THREE breweries from the Burton area have won big at a regional awards ceremony.
Burton Bridge Brewery, Blythe Brewery and Molson Coors all won gold prizes at the West Midlands CAMRA Awards.
The top-scorer of the entire event was Burton Bridge Brewery, based in Bridge Street, which took home three awards.
Its ‘Bramble Stout’ took the gold in the speciality category and ‘Burton Porter’ took silver in the porter category.
The brewery’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ also took bronze in the strong bitter category and ‘Thomas Sykes Ale’ scooped silver in the barley wine and strong old ales category.
Nick Antona, of Burton and South Derbyshire CAMRA, and director of CAMRA’s Brewer of Britain awards, said: “The speciality category is for any beer that has got anything other than the usual contents — water, malt, yeast and hops.
“Bramble Stout has bramble in it and it’s very nice.” Burton’s own Molson Coors scooped the top prize in the light category for a real ale in a bottle with Worthington ‘White Shield’.
Blythe Brewery, based in Hamstall Ridware, near Yoxall, also won gold for its ‘Johnson’s Porter’ in the porter category.
Ninety breweries were voted for by CAMRA members from across the Midlands, and of the 46 winners, 16 were from Staffordshire.
Mr Antona said: “We have a tradition of brewing in the Burton area and obviously the breweries are very conscientious brewers who want to produce good products.
“This comes out in their consistency.
“They all do well because people know they can get a good quality pint every time.”
Geoff Mumford, co-founder of Burton Bridge Brewery, said: “We don’t expect these things because there is such a lot of competition in the West Midlands and we’re surprised and grateful when we get it.”
He said the brewery always enjoys experimenting with its flavours and he thought the reason for its success was the wealth of the staff’s experience.
“We’ve been going for 30 years and between us we’ve probably got 85 years experience,” Mr Mumford said.
Both Burton Bridge Brewery and Molson Coors will now be entered into the CAMRA Great British Beer Festival, which takes place in August next year, for their gold winners, to determine which is the country’s best beer.
Blythe Brewery will be entered into the Champion Winter Beer of Britain finals in Manchester in 2013.
