In the real ale world, regular order is restored.

The Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) is Britain’s largest beer festival, with over 50,000 attendees. On the festival tasting floor, there are over 900 (cask-conditioned) real ales ranging from

microbreweries to the most well known British brands, and hundreds of bottled and foreign beers, and a selection of real ciders and perries.

It's also a competition among British brewers for national bragging-rights. Last year, Binghams Brewery's Vanilla Stout won the judging with a cask-ale pickled American-style with vanilla beans, cocoa, chocolate 'essence,' and 'natural' plum flavoring.

Upon hearing that, I bemoaned, "Oh the humanity." The beer reporter for the Washington Post took me to task for that, accusing me of demeaning the skills of the brewers and judges.

You praise the competition's "even playing field," then dismiss the winner (and by extension CAMRA judges) w/o ever tasting it?

— Fritz Hahn (@fritzhahn) August 10, 2016

Stuff and nonsense, as if holding an opinion would be prima facie wrong, and expressing one, insulting. I don't much like extraneous nonsense tossed in a beer I drink. I do much enjoy the uber-freshness of an unadulterated cask ale. And I freely stipulate to that.

This year —despite the eschatological presence of "fine English wines," for the first time in the London beer festival's forty years— regular order has been restored. A 3.8% (!) alcohol-by-volume bitter (cask-conditioned, of course) has been crowned Champion Beer of Britain.

A bitter beer first brewed as a one-off for a pub in Lincolnshire has walked away with the prestigious Champion Beer of Britain award at the Great British Beer Festival at London Olympia. Goats Milk was produced by the Church End Brewery in Warwickshire for the Goat Pub in Market Deeping in Lincolnshire but proved so popular that it’s become a regular beer in the brewery’s range.

Head brewer Carl Graves says the 3.8% beer has a simple recipe of Maris Otter pale malt with a touch of crystal malt and malted wheat and is hopped with American Cascade and Chinook hops.

The judges on the final panel said the beer was the stand-out one among the six finalists and praised its fine balance of malt and hops and refreshing palate.

This year, like last, I was not fortunate to be there to taste the winner. But (risking re-opprobrium from the 'mainstream media') I'll still exult that an unpolluted bitter —a moreish session beer— has bested stronger zymur-sisters and brothers, resting victorious atop its stillage.

All is right with the world, at least for a moment.

Even so, a long line stood for a stand of
AMERICAN cask ales (exhibited but not judged).

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The Champion Beer of Britain 2016, with vanilla tossed in.

Oh, the humanity. A cask-conditioned 'vanilla' stout has won Champion Beer of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival.

Binghams Brewery's Vanilla Stout, brewed in Berkshire, was named the best beer of 2016 at the Champion Beer of Britain Awards Dinner held on Tuesday evening (9 August) at the Hilton Hotel, Olympia, London. Bingham’s Vanilla Stout is a 5 percent Dark Stout infused with vanilla and dark malts to create a smooth and dark beer [...]packed full of comforting flavours.

The Great British Beer Festival (GBBF), now in its 39th year, is Britain’s largest beer festival, with over 50,000 attendees. On the festival tasting floor, there are over 900 (cask-conditioned) real ales ranging from "microbreweries to the most well known British brands, and hundreds of bottled and foreign beers, and a selection of real ciders and perries." (Yes, the Brits still say, "microbrewery"!)

Prior to the festival, tasting panels comprised of CAMRA members (Campaign for Real Ale) judge the beers [ALL CASK-CONDITIONED; the size of the brewery, large or small, notwithstanding] in their geographic area of the UK. The recommendations of these panels are put forward to nine regional panels, with the winners of these qualifying for the finals in August."

Rounding out the champions are

• Old Dairy Brewery in Kent, winning the silver for Snow Top, a 6 percent alcohol-by-volume (abv) Old Ale.
• Tring Brewery in Hertfordshire, winning the bronze for Death or Glory, a Barleywine of 7.2 percent abv.

