Just one year after its launch, Adnams’ Dry Hopped Lager – its first ever lager – has been awarded a gold medal at the International Beer Challenge,

This competition has been judging beer entries from 30 different countries for the last 18 years, awarding gold, silver and bronze medals to outstanding beers, with the highest scoring beer in each of the seven categories being awarded a trophy.

In addition to the gold tasting medal, Adnams also won a gold design and packaging medal for Mosaic Pale Ale; silver tasting medals for Ghost Ship and Broadside beers and bronze medals for Innovation and Sole Bay.

Adnams introduced Dry Hopped Lager in 2013, as part of our popular Jack Brand craft beer range. Brewed with Pilsner malt, the beer is then dry hopped with Australian Galaxy hops to add big, fruity hop flavours.

Dry hopping gives the lager a real punch of flavour and produces brilliant hop aromas

This golden lager is light, crisp and refreshing with subtle malty flavours and aromas of tropical fruits, citrus and passion fruit. It’s a great accompaniment to spicy foods, such as Thai and Vietnamese dishes, where its crisp bitterness cuts through the spices and keeps the palate refreshed.

Emma Hibbert, head of corporate affairs at Adnams, said, “Everyone at Adnams is incredibly thrilled to have received this award and so honoured that the IBC’s prestigious panel of experts has acknowledged our Dry Hopped Lager at this year’s awards. Though it is our first lager, we have put years of brewing experience into the recipe, to create a bold, bright and exceptionally tasty beer. To have only launched Dry Hopped Lager and the Jack Brand range a year ago, and to get this sort of international recognition already, is really exciting.”

Jeff Evans, chairman of the judges at IBC said, “The IBC is not an easy competition in which to win a medal of any colour. Our judges are among the most demanding around, all of them experts from across the brewing industry. They don’t give medals away cheaply and so bronze and silver medals in the IBC, I believe, are worth much more than golds in other competitions. Of course, the very best beers are awarded gold medals and this year only 30 gold medals were awarded, which underlines the rigorousness of the judging.”

All beers assessed by IBC are tasted by a panel of judges, which rates entrants within each class, judging beers on their appearance, aroma, taste and overall finish.

The IBC judges include some of the shrewdest beer judges in the land – retailers, importers, publicans, brewers, writers and flavour-analysts as well as highly experienced judges from continental Europe.

The beers with the highest scores then go through to the super-jury stage where a smaller panel awards the higher medals, trophies for the overall winner of each class and the supreme champion; this will take place this year on September 8.