Shropshire brewery scoops nine awards at 'beer Oscars'

Salopian Brewery, based in Hadnall, near Shrewsbury, collected nine awards from the Campaign for Real Ale's (CAMRA) West Midland awards.

The brewery's Darwin's Origin took top spot in in the Best Bitter category, while Oracle ale took first place in in the Golden Beer category, with Hoptwister coming second.

Golden Thread was voted the best strong beer, with Salopian's Kashmir ale taking second spot. Kashmir was also voted the best real ale in a bottle, with Polygraph coming third in that category.

The brewery's Lemon Dream ale also took second place in the Speciality Beers category.

To round off the success, Golden Thread was voted West Midlands Beer of the Year, after scoring the best marks of all the beers tasted.

The winning beers will now go forward to the Champion Beer of Britain Competition, which will take place at the Great British Beer Festival in London over the summer.

The beers are first chosen by local Camra members, and the top six in each category are then tasted blind by the judges to choose the winners.

Managing director Wilf Nelson said he was delighted to see his beers collect so many prestigious awards, and thanked the dedication of his brewing team.

"It is great to see CAMRA promoting the excellence of Shropshire beer at a time when lots of rural and local pubs are suffering with Dry January," he added.

Salopian was founded in 1995, and moved to its present site in Hadnall in 2014.

The brewery is now one of the largest in the West Midlands, employing just under 20 people.