The competition was held to capitalize on the boom in home brewing during the lockdown that continued to flourish during the cost of living crisis. The winning domestic brew, an imperial stout called Doggy in the Woods by Stephen Folland from Great Shefford near Hungerford, Berkshire, was chosen from more than 170 entries. At 16.1% it is the strongest beer to ever win a Camra award. Folland’s prize is to have his home strain commercially produced by the Brewhouse & Kitchen in Worthing. Speaking to the Guardian, Folland, 59, an engineer at an online marketing company, said: “I’m amazed – I never in a million years thought I’d win with a beer of such high strength. The prospect of brewing on a commercial scale is really exciting.” Folland said he started home brewing in 2017 “because I was bored with some of the local beer offerings and felt confident that I could brew beer better.” And he reckons the homebrewing trend will grow as the cost of a pint rises. Stephen Folland Photography: brochure A YouGov poll commissioned by Camra for the festival found that for the first time more than half believe the price of beer is unaffordable. Last week’s official figures showed the average cost of a pint has topped £4 for the first time and is well over £6 in London. Folland said: “A lot of my friends started brewing in lockdown because they needed something to do. As pub prices rise, the gap between making your own and going to a pub widens, so the cost of living crisis will only fuel the homebrewing hobby.” Folland said the secret to his beer’s winning flavor was letting it mellow for five years. The panel of five judges were impressed by the beer’s taste despite its strength. One of the judges, Phil Cooke, owner of the Hop Inn in Hornchurch, said: “Making really strong beers is very difficult. To brew a beer at 16.1% that is drinkable is absolutely amazing.” Labor MP Charlotte Nichols, chair of the caucus on pubs, confessed that strong beers were “not really my thing”, but during the crisis she said: “I really like this one. You could almost put it in ice cream.” Second prize went to the least alcoholic beer on the 12-strong shortlist, a light one called Crooner by Mark Sanderson, from Catford in south London. He said: “We’ve all had to drink horrible home brew that you have to be polite about, so to make something that people actually want to drink is a really great feeling.” Beer writer Laura Hadland, who has written a Camra story and helped judge the shortlist, said: “I thought the standard was very high.” He added: “Cask ale is a great British product. It’s something we do better than anyone else in the world, so I love that people are taking the leap and trying to do it themselves. A lot of small breweries come from home production.” He added: “It will save you money if you’re good at brewing, even if you’re starting from scratch.” Her favorite beer was a specialty salty sour called Margarita Gose, which came in third overall. He said: “It has that incredible margarita vibrancy, but in beer form.” Its brewer, Thomas Corry, 33, a physics teacher from Farnham in Surrey, said: “Homebrewing is about new flavors and doing silly things in my garage that a commercial brewer can’t. I wanted to see how cocktails could be merged with beers.” He added: “You can brew a beer for less than a pound a pint, whereas in a pub you’re looking at up to £6 a pint for craft beer, so a lot of people are turning to homebrew. I’ve made most of my beer with a sub-£100 kit.”
