Around the Clock wins ICBI Craft Beer of Year
ICBI Award-winner Around the Clock Imperial Stout undergoes maturation in freshly-emptied Bourbon and Sherry casks from the Dingle Whiskey Distillery for over six months.
The award-winning Barrel Aged Imperial Stout uses a method never seen before in Irish breweries.
Crafted using a 24-hour continuous boiling process, Around the Clock combines seven different malts complimented by seven separate hop additions, all boiled together over the space of 24 hours. This novel ‘Around the Clock’ brewing creates an immense flavour profile with distinctive malt character and gives the stout its name.
Following this brewing process, the stout undergoes maturation in freshly-emptied Bourbon and Sherry casks from the Dingle Whiskey Distillery for over six months.
The result is “an unparalleled rich, smooth, dark Imperial Stout, with a viscous, velvety-smooth texture, perfect for the Winter months,” according to Porterhouse Brew Co’s Head Brewer Peter Mosley.
“With Around the Clock we wanted to examine the process of brewing itself and how that might be adapted to develop more unusual examples of existing beer styles,” he commented, “We feel we’ve created an exceptional beer, one that’s distinctive and demonstrates our continued desire to innovate and evolve, so it’s a fantastic honour to be recognised by our industry peers with this award.”
Around the Clock has an ABV of 12% but its limited release of 5,000 bottles last November is now sold out. However Batch Release No 2 of Around the Clock is scheduled for release next month.
Lineman took the Silver Medal for its Astral Grains Foreign Stout and Kinnegar won Bronze for its Thumper double IPA at the inaugural Independent Craft Brewers of Ireland competition.
The competition permitted a single beer entry from each member while any/all styles were accepted.
The beers were then supplied unbranded and numbered from each brewery before the collection was shipped back to all the breweries for judging.
Breweries were provided with a simple description of the beers to allow them group similar styles and judge in the correct category. Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines were used as the basis for scoring which award points for aroma, flavour, mouthfeel and overall impression.
Some involved all the staff who submitted a total brewery score and some did solo judging.
24 breweries from across Ireland got involved in the competition, receiving their judging pack in early December to allow them a little time to carry out judging over a few sessions.
Run by brewers, the ICBI is the official representative trade body for independently-operated microbreweries in Ireland and aims to promote and support independent Irish beer and brewing.
Before Coronavirus hit the country, the ICBI had planned a beer festival incorporating this competition. However, Covid-19 put paid to that and so the ICBI came up with this format for the ICBI Beer of the Year that allowed the beer entries to be judged by their peers with a view to building on this in the years to come, according to Sam Black of Blacks Brewery, an ICBI Board member.
In the US, the Craft Beer Marketing Awards recently announced that its 2021 Awards Program is expanding and accepting entries from around the world in beer, hard seltzer, and cider. Several UK-based and Ireland-based judges have joined over 350 judges on the panel to review entries from around the globe including Fergal Murray, former Diageo brewer and now Production Director at the Dublin Brewing Company.
