Pete Brown was tapped as as Beer Writer of the Year at the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards.
Brown won the Budweiser Budvar Travel Bursary for his book Hops and Glory as well as the overall title, which this year was re-named to honor the late beer writer Michael Jackson.
“The fact that, for the first year, the award was renamed in honor of Michael Jackson, makes winning it doubly special to me,” Brown said. “I have been writing about beer for six years, but everything seemed to click into place in 2009 and I am over the moon to win this.”
Other winners included Ben McFarland for beer and food writing, Mark Dredge in the new media category for his blog pencilandpsoon and Jeff Evans, editor of www.insidebeer.com for trade writer of the year. Alastair Gilmour picked up the regional journalist of the year award, and author Arthur Taylor was named national journalist of the year.