These are the winners of CAMRA’s Champion Bottled Beer of Britain

These are the winners of CAMRA’s Champion Bottled Beer of Britain 

The winners of CAMRA's 2016 Champion Bottled Beer of Britain awards were announced at the BBC Good Food Show in November. 

This competition is a celebration of bottle-conditioned beers, the brews that are still alive in the bottle, the yeast is still acting, adding depth of flavour and an effervescence. 

There was a stunning selection of beers this year from a wide variety of breweries – some big, some small, some old, some new. There was also a vast range of styles of beers. As sponsors Beer Hawk have also put together the official case featuring beers from all the finalists.

Among the highlights are Elland’s 1872 Porter (6.5%), one of the most decorated beers in Britain, from the Welsh borders is Wye Valley’s Butty Bach, a favourite bitter, and Amber Valley’s Imperial IPA (6.5%) full of floral notes, a toasted breadiness and big berry aromas.  

The beer that placed third in 2016’s competition was Crouch Vale’s fantastically flavoursome Yakima Gold (4.2%) full of Amarillo hops from the Yakima Valley on the north-west coast of America. It is full of citrus aromas, but with a solid savoury backbone – a favourite during our tastings. 

In second position is Flipside’s Russian Rouble (7.3%), a multi-award winning strong, dark, Russian Imperial Stout with notes of chocolate, liquorice, coffee and treacle (perfect with dark chocolate brownies and vanilla ice cream!). 

The first place beer, Stringer’s Mutiny, has sold out unfortunately, but in our case we’ve replaced it with the small brewery’s wondrous Damson, a mildly sour beer fermented with wild yeast and refermented on raw Cumbrian damsons. It’s delicious.