Staff at a Huddersfield micro brewery are raising a glass to their latest success.
Magic Rock Brewing, based in Quarmby, has taken on allcomers at the Craft Brewers Conference in Denver, Colorado, and against the odds won a major international prize.
The company’s Salty Kiss won the gold medal in the Fruit Wheat Beer category at the World Beer Cup, the most prestigious beer competition on the planet.
The conference hosts more than 6,000 members of the brewing community from many different countries every two years.
Salty Kiss, abv 4.1%, is described as a slightly sour, slightly salty wheat beer flavoured with gooseberry and sea buckthorn berries. It was inspired by the traditional beer of Leipzig, called ‘Gose’ (pronounced gose-uh).
The beer was first brewed by the company’s production manager Giada Maria Simioni with input from Danish brewer Anders Kissmeyer.
Founder and managing director Richard Burhouse said: “We were delighted with how the beer came out, very fresh and easy to drink and it’s been a surprisingly popular beer for us, with both beer novices and geeks alike, but we really didn’t expect the judges to love it so much.”
The win was unexpected as Magic Rock was only set up three years ago and it was competing against highly experienced competition. The company brews to our own recipes with head brewer Stuart Ross.
“It was amazing, we didn’t expect to win and had to go up on stage in front of about 3,000 people to collect our award.
“It’s a bit of a case of carrying coals to Newcastle, as our beers are based on the American style of brewing and we were up against much bigger producers.”
Since its formation in tiny premises at Tanyard Road in May 2011, Magic Rock has expanded rapidly and is now bursting at the seams.
The company currently produces around 18,500 pints of beer a week, some 20% of which is exported to Scandinavia, Europe and as far afield as Japan and Singapore.
Magic Rock is scheduled move to the Ringway Industrial Estate in the near future. It will be within walking distance of Huddersfield Railway Station and will a include a new bottling plant and a tap room open to the public
Richard added: “I think we have caught things at a good time, there is a lot of interest in US hoppy-style beers like we produce at the moment.”
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