Locally-brewed beer earns CAMRA gold award

Lancaster Black has been awarded the gold medal at the annual CAMRA Winter Great British Beer Festival.

The drink, from Lancaster Brewery, topped the Sessions, Stouts and Porters category.

Each of the category winners from the Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition will now be entered into the overall Champion Beer of Britain competition which will be held later this year.

The award for Lancaster Black, the brewery’s dark velvet plush stout, came after over a year of local blind-tasting panels and regional heats which also saw the brewery win the North West Gold at the CAMRA beer festival in Liverpool in 2023.

Will Pammenter, head brewer, said: "It's a fantastic achievement being up against hundreds of competitors from across the country in a category where so many breweries in the UK have a worthy applicant.

"Black is a lovely, velvety smooth beer with a really rich and complex flavour profile. I'm very proud of it, it's my personal favourite beer and it's great that it's now getting such national recognition."

Talking about the brewery's plans for 2024 and beyond, Will added: "We have lots of new initiatives coming up for this year with a new bespoke microbrewery plant due for delivery in Spring that will allow us, for the first time, to brew small batches of beer.

"Having a large brewery and nano-brewery operating independently, yet in the same building, means we can satisfy our thousands of weekly Blonde drinkers, while also being much more experimental and daring with some of our new brews."

Lancaster Black, 4.5% ABV, is a complex traditional dark beer with subtle hints of coffee and dark chocolate, has been brewed for over fifteen years. The beer is available in all Lancaster Brewery pubs, as well as a host of other local hostelries, it’s also available in 500ml bottles in selected supermarkets and direct from the brewery shop.

Lancaster Brewery currently supplies beer to venues across the UK and is one of the largest "small breweries" in the North West. In addition to its beers, the company also owns and operates five award-winning venues in the North Lancashire and South Cumbria area.

Established in 2001, the business continues to develop with the recently launched Lancaster Spirits Company and is in the process of constructing extensive facilities for a new whisky distillery.