Cask Report

Selling Champion Beers

It's a thrilling world for today's cask aficionado – publican as well as drinker. But the proliferation of breweries and brands vying for stillage space brings its own problems of bewilderment and disorientation, suggesting that some purchasing guidance might be in order.

When you've made your pub a showcase for top quality cask beer, full of discerning and returning customers who sample your real ales with confidence in your cellar skills, you've reached a point where it's the brewer's craft that's in the spotlight, rather than your own cask-handling abilities.

It's likely you'll have created that necessarily balanced portfolio of familiar, local, unusual, seasonal and special beers, with a range of flavours, colours and styles, and you'll know your regular patrons well enough to customise your changing selection to suit their preferences.

So what more could/should you do?

Well, if you're proud of being a shop window for the best that cask brewers have to offer, surely you're the obvious place to highlight beer competition winners.

Most if not all CAMRA festivals, held at venues across the country throughout the year (details at http://www.camra.org.uk/yearofbeer), make a 'beer of the festival' award. Best known are the national titles of Champion Winter Beer of Britain and Champion Beer of Britain (see 2012 winners below), competed for in style categories by nominated branch and regional winners.

SIBA hosts seven regional beer competitions, at which brewers enter their ales in eight cask categories. All winners go forward to the national finals with the awards, including an overall Supreme Champion, presented each March at the annual conference (see 2012 winners below).

Of necessity the International Brewing Awards are less cask-focused and less British in their broader scope – except of course for the four cask ale prizes! These are divided into classes by ABV (see 2011 winners below).

So there's plenty at local and national level for the enthusiastic cask publican to get stuck into. And many wholesalers and distributors will make a point of stocking and publicising the latest prizewinning beers; not to mention the breweries themselves, who thrive on recognition in such an intensely competitive modern market – and are never backward in coming forward when they've received prestigious accolades for their beer quality.

All cask drinkers, whether loyal to one brand that is a familiar favourite or promiscuous in their appetite for anything and everything that appears on guest pumps, will be unlikely to resist an opportunity to try a competition champion.

Everyone loves a winner and, with winning cask ales on your bar, everyone will be a winner!

CAMRA Winners 2012

Champion Winter Beer of Britain

Overall Champions

Gold- Driftwood, Alfie’s Revenge (St Agnes, Cornwall)
Silver- Cairngorm, Black Gold (Aviemore, Highlands)
Bronze- Coniston, No 9 Barley Wine (Coniston, Cumbria)

Old Ales and Strong Milds
Gold- Driftwood, Alfie’s Revenge (St Agnes, Cornwall) 
Joint Silver- Nant, Mwnci Nell (Llanrwst, Conwy) 
Joint Silver- Brunswick, Black Sabbath (Derby, Derbyshire)
Bronze- Beowulf, Dark Raven (Brownhills, Staffordshire)

Porters
Gold- Hammerpot, Bottle Wreck Porter (Poling, West Sussex)
Silver- Blythe, Johnson’s (Hamstall Ridware, Staffordshire) 
Bronze- Sulwath, Black Galloway (Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway)

Stouts
Gold- Cairngorm, Black Gold (Aviemore, Highlands) 
Silver- Cambridge Moonshine, Black Hole Stout (Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire)  
Bronze- Acorn, Gorlovka (Wombwell, South Yorkshire)

Barley Wines
Gold- Coniston, No 9 Barley Wine (Coniston, Cumbria)
Silver- Moor, Old Freddy Walker (Pitney, Somerset)
Bronze- Isle of Skye, Cuillin Beast (Uig, Isle of Skye)

Champion Beer of Britain

Overall winners 2012:

Gold- Coniston, No.9 Barley Wine (from Coniston, Cumbria)
Silver- Green Jack, Trawlerboys Best Bitter (from Lowestoft, Suffolk)
Bronze- Dark Star, American Pale Ale (from Horsham, West Sussex)

Mild category-

Gold- Rudgate, Ruby Mild (from York, North Yorkshire)
Silver- Hobsons, Hobsons Mild (from Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire)
Bronze- Son of Sid, Muckcart Mild (from Little Gransden, Bedfordshire)

Bitters-

Gold- Purple Moose, Snowdonia Ale (from Porthmadog, Gwynedd)
Silver- Tintagel, Castle Gold (from Tintagel, Cornwall)
Joint Bronze- Flowerpots, Bitter (from Cheriton, Hampshire)
Joint Bronze- Fuller’s, Gale’s Seafarers Ale (from London, W4)
Joint Bronze- Salopian, Shropshire Gold (from Shrewsbury, Shropshire)

Best Bitters-

Gold- Green Jack, Trawlerboys Best Bitter (from Lowestoft, Suffolk)
Silver, Salopian, Hop Twister (from Shrewsbury, Shropshire)
Joint Bronze- Oakwell, Senior Bitter (from Barnsley, South Yorkshire)
Joint Bronze- Milton, Pegasus (from Milton, Cambridgeshire)

Golden Ales-

Gold- Dark Star, American Pale Ale (from Horsham, West Sussex)
Silver- Cumbrian Legendary Ales, Langdale (from Hawkshead, Cumbria)
Bronze- Hobsons, Town Crier (from Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire)

Strong Bitters-

Gold- Dark Star, Festival (from Horsham, West Sussex)
Silver- O’Hanlon’s, Stormstay (from Whimple, Devon)
Bronze- Highland, Orkney IPA (from Swannay, Orkney)

Speciality Beers-

Gold- Dunham Massey, Chocolate Cherry Mild (from Dunham Massey, Gtr Manchester)
Silver- Little Valley, Hebden’s Wheat (from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire)
Bronze- Nethergate, Umbel Magna (from Pentlow, Essex)

SIBA Winners 2012

 Supreme Champion of the Competition

Champion Standard Mild Ales

Champion Standard Bitters

Champion Best Bitters

Champion Premium Bitters

Champion Strong Bitters

Champion Premium Strong Beers

Champion Porters, Strong Milds, Old Ales & Stouts

Champion Speciality Beers

Champion Bottled Beers

Champion Bottled Bitter (up to 4.9%)

Champion Bottled Bitters (over 5%)

Champion Bottled Gold Beers

Champion Bottled Speciality Beers

Champion Bottled Porters, Milds, Old Ales & Stouts

International Brewing Awards 2012