From left: Mr Roger Protz – one of the world’s most respected beer experts, Mr Michael Farrugia – Exports Executive, Mr Eugenio Caruana – Head Brewer at Simonds Farsons Cisk plc, Ms Sally Toms – Editor of Beers of the World magazine and Mr John Roblings – agent for Cisk in the UK.

Cisk Lager, brewed and bottled by Simonds Farsons Cisk plc since 1928, has continued to reap rewards for the company. Cisk Lager has been awarded the World’s Best Standard Lager title by Beers of the World – an international consumer beer magazine, written by the world’s leading beer writers.

The recently launched Cisk Excel also won the World’s Best Low Carb Beer title in the same awards.

The World Beer Awards, held for the first time this year, are organised by Paragraph Publishing, publishers of Europe’s leading beer and whisky magazines. An international panel of judges tasted their way through hundreds of entries from the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Australia and beyond, to find the winners of each style. These style winners then went head to head at a blind tasting event, where the UK’s top brewers selected the best beers in each category.

“This global recognition of the quality of our products is very good news to us,” said Farsons Group Chief Executive Mr Louis A Farrugia. “It confirms that our commitment to give our customers an excellent beer is giving us the results we are after and encourages us to keep improving on that.”

Mr Roger Protz, chairman of the judges, said: “This is an exciting time for beer drinkers. The judges have been overwhelmed by the quality of the beers entered for the competition and it has been an immensely difficult task choosing the winners. I hope that not only the winners but all the beers in the competition will gain greater awareness and will delight drinkers, especially those new to beer.”

The winners were announced at one of London’s best known real ale pubs, The White Horse, Parson’s Green in London.

Cisk Lager has won several awards in the past years. Among the most significant, Cisk Lager won the UK’s Brewex Competition in 1980 when it was awarded gold medals in both the ‘Lager’ and the ‘Best Overall’ categories. In 1995, Cisk Lager received the top prize in the Australian International Beer Awards, while its sister brand Cisk Export won the Gold Medal at the World Beer Cup in Ohio, USA in 2002. While in 2005, Cisk Lager was awarded the prestigious second placing in the International Lager Competition category, Class 1, of The Brewing Industry International Awards 2005.