The best beers brewed in Scotland have been crowned at the inaugural Scottish Beer Awards celebration in Edinburgh.

The new awards, which aim to highlight the best and brightest of Scotland’s brewing industry, saw breweries large and small gathered from across the country to celebrate at a sell-out beer-paired gourmet dinner, sponsored by Aldi, with 300 guests.

Small brewers such as Fallen and Windswept shared the limelight alongside bigger brands like BrewDog and Tennents who joined together to celebrate the booming beer business in Scotland.

The ultimate award of the night, Scottish Brewery of the Year, was presented to Tempest Brewing Co after they were also awarded 4 gold medals for their beers Old Parochial, Brave New World, Red Eye Flight and Mexicake.

The Borders-based brewer also collected the prize for Growth Business of the Year after increasing their sales by over 200 per cent.

Ellon-based BrewDog celebrated winning two business awards including Excellence in Marketing for their Equity for Punks IV and Innovation of the Year for their DIY Dog recipe manual. They also collected Silver and Bronze medals for their beers 5AM Saint and Punk IPA respectively.

The vast range of exciting new beers created and produced in Scotland was celebrated, with a tough judging process seeing 31 breweries and 73 beers going head to head as finalists on the night.

Stirlingshire brewer, Fallen, won the highly contended Best Lager award for their blonde ale, New World Odyssey. Meanwhile, higher volume producers also collected prizes with Williams Bros. presented Gold for Pavlov’s Dog while Caledonian Brewery’s Coast to Coast won Gold in the popular Pale Ale category.

Hilary Jones, chair of the judging panel, commented: “The Scottish Beer Awards recognises the fantastic range of beers now brewed in Scotland. With such a large amount of high quality premium product available, the brewing industry in Scotland can continue its growth in the UK and internationally with great confidence.

“Winning a Scottish Beer Award is a tremendous badge of honour and we wish all our winners and finalists the best of success.”

Graham Nicolson, Group Buying Director, ALDI Scotland, said: “At Aldi, we’ve been big fans of Scottish brewing for many years and craft beer is an integral part of our range.

“It’s a great pleasure to be the headline sponsor of the first ever Scottish Beer Awards. Scotland’s beer industry is booming and we’re incredibly proud at Aldi to have worked with so many of the amazing breweries shortlisted at these awards.

“The success the industry is experiencing has been a long time coming, and the quality of the beer produced in Scotland is truly world class.”

The Winners in full:

Best Amber or Dark Ale

GOLD Williams Bros. Pavlov’s Dog

SILVER BrewDog 5AM Saint

BRONZE Orkney Brewery Dark Island

Best British Style Ale sponsored by Wolffe

GOLD Tempest Brewing Co Old Parochial

SILVER Fallen Brewing Local Motive

BRONZE Black Wolf William Wallace

Best IPA sponsored by Brewers Select

GOLD Tempest Brewing Co Brave New World

SILVER Black Isle Brewing Co Gold Finch

BRONZE Brewdog Punk IPA

Best Lager or Pilsner

GOLD Fallen Brewing New World Odyssey

SILVER Edinburgh Beer Factory Paolozzi

BRONZE Williams Bros. Caesar Augustus

Best Pale Ale

GOLD Caledonian Brewery Coast to Coast

SILVER Tempest Brewing Co The Pale Armadillo

BRONZE St. Andrews Brewing Co Crail Ale

Best Porter or Stout sponsored by The Scotsman

GOLD Tempest Brewing Co Red Eye Flight

SILVER Black Isle Brewing Co Porter

BRONZE Drygate Brewery Orinoco

Best Speciality Beer

GOLD Tempest Brewing Co Mexicake

SILVER Dead End Brew Machine Death One

BRONZE Orkney Brewery Dark Island Reserve

Innovation of the Year sponsored by Boxshop

Winner: BrewDog

Excellence in Marketing sponsored by Santander

Winner: BrewDog

Product Development Team of the Year sponsored by MCC Label

Winner: Caledonian

Exporter of the Year sponsored by DHL

Winner: Windswept Brewing Co

Winner: Belhaven Brewery

Growth Business of the Year sponsored by Maclay Murray & Spens

Winner: Tempest Brewing Company

Beer Destination of the Year

Winner: Tennents – The Tennent’s Visitor Centre

Master Brewer of the Year sponsored by Anderson Strathern

Winner: Ari Rovati, Six°north

Scottish Brewery of the Year sponsored by Aldi

Winner: Tempest Brewing Co

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