To repeat, all the beers at the GBBF are judged in cask-conditioned real ale form, thus putting all the breweries, large and small, on an even playing field, in ten categories. By comparison, at the Great American Beer Festival, all beers are judged poured from bottles (or cans), in which the technology of better, and thus more expensive, packaging lines can offer a competitive advantage to those breweries that can afford them. And there are ninety-six categories.

The remainder of this year's GBBF winning beer are, by category:

• Mild Ale
  • Gold
    Williams Bros. Brewing (Alloa, Scotland):
    Black (4.2% abv).
  • Silver Mighty Oak Brewing (Essex, England):
    Oscar Wilde Dark Mild (3.7% abv).
  • Bronze
    Acorn Brewery (South Yorkshire, England):
    Darkness (4.2% abv)
• Bitter
  • Gold
    Timothy Taylor & Company (West Yorkshire, England):
    Boltmaker (4.0% abv).
  • Silver
    Tiny Rebel Brewing (Newport, Wales):
    Hank American Pale Ale (4.0% abv).
  • Bronze (tie)
    Hawkshead Brewery (Cumbria, England):
    Bitter (3.7% abv)
  • Bronze (tie)
    Salopian Brewery (Shropshire, England):
    Shropshire Gold (3.8% abv)
• Best Bitter
  • Gold
    Surry Hills Brewery (Surry, England):
    Shere Drop (4.2% abv).
  • Silver
    Salopian Brewery:
    Darwin's Origin (4.3% abv).
  • Bronze (tie)
    Colchester Brewery (Essex, England):
    Colchester No. 1 (4.1% abv)
  • Bronze (tie)
    Tiny Rebel Brewing:
    Cwtch Welsh Red Ale (4.6% abv)
• Strong Bitter
  • Gold
    Heavy Industry Brewing (Denbighshire, Wales):
    77 (4.9% abv).
  • Silver
    Hawkshead Brewery:
    NZPA New Zealand Pale Ale (6.0% abv).
  • Bronze
    Adnams Southwold (Suffolk, England):
    Darkness (4.5% abv)
• Golden Ales
  • Gold
    Golden Triangle Brewing (Norfolk, England):
    Mosaic City (3.8% abv).
  • Silver
    Grey Trees Brewery (Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales):
    Diggers Gold (4.0% abv).
  • Bronze
    Manchester Marble Beers (Manchester, England):
    Lagonda IPA (5.0% abv)
• Speciality
  • Gold
    Binghams Brewery (Berkshire, England):
    Vanilla Stout (5.0% abv).
    Champion Beer of Britain 2016
  • Silver
    Saltaire Brewery (West Yorkshire, England):
    Triple Chocoholic (4.8% abv).
  • Bronze
    Titanic Brewery (Staffordshire, England):
    Plum Porter (4.9% abv)

Congratulations to all.


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Even as I was typing this post, a Twitter post was addressed to me by an ex-pat British brewer, long in the U.S.:

Cleaning casks for a friend and came across a West Coast Porter with peanut butter cups in the cask! Thought of you @Cizauskas. #wtf

— stephen jones (@oliverale) August 10, 2016

A 'craft' beer containing such "traditional" and 'craft'-like ingredients as tert-butyl-hydroquinone and polyglycerol polyricinoleate? Ugh. At least the British specialty casks only contained vanilla, cocoa, chocolate 'essence,' and 'natural' plum flavoring.

You and others can have all that. For me, no cocoa-puffs or dingleberries, please. I'll be happy with a slice of bread, a hunk of cheddar cheese, and a glorious pint of cask conditioned ...

Colchester No. 1
1042 og, ABV 4.1%
A classic English best bitter, copper in colour. Whole leaf Boadicea hops for flavour and the definitive aroma of East Kent Goldings. The same recipe as when it was our first ever brew.

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