Northumberland brewery strikes gold at beer awards

Twice Brewed Brew House won a top prize at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) North East Independent Beer Awards.

Its Coria Amber Lager was given the gold award for Amber Lager (Amber to Dark Lager), while it also picked up silver for its Virtus El Dorado IPA (Imperial IPA) and bronze for its Vulcan Kazbek Pils (Session Lager).

Head brewer, Matthew Brown said: “We were absolutely delighted to be awarded the gold award for Coria while also getting silver and bronze recognition for two of our other brews.

“The North East is a real hotbed for excellent breweries, so we feel very proud.

“At The Twice Brewed, we work hard and use only the finest ingredients to make sure all of our ales are of a high standard, so to have that recognised by the industry is always a real honour.”

The competition took place as part of the Gateshead Beer Festival and saw the region’s independent breweries line up their best brews in the hope of winning over the judging panel, made up of fellow brewers and representatives from the industry.

Roy Allkin, SIBA chairman, said: “The winners from the SIBA competition are officially the best independent craft beers in the North East region, something brewers should be extremely proud of.”

Coria, which will now be entered into the SIBA National Awards in the coming months, is described as ‘a smooth and clean drinking malty Amber Lager… roasted and bready

flavours complimented by a light spice bitterness.’

It’s one of many Hadrian’s Wall-inspired ales brewed at Brew House, which is located along the military wall at Bardon Mill.

Since opening in 2017, the brewery, which shares a site with the popular Twice Brewed Inn, has been producing ales which take their names from the World Heritage site surroundings.

The overall champion cask beer award went to North Shields nanobrewery Metalhead Brewery with its ‘Pretty Vacant’ - a double dry hopped blonde ale.

The other top award for overall gold in the bottle and can competition went to Swaddle Micro Brewery, who trade as Black Storm Brewery & Taproom in North Shields, who won with their Czech-style Pilsner lager.

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