National Finalists!
We’re thrilled to share the news that we have been shortlisted as finalists for three awards across two nationwide competitions, with the results due to be announced next week.
Firstly, we’re incredibly proud to announce that in our first year of being 100% employee owned, we’ve been named as finalists in the Employer of the Year category in the SIBA Business Awards. As the first brewery in the UK to move to becoming an Employee Ownership Trust, this demonstrates a genuine commitment towards ensuring a true legacy of independence and puts our wonderful team right at the very heart of the business.
Also in the Business Awards, our beautiful Travel Poster series is up for Best Concept Design. Congratulations to our designer James for creating such a stand-out series – there’s so much hard work and research that goes into each and every design, and it’s great to see that recognised. You can read more about this range here.
The SIBA Business Awards will be held next Wednesday at Beer X, the UK’s largest beer and brewing trade event. Referred to as “the Oscars of the beer industry”, Neil Walker, SIBA Head of Comms & Marketing, said of the awards; “I can speak on behalf of the entire judging panel to honestly say this was the hardest judging year yet, with a really incredibly high level of entries across the board.” So it is a huge honour to have made the shortlist in two very strong categories – we’re up against some absolutely fantastic fellow breweries and are looking forward to celebrating with them, whatever the outcome. The awards will be hosted by Sunday Times Beer Columnist and acclaimed author and broadcaster, Pete Brown.
And in the Independent Beer Awards, taking place next Thursday, our Black IPA Black Mass has made the national finals, having come out on top in the Speciality IPA round of the North East regional bottle & can awards for the third year in a row! These awards see beers marked against internationally recognised style guides, looking at appearance, aroma, flavour, aftertaste and saleability. The judging panel is made up of fellow brewers and some of the country’s best beer experts, who blind taste every entry. Black Mass is a beer which has been with us for our entire history as a brewery, so it’s one that’s pretty special to us. We can’t wait to find out how it gets on next week.
Wish us luck!
Cheers,
Team Abbeydale
