London and South East Craft Beer Festival - Winners

London Amateur Brewers took over the hosting of this year's London and South East Craft Beer Festival after the retirement of Richard Burns from Cheers Homebrew.

Over a hundred beers were arranged in 7 categories, were judged by 14 qualified judges and professional brewers in the morning and in excess of 300 litres of beer were then available for the competitors and general public in the afternoon.

Here are the winners.

 Category 1, Sweet and oatmeal Stouts, Red Ales and Speciality beers. Sponsored by Warminster Maltings

Winner: Tom Greasley with Sarcastro Stout

 Runners up: Father and Son Chris and Paul Simpson with Golden Shower and Brewers Furst

Category 2, Special Bitters, Blonds and Pale Ales, sponsored by The Siebel Institute

Winner: Simon Poffley with Higham Hill Special

 Runners Up: Owain Lewis with Simcoe Pale and Mick Harrison with Street Party Bitter

Category 3, Standard Bitters and Milds sponsored by Danstar

 Winner: Rob Case with Scarecrow Mild

 Runners Up: Dave Wilton (absent) with Little Brother and Mick Harrison with Howard Hughes Ruby Mild.

Category 4, IPAs and Amber ales. Sponsored by Brew UK

 Winner: Organiser and and being handed a prize rather then giving one, Paul Henderson with Left Over IPA (note he managed to keep his eyes open in this picture....)

 Runners Up: Graeme Coates with Red Sparrowhawk (this also won a few awards at the Bristol competition in September) and Ingemar Jansson with Slinka IPA. Ingemar is one of a pair of Swedish homebrewers who came over for the competition and a London beery weekend. It was great to meet you guys.

Category 5, Porters and Dry Stouts sponsored by My Brewery Tap

 Winner: Gregg Irwin with Decadence Stout

Runners Up: Alan Lakin with Fuller London Porter and Alan Gayton (absent) with Sandalwood Stout

Category 6, Belgian, Fruit beer, Lager, smoke beer etc sponsored by Molson Coors

Winner: Steve Syson (absent) with Sorachi Vice

 Runners Up: Gregg Irwin with Roaring Queen and Ali Kocho-Williams with Crafty Smoke

Category 7, Imperial Stouts, ESBs, Barleywines and Old Ales sponsored by the Homebrew Shop

Winner: Nick Reece with Imperial Stout the Second

Runners Up: Bryan Spooner with Barley One and Rob Case with Passing Time (my personal vote for the people's choice)

Onto the other awards:

Best label sponsored by the Malt Miller

Winner: Gregg Irwin with  Roaring Queen. As this is mine I can show it below ;-)

People's Choice awards sponsored by Fullers, Brupaks and Sambrooks

3rd place, winning a boxset of beers from Fullers. Ingemar Jansson with Slinka IPA.

2nd place, winning a fermenter from Brupaks Mark Vincent with Hermen's hop Harvest

Winner and getting a brewday with Sambrooks Brewery Fergus McIver with Taste the Darkness. This was a great american style stout, probably entered in the wrong category or would have been higher up on the judges lists.

So to the final and top prize, Best in show, the Hayesenbrau Award.

Best in show The Hayesenbrau Award sponsored by the Kernel Brewery.

Winner: Tom Greasley with his Sarcastro Stout, a well deserved award for a really good beer. Tom gets a chance to put that beer into commercial production with Evin, Nate (above) and the guys at the Kernel.

A big thanks to all the organisers, judges, stewards, sponsors, brewers and friends who made the day a memorable one.