Beer aficionados have crowned a mild ale made by a farm-based Suffolk microbrewer as their overall East Anglian champion.
Draught beer Two Tone, which is made by Matt Hammond of Shortts Farm Brewery at Thorndon, near Eye, scooped top spot at the Campaign for Real Ale’s (CAMRA) Champion Beers of East Anglia 2019 competition.
The awards follow a year of blind judgings held at CAMRA beer festivals around East Anglia, with beers nominated by CAMRA’s East Anglia branches and tasting panels.
MORE – ‘I’ve had plenty of people telling me it won’t work’ says licensee at launch of ‘beer pub’The 10 awards categories covered different styles of real ales including milds, bitters, golden ales, speciality beers, old ales, stouts, porters and barley wines.
Shortts brewery, which describes Two Tone as ‘a satisfying dark mild with dark chocolate and sweet biscuity malt flavours’, was founded in 2012 by Matt Hammond on his family farm.
The names of his beers all follow a musical theme, with Two Tone joining brews including Skiffle and Rockabilly. He also brews a blonde beer called Blondie and an IPA named Indie Ale.
In second place was Colchester Brewery, which scooped the overall silver award for its speciality real ale, Brazilian Coffee & Vanilla Porter.
The overall bronze award went to Crouch Vale Brewery of South Woodham Ferrers in Essex for its citrus hoppy golden ale Brewers Gold.
The East Anglia awards were organised by CAMRA volunteers Paul Moorhouse and Kathy Hadfield-Moorhouse.
Paul said: “I am delighted that the Shortts Farm Brewery has won the overall gold medal with its Two Tone mild. Milds and other dark beers are increasingly popular these days and this award is a nod to the achievements of Shortts in producing many highly-regarded beers over only a few years since its foundation.”
Winners in each category were as follows: Milds – Shortts (Two Tone); Bitters – Bishop Nick (Ridley’s Rite); Best Bitters – Green Jack (Trawlerboys Best Bitter); Strong Bitters – S & P (Nasha IPA); Golden Ales – Crouch Vale (Brewers Gold); Speciality Beers – Colchester Brewery (Brazilian Coffee and Vanilla Porter); Old Ales/Strong – Wibblers (Winter Wibble); Porters – Calverley’s (Porter); Stouts – Mersea Island (Oyster Stout); Barley Wines/Strong Old Ales – Lacons (Audit Ale).
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