Ian and Sarah Bradford at SIBA’s BeerX event
Staffordshire’s Lymestone Brewery is celebrating after two of its keg beers won regional gold medals at the SIBA Independent Beer Awards and its brewery tap in Stone, The Borehole, was named pub of the year by Heart of Staffordshire CAMRA.
Father and daughter brewing duo Ian and Sarah Bradford, from Lymestone, were at SIBA’s BeerX event, where they won a Midlands region gold medal for their Waterstone Wheat ale in the keg speciality light beers category. And there was a gold medal for Stray Cat Milk in the keg British dark beers (up to 4.4% ABV) category. The milk stout is produced by Sarah at the brewery, but under the Stray Cat brand.
Ian said: “We’ve been brewing Lymestone beers for over ten years and the industry is almost unrecognisable from when we started. The demand for new beers and new flavours is stronger than ever, so I’m delighted that two of our newest keg beers have been awarded regional gold medals.”
Experimenting with different beer styles
Sarah, who started brewing with her dad in 2017, added: “The Stray Cat range is deliberately different from the Lymestone beers, and it’s been fantastic to experiment with different beer styles. It’s really important to develop new beers and to push what we’re doing.”
On the pub award, director Vivienne Bradford said: “We opened The Borehole, our second pub, in March 2015, and it’s gone from strength to strength. It’s a real community pub, with lots of events and support for local groups and charities, and we continue to develop it. Last year we launched The Borehole Tasting Club, with regular tasting nights covering beer, spirits and more.”
Lymestone Brewery was founded in 2008 by Ian and Viv. The brewery — based at Mount Road, Stone — employs six people and has two pubs: The Lymestone Vaults, in Newcastle, and The Borehole, a stone’s throw away from the brewery in Stone. While daughter Sarah is a brewer at Lymestone, son Harry manages the brewery’s pubs.
