The Scottish Craft Brewers had a small but successful visit to the National Craft Brewing festival at the Copper Dragon Brewery in Skipton on Saturday 18th September.
The event was organised by the Northern Craft Brewers who were rekindling the event after a break last year. Steve Taylor, the owner of the Copper Dragon Brewery and founder of the Northern Craft Brewers, has kindly offered to host the event at his state of the art brewery in North Yorkshire so the NCB had grabbed opportunity with enthusiasm and laid on a memorable event. This turned out to be perfect as the festival was able to spread out across an enormous warehouse which had plenty of space for the entrants, visitors and also the retail partners who supported the event.
Over the summer the organisers had been concerned about the number of entries. They had organised a large number of judges from the National Guild of Wine and Beer Judges and also from Beer Judging Certification Program to travel from all over England but the entries were just trickling in. However things picked up over the last fortnight so by the time that entries closed at 9:30am on Saturday morning there were 215 entries across all categories with the most popular being the Premium Bitters with 54.
From the SCB perspective we had 4 brewers who entered 10 different beers across 5 classes. The competition was tough as the general quality across all categories was exceptionally high. However, against this, our brewers managed to achieve some recognition in a few categories (in fact they were placed in 4 of the 5 categories entered):
- Aled Murphy was awarded 2nd place in the Belgian Beers category.
- Calum Craigie was awarded 3rd Place in the India Pale Ale category.
- Andy MacIntyre achieved 5th place in Premium Bitters Category.
- Also, Scottish Craft Brewers were 2nd in the Regional Category.
Congratulations to all concerned!
The Northern Craft Brewers are still tidying up at the moment but it won’t be long until the plans for next years festival are announced. The “national” is a great event and there is an opportunity to meet some great brewers from across the UK and taste a vast array of traditional, continental and also some more unusual beers. It also allows you to judge your own beers against them so keep an eye out for next years event if you fancy getting involved. The SCB will definitely be involved and will be looking to build on the achievements this year.