The newest brewery in Dorset scooped the prestigious Beer of the Festival title- voted the top beer at Weymouth’s Beer Festival by drinkers.
The Cerne Abbas Brewery began only in May, when Vic Irvine and Jodie Moore bought the equipment of Art Brew at North Chideock. With the help of Chris Parsons, Cerne Abbas Ale is finding many devotees in the county and the team were delighted to be invited to the CAMRA beer festival in October at the Ocean Room in Weymouth.
The presentation was made at a special “thank you” event at Weymouth Pavilion for the 47 volunteers who made the festival such a success.
“Festivalgoers voted during all four sessions and the beer with the most number of votes receives the high accolade of Beer of the Festival,” comments CAMRA spokesman Michel Hooper-Immins. “We in West Dorset CAMRA are absolutely delighted the brand new Cerne Abbas Brewery has won, a good omen for their future success in the local brewing world.”
“We are always surprised and delighted when a previously unknown beer wins our public vote,” comments West Dorset CAMRA Chairman Dave Harris. “This year, not only did Cerne Abbas Ale win the competition, but sold out on the first day- a double success. Enough votes were cast to beat all other beers, which had two days at our event, so it is a very well deserved award.”
The team are currently still brewing at North Chideock, but will soon move to a new location near Cerne Abbas. “We were delighted to win the Beer of the Festival award,” says Vic Irvine. “CAMRA beer festivals are always the best and given that our beer ran out after two of the four sessions, we felt our achievement was quite remarkable. We are now brewing a blonde beer. The ales will vary monthly- November’s was single hopped with Chinook hops. December’s is brewed with Jester, a new British hop from the breeding programme that we consider a punchy answer to all the hops flooding the country from America and down under!”
Both the dark and the new blonde versions of Cerne Abbas Ale have been on sale at Dorchester’s CAMRA awardwinning Colliton Club all week. “Our customers always enjoy good local beer,” says Manager Neil Gatehouse. “I thought Cerne Abbas Ale is a delightful brew and I’m looking forward to sampling the monthly variations which will be available at the Colliton Club from now on.”
Next year’s Weymouth beer festival will be held on 16 and 17 October, again at the Ocean Room.
Michel Hooper-Immins
