Grain Brewery in South Norfolk has just won a top award for its smoked porter in a regional keg beer competition. And, according to owner Phil Halls, the success is partly down to the ‘dreadful’ hard water in this part of the world!
A Norfolk brewery’s smoked porter has won Overall Champion at the SIBA East of England Keg Beer competition. Grain Brewery’s ‘Slate’ took the top award, beating over 56 other beers from breweries across the East of England. The accolade comes after their cask version of the same dark, rich porter won Overall East of England SIBA Champion Cask Beer in September last year. The popular beer is brewed with Norfolk barley and oak-smoked malt from Bamberg, Germany and was entered in the Speciality Beer category where it won gold before going through to the final round of judging.
The brewery, which produces its traditional dark porter from its base in Alburgh, South Norfolk, was up against 16 other breweries from Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Phil Halls, owner of Grain Brewery, says: ‘I was delighted to have such wonderful news to kick off 2024. When the organisers announced that Slate had won the Overall Champion of East of England, I was surprised because of the great beers it was up against.
‘To win the big award for both cask and keg makes me so proud of the hard work the brewery team put into perfecting our beers. It’s not always easy, so recognition like this makes the huge effort of the brewers, worth it. There was some celebration the night of the award.’
Entering four beers, Grain Brewery was only one of three Norfolk breweries in the competition and the only Norfolk brewer to take home a gold. Okapi, Grain Brewery’s hazy IPA also won runner up in the Pale Ale category. With a zesty orange flavour, the beer is a regular at the brewery’s pub in Norwich, The Plough, and at their Taproom in South Norfolk.
The well-respected industry awards, run by the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), are judged by around 30 beer experts in blind tastings and are seen very much as the brewers’ choice awards in the industry.
The awards took place at Legra Tap and Kitchen in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex and the gold winners will now go on to compete in the National Competition in Liverpool on 14th March, joining four of Grain’s cask beers in the competition which were all gold winners in the regional cask finals back in September last year.
As dark beers continue to grow in popularity, Grain Brewery are putting their success down to Norfolk-grown barley and our region’s hard, chalky water. With light and sandy soils, warm and dry weather and salty sea breezes, Norfolk is famed for growing some of the best malting barley in the world.
Coupled with the county’s hard water which is packed full of calcium and magnesium – perfect for darker profiles in beer – it’s no wonder Norfolk’s dark beers are scooping up awards.
Phil Halls adds: ‘Our water in Norfolk is very hard, making it dreadful for many things. It scales up your kettle, and leaves stains on your car after you’ve washed it, but fortunately it is good for brewing dark beer.
‘Norfolk’s ground is full of calcium carbonate, in other words, chalk, which is why buses mysteriously disappear into deep sink holes in the road, but the chalk provides the barley and yeast what it needs to brew good beer, and also gives the beer a full flavour on the palate. After all, beer is mostly water, so our water is very important.’
Grain Brewery’s taproom reopens in February and is open every Friday and Saturday 12noon – 7pm. To find out more about Grain Brewery and their beer visit grainbrewery.co.uk.
Featured image of Phil Halls by Andrew Mcrostie
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