Suffolk brewery wins Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2018
Green Jack Brewery’s Ripper came up trumps at the festival in Norfolk yesterday (20 February), finishing ahead of Siren Craft Brew’s Broken Dream Breakfast Stout and Cairngorm Brewery’s Black Gold, which collected the Silver and Bronze awards respectively.
The beer previously held the title of CAMRA Supreme Champion Winter Beer of Great Britain in 2006, and also finished runner-up in last year’s competition.
'Sweet and fruity'
The judges at CAMRA’s Winter Beer Festival described Ripper as a "sweet and warming beer with soft and fruity complex flavours", while the tasting notes for the beer on Green Jack’s website describe it as “sweet and fruity with a robust hop character and a warming finish”.
One judge, CAMRA activist John Clarke, tweeted: “Congratulations to @greenjackbrew for Champion Winter Beer. A clear winner on my Barley Wine/Strong Old Ale panel and now national champion. A beautifully balanced and drinkable barley wine. Well done to all involved.”
Tim Dunford from Green Jack Brewery, which is based in Lowestoft, said: “It’s absolutely brilliant that we have won this award for the second time, I’m overwhelmed! We really love our strong beers and used to travel to Belgium all the time when we first got into the industry - I fell in love with the style and we have gone on from there.”
'A clear winner'
Nick Boley, CAMRA’s national director responsible for the competition, added: “The standard of the competition was higher than previous years, and the judges were impressed with the quality of all the beers that made it to the final, but Ripper from Green Jack Brewery was a clear winner.”
Green Jack Brewery is one of the largest breweries in East Anglia. It was founded in 2003, and has previously won more than 100 awards at CAMRA and SIBA beer festivals.
The Great British Beer Festival Winter festival runs from 20 to 24 February at the Halls in Norwich.
