Bernard’s Clear Head Crowned with Excellent Double in Žatec!!
Humpolec, Žatec – 11 September 2008 It happens very seldom that one and the same beer brand is awarded the first and the second places in one beer-tasting competition category. And BERNARD has succeeded!
In the non-alcoholic beer category at the Dočesná (Hop Harvest Festival) competition held in Žatec, BERNARD with Clear Head has won, and its younger semi-dark brother known as BERNARD Amber with Clear Head has followed immediately after it, being awarded the very nice second prize.
“We were pleased that the amber colour of the semi-dark non-alcoholic beer, which on other occasions due to its difference means a “STOP” in competitions and evaluations by the professional degustation jury was not a reason for disqualification this time,” says the brewery owner Stanislav Bernard, adding: “It is perhaps a world’s rarity to obtain the first and the second places in one beer-tasting competition category! We consider this as a confirmation of the excellent quality of our non-pasteurised non-alcoholic beer. It surely helped us that beers had been assessed by both the professional jury and the jury selected from the number of visitors.”
The success of the non-pasteurised BERNARD beer was underlined by the obtaining of the second place in the light lager category, while in the semi-dark lager category the BERNARD Amber Lager enriched with a fine yeast culture was awarded the third price.
The prestigious beer-tasting competition was organised by the Hop Research Institute in Žatec on the occasion of the 51st edition of the Hop Harvest Festival. “The competition is held in 11 different categories and the objectiveness of the competition is ensured by the anonymity of samples, two-round and three-round competition system,” explains the main organiser of the beer-tasting competition Petr Svoboda from the Hop Research Institute, who stresses: “The competition was very strict. It was attended by 28 breweries which sent 158 beer samples. The quality of the samples was assessed by 149 degustation experts for two days.”
Bernard to conquer the third continent - success in Australia
Melbourne - Humpolec, April 10, 2008 – By achieving awards in Australia the Bernard brand has succeeded already on the third continent during two years. At the Antipodes it has obtained even three important prizes in “The Australian International Beer Awards”, the second largest world beer competition where 1084 beer samples made by 217 breweries from 42 countries at the entire world competed for awards. In its categories Bernard obtained two silver medals (Special Dark Beer and Bernard Amber Lager) and one bronze medal (Bernard Celebration Lager), all the beers with addition of fine yeast.
“The Bernard brand has succeeded already on the third continent in a short time.” evaluates Mr. Jaroslav Soukal, Export Manager, and stresses: “We manage to foster our market position in the premium segment of beer on new interesting export markets, after Europe and the U.S.A. we have managed to achieve awards in Australia as well.“
Concerning Europe, Bernard Special Dark Beer with addition of fine yeast was the winner in the United Kingdom at the event known as “International Beer Challenge ‘World’s 50 Best Beers” in 2006. This success was confirmed one year later in another tasting competition (Tesco Drinks Awards). Last year was characterised by the success achieved at the World Beer Championships 2007 by all Bernard beers exported in bottles with resealable caps. Bernard Amber Lager and Bernard Special Dark Beer obtained gold medals (Amber 92 points out of 100 and verbal evaluation “exceptionally good”, Dark Beer 93 points, “exceptionally good”) and a silver medal was awarded to Bernard Celebration Lager (88 points, evaluated as “excellent”).
In a yearly comparison for the first quarters 2007/2008, the growth of the Bernard beer production volume is 24.4 per cent, which means an increase in the sale to 37,557.8 hectolitres. Export accounts for 11.5 per cent of the production volume in 2008, and achieves significant values especially to Slovakia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland, Russia, Denmark, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Slovenia, Australia, Greece and the USA.
End of the Press Release.
Bernard has conquered America
Humpolec, November 29, 2007 – the Bernard Family Brewery celebrates success not only at home but also overseas, at the World Beer Championships. Bernard Amber Lager and Bernard Special Dark Beer were awarded gold medals (Amber 92 points out of total 100 and word evaluation “exceptionally good”, Dark Beer 93 points, exceptionally good) and a silver medal was awarded to Bernard Light Lager (88 points, evaluation “excellent”).
“After the awards gained in the United kingdom this autumn we have experienced another important foreign success, this time in North America. The World Beer Championships are an ongoing annual degustation competition in which the jury members have tested more than one thousand samples of beers from all over the world,” says the Deputy managing Director of the Bernard Family Brewery, Mr. Filip Bernard and adds: “We are pleased to see that the Bernard brand succeeded during its first attempt in three categories at the same time. We export our beer to the U.S.A., Sweden, United Kingdom, Finland, Russia, Denmark, Ukraine, Poland, Slovenia, Australia and Greece. The largest part of our exports is traditionally directed to Slovakia.”
The World Beer Championships were held for the first time already in 1994. The organiser of the competition is the Chicago-based Beverage Testing Institute, which is an independent organisation specialised in evaluation of alcoholic drinks from all over the world.
Five Jury Awards for Bernard
Humpolec, November 7, 2007 – During the ceremonial enunciation of the results of the competition organised by the Beer Friends Association in Zvíkov, the co-owners of the Bernard Family Brewery, Ing. Josef Vávra and Ing. Stanislav Bernard had to appear before the Jury altogether five times so that they could take over all the prizes which were awarded to them. Bernard Free won in its category of non-alcoholic beers, and at the same time it became also the general absolute winner across all categories. 47.5 per cent of participants of the all-year-round competition organised by the Beer Friends Association voted for it, which means almost every other participant of the total number of 735 voting members. Together with this success, the Bernard Family Brewery obtained the second place in the competition of breweries and third places in the categories of ten-degree beers, twelve-degree beers and dark beers.
“I never thought that we would ever have got five awards at the same time in such a competition like this,” commented Ing. Stanislav Bernard, a co-owner of the brewery, on this success and stressed:
“The result makes us really very happy because the beers in this competition are assessed by regular beer supporters. In the case of the Bernard Free victory, it is thus possible to confirm the first prize obtained in the professional degustation competition Czech Beer 2007 organised by the Czech Beer and Malt Association, where conversely voting is made by professionals.”
Bernard Succeeded in Great Britain.
London, Oct. 30, 2007 – The family operated brewery Bernard succeeded with its Bernard Special Dark Beer in Great Britain, where it won in the category of lager beers in the 15th Tesco Drinks Awards beer-tasting contest. Bernard’s export manager, Jaroslav Soukal, personally accepted the award, which was presented in London on Oct. 26, 2007.
„It is a huge success. We have continued last year’s excellent results, when Bernard 13°
dark beer won the International Beer Challenge ‘World’s 50 Best Beers” says Jaroslav Soukal and adds: „By winning in the prestigious lager category, we gained the right to be marketed in the TESCO chain in Great Britain at the beginning of 2008, which means an opportunity to enter more than a thousand supermarkets all over Great Britain.“
More than 400 products were included in all categories of the Tesco Drinks Awards contest this year. Products were tasted by teams consisting of prominent specialists in the field and journalists. For further details, see http://www.tescodrinksawards.co.uk/.