A Birkenhead brewery has won the award for the best standard bitter in the North West.
The award was given to the Peerless Pale cask ale brewed at Peerless Brewing Company, Birkenhead.
The ale was named as the winner of the category in the North West less than a year after it was first created by the brewery.
Managing Director Steve Briscoe told JMU Journalism: “We only started brewing this particular beer in March of this year. We would have killed to get a bronze or silver, but to achieve gold was absolutely incredible.”
Judges from the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) ranked more than 40 beers in the standard bitter category, which focuses on bitter under 4% alcohol content.
Peerless Brewing Company has only been operating for four years and has already won 14 awards from the SIBA. Mr Briscoe added: “When brewing a beer the balance has to be right and we spend a lot of time tweaking the recipe. Every time we brew the beer we try to analyse all areas of the beer, colour, flavour, brightness, hop bitterness and hop aroma.”
The Birkenhead Brewery has achieved massive success with their Jinja Ninja beer. It won both the regional and national in the 2012 speciality beer award.
After winning the regional, Peerless Pale cask ale will now be judged on a national scale in March.
Mr Briscoe said: “There are eight regions in total. The north region is particularly strong so our beers should be in with a chance. It’s all down to the judges on the day in terms of what beer they like.”
The brewery has experienced steady growth since opening and after winning these awards the company is looking to expand.