Moon Gazer Ales, has returned from Liverpool with a bronze medal from the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) beer awards. Our winning beer was Cheeky Jack IPA which won bronze in the highly contested pale ales 4.5-5% abv category.
The SIBA Awards 2024 highlight the breweries and beer industry businesses in the running to be named the best in the UK – with 100s of beers qualifying for the national final after regional heats selected the very best from each of 9 regions across the UK.
Cheeky Jack won gold at those regional awards having already been crowned Norfolk Champion Cask Beer 2023 by Norwich and District CAMRRA – making it a triple winner.
Brewery co-founder David Holliday was naturally delighted with the award:
It’s a great accolade. First and foremost, we focus on quality and great beer, to have SIBA recognise those efforts is extra special.
For Cheeky Jack to win 3 prestigious awards in a 12-month period just fills the whole team with pride – we always knew it was a great beer, but to have others endorse your view is always fantastic.
The brewery was also shortlisted as a finalist in two other awards by SIBA; for our charity work and our work in brining the brewing regions of Belgium and Norfolk together, but we narrowly missed out but our efforts received accolades as the winner was announced.
While we didn’t win the other awards to hear your efforts congratulated in front of the very best of British brewers was a great experience – especially when you consider how small we are as a brewery to so many of the other finalists. It was a great honour.
The team at Moon Gazer had been selected for their charity and community engagement for their efforts in raising funds and awareness of testicular cancer and Norfolk based charity It’s On the Ball. These efforts included brewery co-owner David Holliday pushing a 75kg barrel of beer the distance of a marathon every day for 7 days completing a 186-mile tour of Norfolk and seeing fundraising top £42,000.
David’s fundraising efforts continue: “I guess if I keep pushing the barrel and raising money they will have to give in to me one year! “