Scottish microbrewery scoops gold award for best beer at FreeFrom Food Awards
March 29, 2017
Scottish microbrewery, Bellfield Brewery, was last night presented with the Gold award for its Bohemian Pilsner beer, while the brewery’s IPA won Bronze.
Judges’ comments were, ‘Strong aroma, good distribution, nicely bitter and not too fizzy – good! Floral – light amber colour – very refreshing – good after taste.’
The beer is certified gluten-free and is also suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
Bellfield Brewery were one of 30 winners at the awards presented by Antony Worrall Thompson in front of 350 guests at the Royal College of Physicians last night.
The Edinburgh-based microbrewery has been in business just 12 months, having launched its beers at last year’s Free From Show in Glasgow.
The Free From Food Awards this year celebrated their 10th anniversary.
‘It is hard to believe how far freefrom has come in the last ten years’, said Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, director of the awards. ‘No matter where you look in the food world there are now excellent freefrom equivalents to standard offerings, many of them as good, or better – and often healthier – than the originals’.
Bellfield is the first dedicated gluten-free micro-brewery, brewing all its beers in the UK. It recently announced a funding drive to raise £500,000 to support its expansion.
Bellfield brewer and head of business development Kieran Middleton, said, “I am over the moon to win this award. It’s a fantastic end to an incredible first year in business and a huge vote of confidence in beers from a young business.”
Last year, Bellfield secured listings with a number of the UK’s leading distributors and wholesalers including Bidvest Foodservice (Scotland and UK), Matthew Clark, Amathus, Pigs Ears and in Scotland with Green City Wholefoods, Inverarity Morton, Gordon & Macphail and Craft Beer Clan Scotland.
The young brewery was chosen as one of only 10 breweries in the UK for Naked Wines’ new craft beer offering which launched in January 2017.
Bellfield’s beers have been well received in the market with Bohemian Pilsner a finalist in the 2016 Scottish Beer Awards and its Lawless Village IPA came 2nd in the Independent’s recent Top 10 Gluten-Free beers list.
In Scotland, Bellfield beers are currently featuring in Aldi’s craft beer festivals and from April, in bars on CalMac’s fleet of 32 ferries.
The gluten-free beers are also stocked by around 200 bars, restaurants and independent bottle shops, mostly in the central belt of Scotland, although the brewery is starting to make inroads into London and the SE. Considerable interest has been shown in the beers from overseas and Bellfield has already shipped pallets of beer to wholesalers in Singapore and Switzerland.
ENDS
For more information or interviews please call Kieran Middleton on 0131 656 9390 or Giselle Dye on 07739 085023 or email Kieran.middleton@bellfieldbrewery.com or Giselle.dye@bellfieldbrewery.com
You may download high res photos direct from the website at: https://www.bellfieldbrewery.com/pages/branding
Notes for editors:
- For more information about Bellfield please go to https://www.bellfieldbrewery.com/pages/about-us
- For more information on the awards go to www.freefromfoodawards.co.uk
- The FreeFrom Food Awards are the industry’s only award for ‘freefrom food’ – gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, soya-free etc.
- FreeFrom Food Awards judges included professional foodies (manufacturers, chefs and cookery writers), medics (dietitians and nutritionists) coeliacs and allergy sufferers and parents of allergic children, a dozen or so keen freefrom bloggers and a good sprinkling of 'outsiders' to benchmark the products against 'normal', non-freefrom equivalents. See the awards site for more details.
Down the pub and the bar Award – Sponsored by the Food and Drink Innovation Network
Gold – Beer
- Bellfield Brewery Bohemian Pilsner
- Green's Dubbel Ale
Silver – Beer
- Autumn Brewing Company Pilsner Lager
- CELIA Lager
- Estrella Daura Marzen
- Green's Tripel Ale
- Stringer's Outlook Dark
Bronze – Beer
- Bellfield Brewery Lawless IPA
- St Peter's Dark G-Free
- Stringer's Outlook Pale Ale
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