Binghams Brewery wins prestigious national beer award from CAMRA

A prestigious national award from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has been won by a brewery for one of its creations.

Binghams Brewery, in Ruscombe Business Park, received the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain award for its Vanilla Stout at a ceremony in London on Tuesday, August 9.

The stout was created in 2011 but has been tweaked by the brewers, who have refined the taste since it was first created.

It beat five other drinks in the award's final, where it was chosen as the champion beer by judges.

Chris Bingham, the founder of Binghams Brewery, said: "I was delighted, it is huge.

"We have gone from struggling to find wholesalers because we are too small to wholesalers coming to us."

Chris founded Binghams Brewery in 2010.

He had previously worked as a computer programmer, but began brewing when he was 18.

Using a homebrew kit, Chris ran his brewing hobby from inside his mum's garage.

After attending the University of Leeds, where he studied Electronic and Computer Engineering, he went on to become an IT project leader.

After 10 years in the job, he was made redundant, and decided to leave his profession to develop a brewery.

Chris began brewing on weekends, and used his friends to sample and give feedback on his beers.

He managed to secure a job at a brewery, where he learned how to run such a business, and after five years there he leased a unit and created Binghams.

Nik Antona, director at CAMRA, said: "It was an outstanding beer.

"It was head and shoulders above beers in an outstanding final.

"This year the judges were particularly pleased with the quality.

"The flavour that comes out is really outstanding. It's subtle, not overpowering."

He said Binghams Brewery could expect increased demand for the drink and may have to consider increasing its size to fit demand.

He said: "Wholesalers will be calling them up from all over the country.

"There will be demand from pubs and clubs and beer festivals."