Scottish microbrewery Bellfield Brewery was presented with the Gold award at the 10th annual Free From Food Awards for its Bohemian Pilsner beer, while its IPA won Bronze.
Judges’ comments were, ‘Strong aroma, good distribution, nicely bitter and not too fizzy! 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.
Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, director of the awards, said, ‘It is hard to believe how far freefrom has come in the last ten years. 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 Ear 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.