We are so proud that our beers are consistently recognised on the international stage for their quality and flavour and this year’s awards haul is an exceptional feat for the team.”
Sharp’s Brewery now has a tally of around 150 international brewing awards (achieving thirteen in 2020 alone), which last year included twelve major international beer titles across a number of categories. This included an astonishing seven medals for its brands in the International Beer Challenge 2019 and five titles at the esteemed World Beer Awards 2019.
All of Sharp’s Brewery’s award-winning beers can be purchased from the brewery’s online shop and delivered anywhere in the mainland UK. To shop online, visit: www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk/sharps/shop
