2016-12-01Staff Report 2 Windhoek Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) premium beer brand, Windhoek Draught, has been awarded a bronze medal at the annual European Beer Star Award ceremony that took place recently in Nuremberg, Germany. The winners of the different beer categories were announced on the 9th of November, which saw Windhoek Draught walk away in third place in the category ‘European Style Mild Lager’. NBL Head Brewer, Christian Müller, said: “Only one beer of the same category is allowed to enter per brewery. Therefore only Windhoek Draught participated this year. Annually we rotate amongst Windhoek Lager, Tafel Lager and Windhoek Draught. The European Beer Star Awards is one of the most coveted awards on the international brewing scene. Every year, visitors to the world’s leading brewing industry trade show are given the opportunity to discover for themselves the excellent quality of the award-winning beers. The winners of the gold, silver and bronze medals were selected at the beginning of October by a 124-member expert jury from 2,103 beers in 57 categories.” Forty-four countries participated this year which were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Moldavia, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine and the USA. The beers were tasted by an international expert panel at the Doemens Brewing Academy in Gräfelfing near Munich, with 124 beer and brewery experts from all over the globe. Tasters consisted of 15 teams from 30 countries. Müller said: “This competition addresses breweries around the globe that are committed to the traditional European art of brewing and is limited to beer categories which originated in Europe. It also hands out awards for authentic, distinctive beers of an impressive taste and quality that fulfill the criteria of the particular type in the best way possible. It evaluates the beers on the basis of purely sensory criteria, and is one of the most challenging competitions worldwide.” 2016-12-01Staff Report 2
