Kiwi home-brewer outclasses billion dollar breweries

Media release
12 June 2012

Kiwi home-brewer outclasses billion dollar breweries at Asian Beer Awards

Auckland sales executive Santiago Aon Ratto has stunned the global beer community winning Gold at the 2012 Asian Beer Awards for his pilsner, which he brewed in a WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery at his Mission Bay home. This is the first time a beer brewed on such a small scale has won at the Asian Beer Awards.

Ian Williams, inventor of the WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery and award-winning brew master, helped Mr Aon Ratto formulate the recipe for the winning pilsner and then left him to make the beer himself – a process that took only nine days.

"I was very happy with the final product. I'm not a trained brew master and I haven't had the WilliamsWarn for long, so to make the best pilsner in the Asia Pacific region in just my third batch is absolutely incredible," says Aon Ratto.

Ian, who is also director of WilliamsWarn, says the Pilsner category is the biggest category in the competition, with Lager/Pilsner beers representing 95 percent of the world beer market by volume consumption.

"Winning an international award on just his third batch in his personal brewery is a phenomenal achievement. Santiago's WilliamsWarn-brewed pilsner proves that you don't need to invest millions to make the world's best beer. Anyone can create world-class, commercial quality beer from their home or workplace, which is potentially the greatest innovation in the global beer industry of the last thirty years," he says.

The award-winning pilsner was made with WilliamsWarn pre-packaged ingredients with some extra soaked and strained malt and hops, and was judged by a panel of professional brew masters and beer tasters in Singapore last week.

Ian is no stranger to international brewing awards; in 1998 he won the title of World’s Best Lager with Tiger Beer at the Brewing Industry International Awards in London.

Ian says he would like to see more beers from individuals with WilliamsWarn Personal Breweries entered in international beer competitions.

"Forget conventional home-brewing kits, Joe Blogs can now spend $5,660+GST on a WilliamsWarn and produce better quality beer than the world's brewing giants."

More than a third* of New Zealand males have tried home-brewing but most have not carried on with it because of the time involved and the low-quality beer produced.

The WilliamsWarn personal brewery solves 12 of the key problems faced by home brewers, such as the carbonation process, temperature control and clarification, to make beer brewing simple and fast. The machine’s innovative design and patented process ensures minimal oxidation, making beer produced in the WilliamsWarn the freshest beer in the world.

The innovation, supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, was launched in Auckland a year ago and sold out of the initial 70 units. The company was overwhelmed with offers of distribution from around the world at the time of launch and has since been able to attract further investment.

WilliamsWarn is currently working on the second generation of the personal brewery, which is set to be released later this year, and will include design improvements and a 110V option for the USA. Beer-enthusiasts keen to get their hands on the second generation model can put their names on the waiting list on the WilliamsWarn website: www.williamswarn.com/waiting-list

Ian Williams will be showcasing the WilliamsWarn personal brewery in the BNZ tent at Field Days, Mystery Creek, Hamilton from Wednesday this week.

*WilliamsWarn survey of 661 New Zealanders

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About WilliamsWarn
WilliamsWarn is an Auckland-based company that has developed the world’s first personal brewery; allowing the user to create commercial-quality beer at home, in the workplace, in bars and cafes. The company’s co-founder and brew master, Ian Williams is one of New Zealand’s leading beer-thinkers and has more than 22 years' experience working with the world’s biggest breweries.
Online media centre: www.williamswarn.com/Media-centre
The WilliamsWarn story video can be downloaded from here: http://vimeo.com/williamswarn/the-williamswarn-personal-brewery
The instructional video can be downloaded here:
http://vimeo.com/williamswarn/the-williamswarn-story

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