Cornish brewery wins top CAMRA prize

The Driftwood Brewery at St Agnes in Cornwall has been crowned Champion Wimter Beer of Britain with Alfie's Revenge, a 6.5% Old Ale. The brewery, attached to the Driftwood Spars hotel at Trevaunance Cove, fought off stiff competition from breweries throughout Britain that entered beers in styles ranging from Porter to Barley Wine.

The Good Beer Guide describes Alfie's Revenge as "a strong and fruity, well-balanced premium ale". Silver in the competition went to Cairngorm Brewery's Black Gold and Bronze was won by the Coniston Brewery with No 9 Barley Wine.

Head Brewer Peter Martin at Driftwood said: "We're thrilled to have won -- it makes a big difference to us and it will put our brewery and brewing in Cornwall in general on the map. As a brewpub we hope the impact on our business will be significant."

Winners of the various categories were:

Old Ales and Strong Milds

Gold: Driftwood Alfie's Revenge, Cornwall

Joint Silver: Nant Mwnci Nell, Llanwurst, Conway; Brunswick Black Sabbath, Derby

Bronze: Beowulf Dark Raven, Brownhills, Staffs

Porters

Gold: Hammerpot Bottle Wrecker Porter, Poling, W Sussex

Silver: Blythe Johnson's, Hamstall Ridware, Staffs

Bronze: Sulwath Black Galloway, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Stouts

Gold: Cairngorm Black Gold, Aviemore, Highlands

Silver: Cambridge Moonshine Black Hole Stout, Fulbourn, Cambs

Bronze: Acorn Gorlovka, Wombwell, South Yorkshire

Barley Wines

Gold: Coniston No 9, Coniston, Cumbria

Silver: Moor Old Freddy Walker, Pitney, Somerset

Bronze: Isle of Sky Cullin Beast, Uig, Isle of Sky.

The overall winners -- Driftwood, Cairngorm and Coniston -- will go forward to the Champion Beer of Britain competition that will held during the Great British Beer Festival at London Olympia in August.

*Roger Protz comments: By sheer coincidence I shall be conducting a tutored beer tasting at the Driftwood Spars on Thursday evening, 26 January. It should be quite a night!" See www.driftwoodspars.com