Lancaster Brewery collected a Gold Medal for one of its beers at the annual CAMRA Winter Great British Beer Festival, held in Burton on Trent earlier this month. (15th & 17th February).
The north Lancashire brewery collected the top accolade in the Sessions, Stouts and Porters category, which saw Lancaster Black beat Church End Brewery's Stout Coffin (Silver) and Cullercoats Brewery's Polly Donkin Oatmeal Stout (Bronze) to the title.
Each of the category winners from the Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition will now be entered into the overall Champion Beer of Britain competition which will be held later this year.
The award for Lancaster Black, the brewery's dark velvet plush stout, came after over a year of local blind-tasting panels and regional heats which also saw the brewery win the North West Gold at the CAMRA beer festival in Liverpool in 2023.
Will Pammenter, Head Brewer, said: "It's a fantastic achievement being up against hundreds of competitors from across the country in a category where so many breweries in the UK have a worthy applicant. Black is a lovely, velvety smooth beer with a really rich and complex flavour profile. I'm very proud of it, it's my personal favourite beer and it's great that it's now getting such national recognition."
CAMRA's awards director Laura Emson said: "Congratulations to Lancaster Brewery on their well-deserved win. Each year, judging this competition gets harder and harder as the quality beer produced by UK brewers continues to astound us."
Adding: "I want to thank the hardworking volunteers and judges who have made the festival and the Champion Winter Beer of Britain possible. Congratulations once again to Lancaster Brewery and all our fantastic category winners. I wish them all the best of luck in the overall Champion Beer of Britain 2024 competition."
The award recognises the fact that the Lancaster Brewery team brew their beers properly from the outset. No fuss, no shortcuts, just proper old-fashioned brewing using freshly milled malt, whole-leaf hops, live yeast, filtered spring water from the brewery's own aquifer and the finest quality ingredients, which when combined with the team's expertise, has resulted in this award-winning beer.
Talking about the brewery's plans for 2024 and beyond, Will added: "We have lots of new initiatives coming up for this year with a new bespoke microbrewery plant due for delivery in Spring that will allow us, for the first time, to brew small batches of beer. Having a large brewery and nano-brewery operating independently, yet in the same building, means we can satisfy our thousands of weekly Blonde drinkers, while also being much more experimental and daring with some of our new brews."
Lancaster Black, 4.5% ABV, is a complex traditional dark beer with subtle hints of coffee and dark chocolate, has been brewed for over fifteen years, and as a result has a loyal army of supportive fans among pubs and drinkers right across the north. The beer is available in all Lancaster Brewery pubs, as well as a host of other local hostelries, it's also available in 500ml bottles in selected supermarkets and direct from the brewery shop.
Lancaster Brewery currently supplies beer to venues across the UK and is one of the largest "small breweries" in the North West. In addition to its many sought after beers the company also owns and operates five award-winning venues in the North Lancashire and South Cumbria area. Established in 2001, the business continues to develop with the recently launched Lancaster Spirits Company and is in the process of constructing extensive facilities for a new whisky distillery.
Phil Simpson, MD of The Lancaster Spirits Company said: "We're known the country over for our core range of beers, but we wanted to do something a little different. The development of the Lancaster Tales range is in part a response to the growing market for flavoursome beers and the increased demand from younger audience segments for beers that are lively, colourful, and exciting, But it is also a clear demonstration that as a company we want to invest and innovate to be able to meet changing tastes and demographics in the alcoholic drinks market segment."
To place an order or to find out more please contact Lancaster Brewery on 01524 848537 or email: sales@lancasterbrewery.co.uk