Fyne Ales toasts awards success

Argyll brewery Fyne Ales was among the big winners at the 2018 Scottish Beer Awards, taking home five.

The brewery, based at the head of Loch Fyne, picked up the Innovation of the Year award for its Origins Brewing project and Beer Event of the Year for its annual FyneFest in addition to three awards for beers.

The independent awards, sponsored by supermarket Aldi, celebrate the diversity of beer being produced in Scotland. With more than 35 breweries shortlisted, there was significant competition for this year’s prizes.

In the beer categories, Maverick was crowned Scotland’s best British-style ale, accompanied by bronze prizes for Vital Spark in the dark ales category and Origins Brewing’s Expedition in the sour beer competition.

The Origins Brewing project, which uses global inspiration to create unique, Scottish farmhouse and wild beers in the original Fyne Ales brewery, was launched in late 2017, with the Scottish Beer Award and prize for Expedition crowning a big first year for the project.

Meanwhile, FyneFest was recognised as Scotland’s best beer event in its successful ninth year. Beer Event of the Year, a new award at the 2018 ceremony, saw FyneFest beating six other events.

‘I’m delighted to bring five awards back to Argyll this year,’ said Fyne Ales MD Jamie Delap. ‘We had some success at the same awards last year, but we weren’t expecting to do so well.’