Great British Beer Festival 2007

Hobsons Mild is named Champion Beer of Britain A traditional mild ale with a modest strength of just 3.2% alcohol stormed to victory in the Champion Beer of Britain competition on 7 August, the opening day of the annual Great British Beer Festival at London's Earls Court.

Hobsons Mild comes from a craft brewery in Cleobury Mortimer near Kidderminster in Shropshire. Hobsons is one of Britain's longest-running craft breweries. It opened in 1993 in a former saw mill but has moved recently to new premises on farm, with room to expand. It supplies beers within a 50-mile radius of the brewery and also supplies own-label beers to the Severn Valley Railway tourist attraction.

Hobsons Mild uses Maris Otter pale malt, pale chocolate malt and crystal malt and is hopped with Fuggles and Goldings. Bitterness units are in the low 20s. Unusually, the brewing water is softened with sea salt, which Nick Davis at Hobsons says brings out the roasted character of the darker malts. In the competition for the Champion Bottled Beer, the top awards all went to stout, with O'Hanlon's Port Stout winning gold and Titanic Stout and Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout sharing the silver.

The full list of winners in the competition organised by the Campaign for Real Ale, is:

Mild Gold Hobsons Mild Silver Nottingham Rock Mild Bronze Brains Dark

Bitter Gold Castle Rock Harvest Pale Silver Twickenham Crane Sundancer Bronze (joint) Surrey Hills Ranmore Ale/Fyne Piper's Gold

Best Bitter Gold Purple Moose Glaslyn Ale Silver George Wright Pipe Dream Bronze (joint) Fuller's London Pride/Nethergate Suffolk County/Station House Buzzin'

Strong Bitter Gold York Centurion's Ghost Silver Inveralmond Lia Fail Bronze Brains SA Gold

Speciality Beer Gold Nethergate Umbel Magna Silver Little Valley Hebden Wheat Bronze St Peter's Grapefruit

Golden Ale Gold Mighty Oak Maldon Gold Silver Oak Leaf Hole Hearted Bronze Otley 01

Champion Bottled Beer of Britain Gold O'Hanlon's Port Stout Silver (joint) Titanic Stout/Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout Bronze Wapping Baltic Gold