Belgian brewers win 70 awards at international beer challenge
Belgium is the big winner of the Brussels Beer Challenge, the international professional beer competition, winning a total of 70 awards.
Second and third place went to Italy and the Netherlands, with just under 40 medals each. The results were announced on Monday at a ceremony at Horeca Expo in Ghent.
Around 70 experts gathered at St Peter's Abbey in Ghent earlier this month for a blind tasting of 1,700 beers.
The winners included big names from the Belgian brewing landscape: Rodenbach, Moinette, Duvel, Bolleke, Chimay, Grimbergen and Gouden Carolus all took home medals. Other breweries established in recent years, such as Surréaliste in Brussels, The Brew Society in Kortrijk and Minne in Somme-Leuze, also won prizes.
Belgium maintained its leading status in the traditional categories, such as tripels and lambics. There was also a gold medal for Megablend, brewed by blending a dozen lambic beers from a dozen brewers in the Pajottenland region of Flanders.
Brewery Huyghe from Melle, known for Delirium, won prizes for its Averbode, St Idesbald and Guillotine beers. Brewery Van Steenberge from Ertvelde won a silver medal for its gourmet beer Fourchette Grand Cru.
However, the prize for the best beer of the competition went to an Italian brew: Ruggine, a pale ale produced by the Piedmontese brewery Diciottozerouno.
© PHOTO BRUSSELS BEER CHALLENGE
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