BikingforBeer Awards

Everyone has an awards ceremony these days. Well we can't actually afford a ceremony, or prizes, 'cause we are well skint innit, but we can still list what we thought to be the very best of our experiences during the trip.

Beer and Brewery Awards
It is of course impossible to really accurately gauge the standards of beers we have tasted throughout the trip due to the huge number of variables but we may as well have a go.

Best Beer - Revival - Moor Beer
Too easy to go with a stronger beer, this 3.8% effort from a small brewery in Somerset is as tasty as anything we have tasted elsewhere and gets our vote

Best Bottled Beer - Old Engine Oil - Harviestoun
We got to try plenty of bottled beers throughout the trip, often at breweries that weren't able to give us a fresh taster. This category has plenty of high quality contenders and mentions have to be made for Cairngorm's 'Tradewinds' and Hoggley's 'Mild'

Favourite Brewery - Moor Beer / Hoggley's Brewery - joint winners
How do you judge this? Well it is always going to go to a smaller brewery, we enjoyed the bigger units we visited but you can't get the same sort of homliness and we liked the real enthusiasm for beer at these places.

Favourite Brewer - Stuart Cail - Harviestoun
Who were we most impressed with? Well most, in fact all, of the brewers we met really, but Stuart stood out and his beers are top notch. Honourable mention to Justin Hawke of Moor Beer and to Wim Van der Spek of Little Valley as well.

Best Tour - Wood Brewery
What a difficult one to judge. Everyone had their own agenda and own style, very hard to compare. The head brewer from Wood, whose name I have forgotten, wins it through sheer enthusiasm. Head brewer from Moorhouse also deserves a mention here.

Best Reception - Fyne Ales
I'm not exactly sure why some people seemed as glad to see us as they were, but we were well looked after at a number of places. The open bar, buffet and general reception at Fyne Ales was brilliant. Honourable mentions to High House and Dent as well who were both fantastic.

Best Brewery Location - Little Valley Brewery
Although there are obvious practicle reasons for placing a brewery in a industrial estate you can't beat a really dramatic location for any product that is essentially drawn from the earth. Hesket, Fyne, Dent, High House and Chiltern Valley were all in fantastic areas, but we go for Little Valley Brewery here for being a very clean and tidy operation right out in the middle of nowhere, on a big hill and with some dramatic landscape in West Yorkshire. We had to cycle upwards so far to get there that we ended up in a cloud that we didn't even see at the bottom! Now that's dramatic.

Best Website - Cheddar Ales
I have seen a lot of brewery websites, over 200 I think although I have discounted all of those who didn't reply (which leaves about 35). Some are easier to navigate than others, some have more info, some have a better colour scheme etc,. Cheddar Ales have a great first page and a simple but effective layout. Very good.

Most generous individual - A bloke called Dave in Aviemore
A pretty stupid category really, we could give this to any one of about 20 people, mostly brewery related, but the handing over of £100 by a slightly drunk Scots/Irishman (he said he was Irish despite a broad Scottish accent. We assume his granddad was Irish) we chatted to in Aviemore wins it to save bickering. Really we should be giving this to someone like Mike Parker from Heskett, Johnny Delap from Fyne Ales, Sally Urwin from High House for example but a ton's a ton..........

Other Awards

Best Day - Day 17, John O'Groats to Durness
In a trip riddled with crap weather Day 17 was a refreshing break. The wind was strong and right behind us all the way, the sun came out and the scenery was superb. Easy choice.

Best Campsite - Bude
Another easy one. It was wet and horrible but we were treated brilliantly and the cup of tea in the morning was outstanding. All camping and caravaning club sites appear to be excellent, the rest were a real mix.