CAMRA announce East Anglia’s Champion Beers

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The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) have announced the winners of the Champion Beers of East Anglia 2019 competition. The overall winner has been named as ‘Two Tone’, a draught mild ale by Shortts brewery in Suffolk.

The awards come after over a year of blind judgings held at CAMRA beer festivals around East Anglia. The beers were nominated by CAMRA’s East Anglia branches and tasting panels.

There are ten award categories, each covering a different style of real ale. They include milds, bitters, golden ales, speciality beers, old ales, stouts, porters and barley wines.

Shortts brewery describe Two Tone as ‘a satisfying dark mild with dark chocolate and sweet biscuity malt flavours.’ The brewery was founded in 2012 by Matt Hammond, on his family farm. Their names of their beers all follow a musical theme – ‘Two Tone’ sits alongside brews including ‘Skiffle’ and ‘Rockabilly’. They also brew a blonde beer called ‘Blondie’ and an IPA named ‘Indie Ale’.

The overall silver award was won by Colchester Brewery for their speciality real ale, ‘Brazilian Coffee & Vanilla Porter’. The overall bronze prize was awarded to Crouch Vale Brewery, from South Woodham Ferrers in Essex, for its citrus hoppy golden ale ‘Brewers Gold’.

The East Anglia awards were organised by CAMRA volunteers Paul Moorhouse and Kathy Hadfield-Moorhouse. Paul Moorhouse said: “I am delighted that the Shortts farm brewery has won the overall gold medal with its ‘Two Tone’ mild. Milds and other dark beers are increasingly popular these days and this award is a nod to the achievements of Shortts in producing many highly-regarded beers over only a few years since its foundation.”