Golden Pints Awards 2011 - The Votes Have Been Counted.

Mr Rick Furzer, over on the Gastroturf blog, has painstakingly collated all the nomination entries for the 2011 Golden Pints Awards. Hats off to Rick, as there were 49 entries in total and it must have been a right pain in the arse to locate, list and link all of them.

Being the curious sort that I am, I thought that I would go through them all and tally up the various nominations in each categories. So that is what I have done. It makes for interesting reading most notably how quickly new breweries and their beers have managed to win recognition, kudos and establish themselves in the collective conscience of beer bloggers and beer drinkers.

The range of entries, in terms of the number of beer styles and breweries nominated indicates that there is a diversity of choice and tastes available not just from UK breweries but also internationally.

When putting this overall summative list together, I counted only those nominations that were listed as first or joint first on people's submissions. I haven't counted the runners up. One person changed their mind from their original Golden Pints Awards blogpost and updated on a later blog. In this instance,  I have included both nominations. If the person (that's you, Tandleman) wishes me to remove one of his entries then I will do that. It makes no difference to the overall result, though. I have left out the random self selected category.

The prefered system of voting was First Past The Post.

Can we now have the votes from the Norwegian Jury, please?

So here goes. The 2011 Golden Pints Awards in full are as follows.

Best UK Draught (Cask/Keg)

Twenty seven different beers were nominated for this category and the top three in terms of votes cast are as follows.

1. Magic Rock High Wire  - 6 Votes
2. Hawkshead Windermere Pale - 3 Votes
3 = Magic Rock Dark Arts, Magic Rock Human Cannonball, Summer Wine Diablo, Grain Redwood - 2 Votes

Best UK Bottle / Canned Beer

Again, almost 30 different beers  were nominated with the Kernel polling strongly with 7 of their beers being nominated in this category. Fullers were next highest with three of their beers present on the final list. The top three were -

1. Kernel Imperial Brown Stout - 6 Votes
2. Buxton Axe Edge - 4 Votes
3. Roosters Baby Faced Assassin - 3 Votes.

Best Overseas Draught Beer

Beers from the U.S. were well represented in the nominations. Out of the 30 seperate beers mentioned, over 60 % were American. Mikkeller held it's own with 3 of their beers nominated. However, only three beers in this category were nominated more than once. These were;

1. Odell IPA - 6 Votes
2. Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard. De Molen Hot and Spicy - 2 Votes

Best Overseas Bottle/Can

Again, loads of single entries with only three beers being nominated more than once. These were;

1. Orval - 3 Votes
2 = Stone Sublimely Self Righteous, Uinta Detour Double IPA - 2 Votes

Best Overall Beer

Loads of single entries again with Magic Rock, The Kernel and Summer Wine well represented. There was no outright winner in this category as six beers were tied for first place;

1. = Buxton Axe Edge, Kernel IPA 100 Centennial, Magic Rock Human Cannonball, Magic Rock High Wire, Orval, Hawkshead Windermere Pale - 2 Votes each

Best Pumpclip/Label

Sixteen nominations in this category but a clear winner emerged early on and was never going to be caught.

1. Magic Rock - 16 Votes
2. Uinta Crooked Line Detour DIPA - 2 Votes

Best UK Brewery

This was a very close run thing with 3 breweries in the reckoning right down to the wire. Overall, fourteen breweries were nominated but the final five were as follows;

1. The Kernel Brewery - 15 Votes
2 = Magic Rock - 8 Votes
3. Summer Wine - 7 Votes
4. Buxton - 4 Votes
5. = Marble, Hawkshead, Fullers - 2 Votes

Best Overseas Brewery

1. Stone Brewing - 8 Votes
2. De Molen, Mikkeller - 4 Votes
3. = Odell, Orval, 1516 of Vienna - 2 Votes

Pub Of The Year

This was a very close run category with pubs from across the country being represented. In the end it was shared between a Newcastle pub that won many admirers at the Toon Twissup in November and a new addition to London's beer scene that arrived this year and has clearly made a huge impression..

1. = The Free Trade Inn, Newcastle. The Craft Beer Co, London - 6 Votes
2. = The Southampton Arms, London. Mr Foley's, Leeds - 4 Votes
3. Port Street, Manchester, Euston Tap, London - 3 Votes

Beer Festival/Event of the Year

From Alloa to The Great American Beer festival, people were out and about enjoying sone great beery times. The top three events for beer were;

1. Great British Beer Festival - 7 Votes
2. = European Beer Bloggers Conference, Toon Twissup - 2 Votes

Best Supermarket for Beer

1. Waitrose - 10 Votes
2. Booths - 6 Votes
3. =Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer - 4 Votes

Independent Beer Retailer

The Leeds Blogeratti are greatly impressed by their local offie. As are a lot more others. It swept the board, this year, and blew every other beer shop right out of the water.

1. Beer Ritz - 15 Votes
2. Bottle, Canterbury - 4 Votes

Online Beer Retailer

Again, only one winner here;

1. My Brewery Tap - 19 Votes
2. Beermerchants - 4 Votes
3. BrewDog - 3 Votes


Best Beer Book


1. Oxford Companion to Beer - 5Votes
2. Beer Quarterly (Camra) - 4 Votes
3. = Melissa Cole's Let me tell you about beer,  Hopaganda - 3 Votes

Best Beer Blog/Website

1. Ghost Drinker - 10 Votes
2. Boak and Bailey - 6 Votes
3. Pencil and Spoon - 4 Votes
4.  Called To The Bar, The Good Stuff, Reluctant Scooper - 2 Votes

Twitter Beer Person

1. Simon Johnson - 16 Votes
2. Broadford Brewer - 6 Votes
3  Zak Avery - 3 Votes

Online Brewery Presence

Again a fairly close run thing between two new breweries that have used social media to fantastic benefit in raising their profile and getting greater public recognition of their brewery and beers.

1. Magic Rock - 11 Votes
2. Summer Wine - 8 Votes
3. Hardknott, BrewDog - 3 Votes

So, concludes the results of the Norwegian Jury.

Have a good year in beer and hope that 2012 is as good as the year just passed for well made, tasty and refreshing beer.

Cheers.