Rye Catcher wins Continental Beer Challenge

Rye Catcher by Glenn Payne has been named the winner of our Continental Beer Challenge, after a judging panel deemed his brew to be the best of seven continental beers.

Earlier in the year we invited beer writers and journalists to collaborate with us to develop and brew their ultimate continental beer in the Brains Craft Brewery. Alongside Glenn, guest brewers were Des de Moor, Adrian Tierney-Jones, Pete Brown, Sophie Atherton, and Robyn Black.

While we handed our guest brewers a continental brief, they were free to come up with their own interpretation. As well as the winning American Rye Beer, other styles included a schwarzbier, märzen and saison.

Seven beers, including Achilles Heel from our head brewer Bill, were independently blind judged at the event last Thursday. The copper coloured beer came top with the judges, who identified a “beer with lots of appeal” with “lemon and lime on the tastebuds”.

Bill said: “Following the success of last year’s IPA challenge, we chose to make the collaboration brew challenge an annual event. The guest brewers are incredible knowledgeable and passionate about beer. They’ve produced a fantastic range of beers and Rye Catcher is a very worthy winner.

Rye Catcher is available now in selected Brains pubs, as well as the Rake, Borough Market and the Bull in Highgate. It will become part of Brains’ beer festival programme, the first being Craft Beer Rising in London in February.

TASTING NOTES

Rye Catcher is an American rye beer. Rye and Rye Crystal malts provide a spicy malt base and a vibrant copper colour to this beer which is powerfully hopped with Apollo, Columbus, Amarillo and Citra hops from the USA, producing an assertive bitterness with robust flavours of citrus and grapefruit.