Coniston No.9:  the World’s best barleywine.

It’s always good when we see one of our breweries do well in a competition, and even better when we’ve had a hand in creating the recipe. So to have one of our beers crowned best in the world in its category is a definite feather in the cap moment. But it’s not the first time this beer has won awards having been crowned Champion Beer of Britain in 2014, following on from another beer we worked on at Coniston, Bluebird Bitter,  a Champion Beer of Britain in 1998. It’s absolutely fantastic to have a brewery with one Champion Beer of Britain, let alone two. So well done to the brewers at Coniston who always work so hard to produce consistently top quality beers.

However, Brewing Services is no stranger to seeing beers we’ve helped to create winning top awards. Back in 1995 we had Cottage Brewing Co winning Champion Beer of Britain with Norman’s Conquest 1066, followed by Oakham Ales with JHB in 2001 and Castle Rock a few years later with Harvest Pale. Many years ago we had a beer we created for Traquair House called Jacobite Ale given a platinum award by Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter, hailed as one of his all time greatest beers and one of the best in the World from his best selling book aptly named The Greatest Beers of the World.

So we are no strangers to seeing breweries we have worked with winning top awards with every category and style of beer possible in competitions such as the International Beer Awards and the World Beer Awards to National and local CAMRA or SIBA completions. Just like any parent, it’s always great, and always with a sense of pride, to see the many breweries and the beers we’ve helped create over the years doing so well.