The best beer in the UK has been named!
Raise your glasses please, for Crouch Vale Brewery’s Amarillo, which has been crowned the Campaign for Real Ale’s Champion Beer of Britain 2024.
Crouch Vale’s Amarillo (5 percent ABV) was praised by judging panel organiser Christine Cryne for its ‘tangy aroma with a faint note of biscuit. The flavour is full of tropical and citrus notes on a sweet biscuit base. Dry sweetish bitter finish. A full flavoured beer.’
She added that there was ‘exceptionally strong competition’, but that Amarillo was still a worthy winner. Judging takes two years and is all done via blind tasting. Crouch Vale Brewery was founded in 1981 and has won CAMRA gongs before, but this was its first in almost two decades.
Crouch Vale Brewery directors Colin and Fiona Bocking commented on the win, saying: ‘We are delighted. We have been doing this for half of our lives. We won in 2005, and we won in 2006, and there has been a 19-year hiatus. Hopefully, this will demonstrate to people that we are still around, and we are still making great beer. This is a beer that has been brewed for 30 years, at the time, when a lot of these very exciting American hops were coming on the market, we decided to use Amarillo hops from Washington State in the USA, and we are still using them today.’
Silver prize winner was The IPA (6% ABV) from south London’s Anspach & Hobday, and Bronze winner was Trawlerboys Best Bitter (4.6% ABV) from Green Jack Brewery in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
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