Dirty Duck wins regional award for its ale

The Dirty Duck’s ‘Duck Soup’ has won the gold award in the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Midlands beer competition.

The specially-brewed ale managed to beat 68 other bottled beers in the competition across all Midlands counties from Buckinghamshire to the West Midlands.

The ale itself was created and is blended by local brewery the Warwickshire Beer Co, who worked in partnership with the on-campus pub to develop the award-winning real ale.

The Boar spoke to the manager of The Dirty Duck, Lee Solloway. “It’s awesome, we’re really pleased. We didn’t even know it had been entered so it was a pleasant surprise.” He talked of how the ale was originally created: “We decided that we wanted to do our own branded beer when we first launched The Dirty Duck.”

Ben Levitt of the Warwickshire Beer Co brought in eight beers brewed for bottles, all unlabelled and un-branded. Solloway and his team, including James Brady, Chris Parker and Jo Ca, proceeded to ‘blind taste’ the beers, and managed to all come to the same conclusion. “We all picked the same one and we then called it Duck Soup. It’s based on the film Duck Soup. It just seemed quite catchy.” The new beer then went on to Students’ Union Marketing Manager Jackie Smyth for branding and designing of the logo.

On working with the Warwickshire Beer Co: “I think using a local brewery is massively important, supporting locally-sourced products. We try to use a lot of that in the Duck. It makes sense.”

The Duck serves the on-campus community as a ‘modern twist on the traditional pub’, aiming at good value food and a variety of alcoholic beverages, including real ales, and recently updated its menu in time for the new academic year. The pub accommodates a range of guest ales, as well as the house ale ‘Butty Bach’.

SIBA aims to be the campaigning, political and representative voice of the independent quality brewing industry, and guarantees an equal voice for each of its members so that they all have the fairest possible opportunity to bring their goods to market. The association also affirms localism and sustainability as embodiments of the ethos of independent brewing.

Solloway added: “If you haven’t tried it, come up and please do, as it is now award-winning.”

Second-year Engineering student Euan Long was impressed at the news of the award, but not surprised: “It just goes to show the quality of the Students’ Union (SU) outlets. I am a big fan of the Duck Soup. It’s a light-hearted addition to The Dirty Duck, and I think its unique name musters up a bit of curiosity in everyone.”

Sociology student Baris Yerli said: “Duck Soup is such a popular ale for the fact that it is in itself quite a tame drink. It isn’t daring nor too extreme and so suited people’s palates in such a way it caught on. I feel that it gives Warwick even more prestige.”