What next for Castle Rock Brewery, winner of the Champion Beer of Britain award at the Great British Beer Festival?

Seven years ago in the East Midlands, all the local breweries were challenged to create a special beer for the Nottingham beer festival. It was 2003 – the year that the new tram system came in and the same tram system sponsored the celebrations.

For the festival, Castle Rock Brewery produced Trammy Dodger – a 4.3 per cent ABV beer brewed that ended up winning the title of Beer of the Festival. The decision to carry on brewing the award-winning ale was an easy one.

So, with a reduced ABV of 3.8 per cent, the resulting blonde beer was renamed ‘Harvest Pale’ to suit its appearance. Last week, Harvest Pale was crowned CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain 2010. Since then, Castle Rock has been celebrating a busy couple of weeks.

So, has the recipe changed since its Trammy Dodger days? Castle Rock’s head brewer Adrian Redgrove says: “My input was to slightly adapt the recipe. I’ve changed the hop grists and the balance and toned down the bitterness and given more balance to the beer. I’d like to think that people trying it would be able to appreciate the citrus hoppy character and want to drink another and another.”

And how did it feel winning Champion Beer of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival? “It was a bit of a whirlwind day at the GBBF,” admits Adrian. “My feet haven’t touched the ground.”

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