A new English beer made by a Kent winemaker has been named as one of the world's best lagers in the industry's equivalent to the Oscars.
The annual International Beer Challenge – which has been judging the world's best beers for the past 16 years – has awarded the ultimate accolade of a gold medal to Chapel Down vineyard for its Curious Brew premium lager.
The prestigious annual competition attract entries from the world's largest breweries through to the burgeoning band of pioneering microbrewers.
This year, judges tasted over 400 beers before declaring the Kent winemaker's lager to be the best of its class. The competition deemed only 30 beers, from countries including Belgium, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and the USA, to be of gold-medal standard. Curious Brew was one of only three international lagers awarded a golden gong.
US brewery Samuel Adams picked up the other two lager gold medals for its Double Bock and A Dark Night in Munich.
Chapel Down, which only started brewing beer two years ago, believes that its success comes down to using the best quality products and, crucially, bringing a wine-maker's thinking to the beer-brewing process.
The vineyard uses East Anglian malt, saaz and cascade hops. It then re-ferments the lager using the same champagne yeast that goes into its award-winning sparkling wines to create a highly drinkable and refreshing 4.7% abv lager beer.
The whole process is overseen by Frazer Thompson, Chapel Down's chief executive officer, who as a "beer man" has held senior jobs at Heineken and Whitbread. He said: "We've changed people's minds about English wine and now we want to do the same when it comes to lager.
Mass-produced lagers taste like corporate cardboard and have the aroma of market research rather than hops. We've worked really hard to craft something that is more fragrant and more refreshing than other beers when served cold."
The vineyard's still and sparkling wines have won a clutch of prestigious industry awards over the years and some were served at Buckingham Palace during the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding celebrations.
Beer expert and author Pete Brown added: "I was intrigued when I first heard from Frazer that he was creating beers and I loved the results when I first tasted them. Brewing with champagne yeast is something you'd expect the Belgians to do, and so is brewing a lager for that matter. The result is a lovely beer which has a sparkling zing that makes it refreshing, satisfying and a lovely halfway house between beer and a sparkling wine. This is a lager for people who love beer."
Curious Brew is currently served on draught at Jamie Oliver's Union Jacks restaurants and several Jamie's Italians, The Swan at London's Globe Theatre, the Royal Opera House, Gordon Ramsay restaurants, ETM's The Gun, The RAC Club and Browns brasseries, as well as various independent pubs in the south-east.