The judges have spoken at the Great British Beer Festival and CAMRA has announced that this year’s Champion Beer of Britain Gold Medal winner is Alton’s Pride, brewed by Hampshire’s Triple fff Brewery.

From the press-release tasting notes: “Alton’s Pride, which has an ABV of 3.8%, is described in the 2008 edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide as: ‘Clean-tasting, golden brown beer, full-bodied for its strength with an aroma of floral hops. An initial malty flavour fades as citrus notes and hoppiness take over, leading to a hoppy, bitter finish.’”

The Silver award went to Black Dog Freddy from Beckstones of Cumbria. Bronze went to CAMRA’s current National Winter Beer of Britain winner: Station Porter from the Wickar Brewery (no website?) of Gloucestershire.

The 2008 Pub Design Awards have been announced via CAMRA press release. Same format as last year, categories for best new build, best conversion to pub use, best refurbished pub and the CAMRA / English Heritage conservation award.

My brother-in-law is a builder in Bridgnorth, and I know he was involved in completely refurbishing the King’s Head – a job that included building premises out the back for the Bridgnorth Brewing Co.‘s micro-production facility – but I think the work was done pre-2007 so wouldn’t be eligible for entry. Which is a shame, because they did a very nice job indeed.

This Saturday’s Independent Magazine carried an advert / feature placed by CAMRA, suggesting a selection of bottled ales and bitters that can be “served refreshingly cool… the perfect tipple to accompany summer barbecues at home or the pub.” 10 to 14 degrees celsius, ideally…

And the seven cool-ones of choice are:

• Wychwood Hobgoblin
• Fuller’s London Pride
• Caledonian Deuchars IPA
• Brakspear Brakspear Bitter
• Brains SA
• Sharp’s Doom Bar
• Greene King Greene King IPA

I can vouch for Hobgoblin, Deuchars IPA and Greene King IPA – all very nice indeed at cellar temperatures – although I wasn’t all that impressed when I tried a draught pint of Brakspear Bitter a couple of weeks ago (mind you, it was mid-session when I was on something much stronger and heavier, so maybe that wasn’t the best time to try it).

The last three are now on my ‘to try’ list. We’ve just had a brick barbecue built in the back garden (which could explain the recent spate of crap weather) so hopefully I’ll be able to get a few in for the first time we fire it up…

I don’t know if this is standard practice or a special offer that’s on at the moment, but I joined CAMRA last week (£25 for an annual joint membership for Jo and I) and in the welcome pack that arrived in the post, they sent vouchers. Lots of vouchers…

No fewer than 40 of them, in fact, each one promising to knock 50p off a pint of beer at any participating Wetherspoons (or Lloyds No.1) pub. So that’s a £20 beer discount, just for joining CAMRA. Which is nice.

And seeing as I live in Manchester, that means at least three decent-sized Wetherspoons venues to choose from (and those are just the ones I’m aware of off the top of my head) including The Moon Under Water (which if I remember correctly is the largest pub in Europe) so I reckon I ought to be able to make good use of those before too long.

Full membership information over at www.camra.org.uk.