Cheers! Shropshire church brewery scoops trio of top awards
A Shropshire brewery that was started little more than 18 months ago was the toast of judges at a prestigious food and drink festival, picking up three top awards.
St Anne’s Brewery, based at St Anne’s Church in Lea Cross, near Shrewsbury, won the Society of Independent Brewers’ Wales and West Cup with its Iron and Fire coffee-flavoured beer.
The cup was the top prize for cask ale at the Ludlow Spring Festival, which was held on May 11 and 12. Iron and Fire also took a gold medal in the Specialist Ale category, while the brewery’s Major Stout also took gold in the Strong Beer category.
Iron and Fire, which features fresh ground coffee from the Iron and Fire coffee shop in Shrewsbury, will now go through to the national final.
Head brewer Chris Yeomans said: “I’m absolutely blown away, I genuinely wasn’t expecting to win anything and we’ll all be celebrating back at the brewery.
“This stout was a collaboration with a local coffee roasters and they’ll be over the moon as well.”
St Anne’s Brewery was formed in late 2017 by Chris Jones, who is also landlord of The Albion Vault in Shrewsbury.
“This is our first award,” Mr Yeomans said.
“I got the idea for the brewery during a trip to Denmark. I didn’t go to college, but I did learn a lot visiting breweries in Denmark, Germany and Belgium.”
