Castle Rock's Harvest Pale, this year's champion beer of Britain, is the only beer in the Great British Beer Festival's (GBBF) history to have scooped top gongs in two different categories.
At GBBF 2010, the beer won the golden ale category as well as scooping the top gong. But three years ago Harvest Pale was ranked first in the bitter category. The Golden Ale category is the festival's newest — it was only introduced in 2005.
Holmes said that the firm spotted the trend for golden beers around 15 years ago when customers started looking for lighter beers with more "citrussy" flavours. "We didn't have a beer that was under 4% abv before Harvest Pale," he said.
The company said part of the beer's success was down to its "drinkability", adding that it would appeal to lager drinkers, and also to women. "We're trying to break down the stereotypes of one guy drinking eight pints per night," said Holmes.
Head brewer Adrian Redgrove reassured fans that the brewery would "pay attention to detail in terms of the quality of product" despite having to ramp up production to cope with increased demand.
Commercial director Colin Wilde said: "We're not surprised that our beer was good enough to win, but we did not expect it."
Castle Rock is just about to complete work on a new brew plant, which opens in two weeks. It will treble production to 360 brewers barrels per week. Wilde said the firm will be drawing up a schedule to ensure they can meet demand.
