Ground-breaking remote judging session for the SIBA Independent Beer Awards Bottle & Can competition

December saw a bumper remote online judging session for seven SIBA regions in the SIBA Independent Beer Awards Bottle & Can competition.

Judges from across the UK joined the SIBA judging sessions via zoom to blind-judge bottled and canned beers across a huge variety of styles.

The competition was also an opportunity for some of our new Bottleshop and Homebrewer members to judge for SIBA for the first time ever and their expertise and perspective was really valuable to the judging. Welcome aboard!

The SIBA Bottle & Can Independent Beer Awards 2022 are judged by a fleet of expert judges from across the UK, with beers marked against internationally recognised style guides for the different beer award categories –looking at appearance, aroma, flavour, aftertaste and saleability.

Buster Grant is SIBA’s Competitions Committee Chair and helped run the two-day judging. He said: “The SIBA Independent Beer Awards are one of the largest and most influential beer competitions in the UK, with a rigorous judging system ensuring only the very best beers take home medals. If you’re looking for a local independent craft beer to stock up on this Christmas – or for the perfect present for a beer-loving friend or family member –then look no further.”

The SIBA Bottle & Can Independent Beer Awards, plus the Regional and National competitions for cask and keg beer, are all judged by beer sommeliers, experienced beer judges and perhaps most importantly fellow brewers – making these awards very much the ‘brewers choice’ awards for beer in the UK. The regions being judged in December were the East, Midlands, North East, North West, Scotland, South East and South West.

You can find details of all the winners on pages 80 to 87 in this magazine.

If you have any questions regarding this or any other SIBA competitions email beercompetitions@siba.co.uk