St Austell Brewery has scooped four accolades at this year’s Quality Drink Awards, held at London’s Grosvenor House last week, including overall winner in the beer category for Big Job, St Austell’s massively hopped 7.2% ABV big brother of mainstream brand Proper Job.
Alongside the main platinum award, Big Job also gained top spot in the IPA category, while St Austell’s 5.3% ABV Eden Project-inspired Baobab wheat beer added a third win in the Speciality Beer category.
Following close behind another St Austell Brewery Small Batch classic, 5.9% Sayzon Belgian Farmhouse Ale - which recently won gold at the European Beer Star awards - claimed silver in the same category.
Each beverage was judged by a reputable team of drink aficionados including drink journalists, bar consultants, certified experts and industry insiders. The panels were chaired by some of the most recognisable names in the drinks business. Master of Wine, Philippa Carr chaired the wine categories while Certified Cicerone Melissa Cole chaired the beer judging.
Gary Sharpen, editor and co-founder of The Cocktail Lovers magazine, chaired the spirits panel. The acknowledged expertise of the judges and chairs means that consumers can buy these award-winning tipples safe in the knowledge that each winning accreditation is credible and deserved.
St Austell Brewing director, Roger Ryman (pictured) commented, “What’s great about these awards is that there are always top names involved in the judging who are experts in their field, so to win a QDA is both authentic and meaningful.
'To win three, picking up best in show is just amazing and is credit to the hard work of everybody here at the Brewery, from the brewing team through to sales and marketing who all play their part in making our beers taste and look so good.”
Organised by Metropolis Business Media, the Quality Drink Awards are unique in that all products are first blind tasted as in other competitions, but then crucially, judges base their final decisions on then seeing how the product looks, taking in factors such as design, packaging and price point.
Helen Lyons, director of the Quality Drink Awards, said, “The standard this year has been amazing and our winners stand out as the ‘ones to watch’ for on the shelves, especially in the run up to Christmas.
“These awards give us the chance to reward not only excellence in the quality of drinks being made across all categories, but also to recognise the importance that design and packaging have in their overall appeal to consumers. The Quality Drink Awards take in to consideration how the product has been made, how it tastes, what it looks like and what consumer appeal it has. That is what makes us so different.”