Sheffield brewers enjoy Rotherham awards

A number of Sheffield’s brewers were among the winners in the Champion Beer of Yorkshire awards which took place during the recent Baas, Bands and Beers festival at Magna in Rotherham. To mark the 25^th anniversary of the Rotherham CAMRA festival, each of the previous Gold medal winners was invited back and entered into the blind taste test. Abbeydale’s well-known Moonshine, invited back as the overall winner from 2012, won Gold in the Best Bitter category and was awarded Silver in the overall Champion of Champions competition. The Gold award was taken by Rotherham brewery Chantry, with their Two Magpies porter. Fuggle Bunny Brew House, based at Halfway, picked up two awards, with their Chapter 4 – 24 Carrot taking Gold in the Golden Ale category, while Chapter 8 – Jammy Dodger came second in Best Bitter. Meanwhile, Bradfield took Gold in the Stout category with Farmers Stout, which has been a longstanding feature in their core range. Finally, the top prize in the Speciality category was won by relative newcomers Little Critters, with their chocolate and hazelnut milk stout Nutty Ambassador (also a recent entry in my Casks of the Month column!). Congratulations to all the winners on their success. Dominic Nelson