ARGYLL brewery Fyne Ales was amongst the big winners at the 2018 Scottish Beer Awards, taking home five gongs from last Thursday’s ceremony in Edinburgh, including two coveted business awards.

The brewery, based at the head of Loch Fyne, picked up the Innovation of the Year award for their Origins Brewing project and Beer Event of the Year for their annual festival FyneFest, in addition to three awards for their beers.

The independent awards, sponsored by supermarket Aldi, bring together the best of Scottish brewing to celebrate the wealth and diversity of beer being produced north of the border.

With over 35 breweries shortlisted, there was significant competition for this year’s prizes, but Fyne Ales came away with a handful of trophies nonetheless.

FyneFest was recognised as Scotland’s best beer event in its ninth successive year.

Beer Event of the Year, a new award at the 2018 ceremony, was a hotly contested category, with FyneFest beating six others to win the Scottish Beer Award.

Fyne Ales managing director Jamie Delap said: “I’m delighted to bring five awards back to Argyll this year.

“We had some success at the same awards last year, but we weren’t expecting to do so well this time with such strong competition amongst the finalists.

“The awards for FyneFest and for Origins Brewing are especially exciting as these are the first major awards for either project.”

FyneFest returns from 31 May 2019 for the tenth annual iteration of the festival.

Tickets go on sale in December 2018 and all of the award-winning beers are available now from the Fyne Ales website and Brewery Shop and Tap.