Do you have the best beer and cider team in the UK? Well, here’s your chance to prove it: The Tapsters is back for its third year at Imbibe Live this July. The prize? A two-day trip for you and your team to the historic Steigl brewery in Salzburg, Austria – not to mention some serious kudos.
The competition culminates in two teams competing on Centre Stage at Imbibe Live in a number of practical rounds, with challenges such as food pairing, blind tasting and the notorious cider pour, as well as a quick-fire University Challenge-style quiz. The winners will be decided by the audience and an expert panel, led by Chair of the British Guild of Beer Writers, Pete Brown.
‘Tapsters is now in its third year, and the skill and knowledge of the previous entrants has raised the bar considerably. We’re looking for the best bar teams in the UK, the ones who can confidently recommend a beer or a cider for any person and any occasion,’ says event MC and beer sommelier Annabel Smith (aka BeerBelle).
‘We were so pleased to even get through to the final as the competition was so fierce,’ said Jordan Childs of 2018 winner Brewhouse & Kitchen, ‘so to win was just absolutely amazing!’
To get there, gather up a team of four, craft your entry and submit before 29 May. Four semi-finalists will be chosen to head to Doggett’s Coat and Badge in London for a day’s high-level training led by Smith and the Ciderologist, Gabe Cook, cider director at The Beer & Cider Academy, followed by a series of tasks, which will see two teams selected for the final.
‘The 2019 Tapsters competition will be the biggest and best yet, I am certain,’ said Cook. ‘Consumers ever increasingly demand that our bar staff are super knowledgable on their beers and ciders, and Tapsters is the ultimate test of that!’
The Tapsters 2019 is run in partnership with Nicholson’s, Steigl/Euroboozer, and UKHospitality. Teams from pubs, bars, restaurants and hotel groups are invited to enter.
Find out how to enter The Tapsters 2019 here.
