A BARLEY wine brewed by the Black Country’s Sarah Hughes Brewery has won a top national winter beer award.
CAMRA has named Sarah Hughes Brewery's barley wine Snowflake as the best in the barley wines and strong ales category of the Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition at the Great British Beer Festival Winter 2025.
Following over a year of local blind-tasting panels and regional heats, the final round of judging took place at the festival, with judges awarding Snowflake the gold award.
The Sedgley brew beat Abbeydale’s Black Mass which was awarded silver Silver and Exmoor’s Beast which picked up a bronze award.
Snowflake also went on to take the overall silver award in the Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition.
Barley wine is a strong, full-bodied beer made from barley. It's often dark in color and has a high alcohol content, similar to wine.
Judges described Snowflake as “a stunning golden brown barley wine with a strong fruity nose of orange and honey”. Praising it as “rich and satisfying” – they said: “These flavours are on a smooth palette with a growing spicy bitterness.”
CAMRA’s awards director Gary Timmins said: “Massive congratulations to Sarah Hughes for their fantastic win plus all the amazing category winners in this year’s competition.
"Snowflake is a cracking pint, and even in such an incredibly competitive shortlist, it is a worthy winner.
“Every year our judges find it harder and harder to pick a winner, which speaks volumes of the brewing talent in the UK. Despite their evident quality, our brewers struggle to find a place at the bar of our locals.
“Soulless global conglomerates have a greedy stranglehold on the industry, restricting true customer choice and our independent brewers’ access to market.
“Everyone should get out to their pub, social club or taproom and look out for one of your local brews – it might be one of our award-winning beers.”
The category winners from the Champion Winter Beer of Britain competition will be entered into the overall Champion Beer of Britain competition later this year.
Sarah Hughes Brewery is located at the Beacon Hotel, Bilston Street, Sedgley, where beers have been brewed on the premises for more than 150 years.
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