Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt to return in 2013

At the start of the week, it was announced that the Sainsbury’s Great British Beer Hunt was to begin again, back for another year. I attended the regional heat for last year’s competition, and found it to be an interesting way to judge beer, certainly very different to the normal beer festival-based competitions. The reason for this might be that the GBBH isn’t specifically aimed at me; it primarily looks to two different sets of people – supermarket shoppers and mid-sized UK brewers. The consumers are involved throughout the process, which is great to see – and it makes a refreshing change to evaluate beer alongside people who might not care about IBU’s and so-forth.*

*Not that I’m denigrating those who buy their beer with the weekly shop; they may well know everything there is to know about bitterness units. The people I spoke to at last year’s GBBH Scottish regional heat were pleasingly honest, though, in their ‘I buy what I like’ mentality.

For the brewers, they have the potential to secure a six-month national listing in 350 supermarkets around the country – the prize most recently gained by Lincolnshire’s Bateman’s Brewery, who won last year’s Great British Beer Hunt with their Bateman’s Mocha. For the 2013 competition, once again the regions have been juggled about – last year’s increase from four to five has been reversed. Brewers will be entering into the Scotland and Northern Ireland, the North, West or East Regional Beer Hunts. In this region, time will tell as to how many producers submit their beers from over the Irish Sea – but hopefully there should be many an entrant from Scotland.

Scottish beers have done well in the past – Williams Bros’ Caesar Augustus finished runner-up in 2011 (although none made it through the process last time). As supermarkets have cottoned on to the Premium Bottled Ale market in recent years, have the breweries responded in kind? It would seem so – last time around, 138 beers were entered from 50 different producers, the strongest field to date. One thing that could be attractive is the choice of either regional or national listing – a small-scale brewery, for example, could opt to purely remain in the Scottish (and now Northern Irish) area. If they came out on top, the six-month commitment would see them having to supply between 80 and 320 bottles per week.

This might be a very tempting figure for many of the new Scottish producers, looking to establish themselves – it will be very interesting to see whether any new faces appear on the entry form for the 2013 competition. Check back in the Spring for news on the Scottish heat – the eventual final announcement isn’t due until the 4th of October. Any brewers wanting to enquire about taking part, contact Richard Morrice on 01904 428450 or email richard@peopleenergies.com