Three major awards for novel brews from Mourne Mountains Brewery

Mourne Mountains Brewery in Warrenpoint, county Down has gained three major awards for the quality and innovation of its craft beers at a national brewing event.

The craft brewery won two golds and a silver at the influential regional digital awards of the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), a national organisation that represents smaller and craft breweries.

The golds were for Krammed (4.5%ABV), a New England Pale Ale, and barrel aged stout, Hoops and Staves 99.5%0. The silver was awarded to the brewery’s Mourne Mist (4.5%ABV), a pilsner lager.

Organised by the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) and open to all independent breweries in the UK, the Digital Beer Awards 2020 were a landmark competition, entered by over 180 British breweries. The awards saw almost 500 different beers judged by 50 expert tasters across two live video judging days.

Mourne Mountains Brewery was founded in 2015 by local businessman Connaire McGreevy and head brewer Tom Ray. The beers, the company says, are “inspired by the incredible landscape and the characters of the Mourne region”.

Mr Ray, commenting on the prestigious awards, says: “We are thrilled to receive this important recognition for the quality and outstanding taste of our beers. It’s great to see Northern Ireland brewers being recognised for quality products at a national level.”

Competition chair Guy Sheppard, congratulated winners and praised the quality of entries overall. “Congratulations to our very worthy winners who really did have to beat stiff competition from the rest of the UK to take the top spots, the quality of entries was incredibly high and testament to the passion and talent of British brewers in these trying times.

 “The quality of beer in the UK has never been higher and the variety and flavour of beers submitted for the Digital Beer Awards was astounding. The UK is quite simply brewing some of the best beer anywhere in the world and in these awards showcased the full breadth of beer styles now available from independent craft breweries – from modern IPA and Pales Ales, Belgian style saisons and sour beers, to traditional British beers such as bitters, stouts and porters,” Mr Sheppard adds.