One of Wales’ most well-known breweries is celebrating double success on the world stage having beaten off competition from the likes of Germany, France and the United States to be crowned with two gold medals at the Frankfurt International Trophy World Beer award. As well as Wrexham lager winning the gold award for best export lager, its Bootlegger Pilsner lager, named after and characterised on a local Wrexham online favourite who continues to gain popularity all over the UK, also took the gold award for best Pilsner lager.
Open to entries from drinks companies across the world, the Frankfurt International Trophy annually judges nearly 3,000 beers, wines and spirits. Wrexham Lager’s success this year is even more remarkable as it is the first time they have entered.
Vaughan Roberts is director of Wrexham Lager and is delighted with the success,
“We are naturally very happy that our product is considered one of the best – and this is proved by the fantastic feedback we are receiving on a regular basis from our consumers. We are over the moon of this double success at these prestigious awards – and it comes hot on the heels of the silver award we won at the Lyon International Competition.
“While the domestic market in the UK is still our main target we have been venturing more and more into the export market with Japan getting a taste of our lager during last year’s Rugby World Cup and this award will help to strengthen our export activity.”
With the current pandemic naturally affecting their business, Wrexham Lager, like many others, have had to adapt to meet the needs of new audiences as Vaughan explains,
“With pubs and restaurants being closed we have focussed more on offering our bottled products via online sales through our website, which at one point experienced a breakdown due to the traffic it received. This was an overwhelming response in trade considering before lockdown we had never offered online sales. We continue to receive orders from all parts of the UK and now look forward to pushing further afield including to Ireland and hope to be able to export internationally, one day.
We are excited to see how far this service will continue to expand into the future and our hope is that the hospitality sector will also begin to trade again very soon and we can return to providing our customers with our award winning product on draught.”
Commenting on the brewery’s success, Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths, said:
“We have always known that Welsh food and drink is of the highest quality and this again is further proof that it is as good if not better than anything else in the world. Even in these challenging times we are constantly looking at ways of increasing our export markets and successes such as these will hold us in good stead as we move towards coming out of lockdown and rebuilding our industries.
“I would like to congratulate Wrexham Lager on its fantastic success, not only with these awards, but on their resilience in adapting their trading products during such difficult times. I am certain there are more positive times ahead and as Welsh Government we will endeavour to support our crucial food and drink industry as we rebuild the economy.”
The annual Frankfurt International Trophy brings together almost 3,000 samples from 50 countries of beers, wines and spirits. This year, due to Covid-19 private tasting sessions were organised to decide the eventual winners.