DioniLife’s Mash Gang has taken home gold at this year’s World Beer Cup, making it the only beer from the UK to win this year in the world’s most prestigious brewing competition. This isn’t any award. Beers are blind tasted by a panel of over 200 judges. Mash Gang’s Chug IPA won gold for “Hoppy Non-Alcohol Beer”, beating stiff competition from 61 other brewers from around the world.
Held only once every two years in the USA, the World Beer Cup is regarded as “the Olympics of Beer Competitions” because of its size and rigorous judging – with every beer being rated for its taste, aroma, visual appearance, depth and character, with no branding or other factors to influence judges.
This year’s competition saw more than 8,000 beers from over 1,600 breweries. Unlike other competitions, where many, many entries receive an award, this competition has a ‘gold, silver and bronze’ award system, meaning only a very exclusive 3 beers for each category win awards.
“Alcohol-free beer has come a long way in the last few years, with a step-change across the board,” said Damian McKinney, CEO and Founder of DioniLife, the owner of MashGang.
“Our research shows that only a fraction of the beer drinking population has yet to find a non-alc beer they love, and our role is to convert this huge segment of the population to Mash Gang by meeting their discerning palates and lifestyles.