Norfolk brewer named champion winter beer of Britain
26th February 2025
CAMRA has named Grain Brewery’s porter Slate as the best in the Strong Stouts and Porters category of the Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition at the Great British Beer Festival Winter.
Following over a year of local blind-tasting panels and regional heats, the final round of judging took place at the festival, with judges awarding Slate Gold, beating Fixed Wheel’s Blackheath Stout (silver) and Acorn’s Gorlovka Imperial Stout (bronze) to the title.
Slate went on to take the overall bronze award in Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition.
Judges described the beer as: ‘A ruby black porter with liquorice treacle and a little dark fruit. The flavour is of black coffee, black cherry, raisins, treacle and liquorice, overlaid with a sweet character. The sweetness lingers in the finish with a dry roastiness.’
CAMRA’s awards director Gary Timmins said: “Massive congratulations to Grain for their fantastic win plus all the amazing category winners in this year’s competition. Slate is a cracking pint, and even in such an incredibly competitive shortlist, it is a worthy winner.
“Every year our judges find it harder and harder to pick a winner, which speaks volumes of the brewing talent in the UK. Despite their evident quality, our brewers struggle to find a place at the bar of our locals. Soulless global conglomerates have a greedy stranglehold on the industry, restricting true customer choice and our independent brewers’ access to market.
“Everyone should get out to their pub, social club or taproom and look out for one of your local brews – it might be one of our award-winning beers!” The category winners from the Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition will be entered into the overall Champion Beer of Britain competition later this year.”
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