"Beer of the year, 1998"
Award Speech
"Ladies and gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to announce the winner of this
prestigious award. Throughout history, there have been numerous examples of Man's
ingenuity, but this award is given to one of his most illustrious creations: that nectar
known simply as "beer".
"As soon as I tasted the winner, I knew that it was going to be hard to beat.
After sampling this brew I just knew that I was going to keep coming back to it and it's
the only BOTM winner that I've continued to buy on a regular basis.
"There's a lot of rubbish talked about wine, but it's a fact that there are good
and bad ones out there and that their qualities owe everything to the ingredients used,
how these are combined, and how the resulting wine is created. Like a lot of processes
involving natural ingredients and human endeavour, there can be failures as well as
successes. One of the best reds I have ever tasted used to be sold in a tetrapak at
Tesco's. It was a Spanish red, but they don't stock it anymore. Then again, I once bought
a very expensive bottle of Crozes Hermitages which was very disappointing. There are so
many variables at work with wine that it's important to make a careful note of a good
bottle when you come across one.
"The same goes for beer. All the factors: ingredients, brewing, storage, and all
the other factors that have to be taken into account by the brewer, combine to produce the
final brew. Sometimes it's a good one, sometimes not. It's high time that beer, as well as
wine, was appreciated for its varied and subtle flavours.
"However, there's the question of personal taste to take into account. You may
find that the year's winner is not to your taste and that one of the other monthly winners
should have taken the title. You may think that a beer not mentioned should have won. If
so, please feel free to e-mail me with
your choice, and I'll do my best to include it in a future tasting. All a beer has to be,
if it is to be included in the monthly tastings, is a bottled brew which is available in
the UK.
"So, on to the winner of the coveted "Beer Of The Year Award, 1998"!
Read what the Head Brewer at the winning brewery thought
of the award!