Acorn Brewery, in Barnsley, has taken home the overall champion gold award from the SIBA North East Independent Beer Awards, which took place at Gateshead Rugby Club over the bank holiday weekend.
Gary Robson, of Sure Purity, presents the overall gold award to Steve Bunting, of Acorn Brewery
The winning beer was Acorn’s flagship Barnsley Bitter. Magic Rock Brewing Co’s Ringmaster took overall silver, with Ossett Brewery’s Voodoo picking up bronze.
“Barnsley Bitter was one of the first beers we ever brewed,” said Acorn brewer Steve Bunting. “It’s one of the beers we started the brewery with and has a long heritage, using the original yeast strain from the orignal Barnsley Brewery from the 1850s. It’s amazing that, against such a wide variety of beer styles in the awards, such a traditonal style could come out on top today!”
Barnsley Bitter and the other beer style category winners will now go forward to the national finals of the competition, taking place at BeerX UK in Liverpool next year.
Anneli Baxter, SIBA’s competitions chair, said: “Cask beer comes in a huge range of styles, strengths, colours, and flavours, with some superb beers winning across the board, but it was great to see that a superbly brewed traditional bitter taking the top award today.
“Massive congratulations to Acorn Brewery and all of the other winners in the SIBA North East Independent Beer Awards.”
