The ‘brewer of tomorrow’ has been unveiled at the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) in the event’s first ever homebrew competition.
Berkshire brewer Stephen Folland, 59, took home the crown with his beer, Doggy in the Woods, a 16% ABV full-bodied stout. It’s the strongest beer to ever win a CAMRA award.
Christine Cryne, one of the judges said: “This beer was remarkably drinkable for its alcohol strength. Our overall feedback was ‘wow!’.”
Stephen will be invited to commercially brew and sell his winning beer with the head brewer at Brewhouse & Kitchen in Worthing, who will work with him to adapt the recipe for a 500-litre brewkit. The beer will be sold and distributed across local CAMRA festivals.
Stephen made the beer in 2017 and has left it to age for five years. He said: “I’m stunned and delighted. This is the first beer that I’ve ever brewed, and I can’t believe a beer of this strength won. I’m about to move to Cornwall and will be setting up a microbrewery there, so this is a fantastic accolade to receive.”
Gail Bunn, marketing manager at Brewhouse & Kitchen, said: “We’re extremely proud to be involved in this exciting competition as developing home brewers into ‘award-winning’ commercial brewers is at the heart of what we do.”
Londoner Mark Sanderson’s Crooner was named runner-up in the competition. It’s a 3% ABV mild. Judges said the mild was “perfectly brewed” and “drank stronger than its alcohol content”. It was also described as incredibly “more-ish”. Mark will receive a prize of a year of free beer from Beer52, sponsor of this year’s festival.
Ruaraidh Macpherson, head of partnerships at Beer52, said: ”We are thrilled to be supporting the inaugural homebrew competition at this year’s Great British Beer Festival. With many talented homebrewers in our community, we are aware of the dedication and innovation required to make a successful homebrew. Perhaps they’ll even feature in a future Beer52 case!”
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The bronze winner in the competition was Thomas Corry for his Margarita Gose, which shocked the judging panel as a beer “completely different to other beers that were tasted”.
Thomas said: “I wanted to see how cocktails could be merged with beers. The gose style has a salty backbone, and I wanted to meld that with a sour margarita, so I incorporated orange and lime hop profiles.” He will receive four free VIP tickets to next year’s festival as his prize.
The competition spanned across 12 different beer styles, from milds and IPAs to barley wines and porters. There was also a special Thank Brew category where homebrewers tried their hand at the limited edition 3.5% ABV pale ale, which was created in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee to raise money for charitable causes.
The Thank Brew winner, Stuart Betts, from Dudley, received a special category prize for his beer, I Hate Silica Finings. He will get the chance to travel down to Southwold for a brew day at Adnams.
Christine Cryne said: “The judges were impressed by the quality of all of the category winners. There was a good range of beer styles, complexity, and attention to detail, and anyone who made it into the final 12 should be highly commended.”
Catherine Tonry, GBBF organiser, adde: “We’re incredibly excited to be crowning the winner of CAMRA’s first ever national homebrew competition at this year’s festival. We all know that some of the very best beers in this country begin from humble origins, and it’s very likely that the best beers of tomorrow will be found among today’s homebrewers.”
