Belinda Sutton, Elgood's managing director, with Golden Newt Bottled Beer which gained a Gold award at the SIBA east region beer competition.

TOP tipple tasting took place place this weekend at Elgood’s Brewery in their annual beer festival with more than 160 beers and ciders being quaffed from the East Anglia region.

Mayor of Wisbech officially opening the beer festival. Left: Alan Pateman (Elgood’s Head Brewer); Gary MacRae (Mayor’s Consort); Nigel Elgood (Elgood’s Chairman); Wisbech Mayor Vivien MacRae; Claire Simpson (Elgood’s Director); Belinda Sutton (Elgood’s Managing Director); Paul Marshall (Elgood’s National Accounts Manager)

The festival ran from Thursday to Saturday, September 20-22, and featured Elgood’s own award-winning ales including Cambridgeshire, Black Dog mild, Pageant and SIBA gold medal winner Golden Newt.

Kate Pateman, from Elgood’s Brewery said: “We’ve got a great fanbase in the area and it’s an extremely good opportunity to try some beers that you don’t normally get to see.

“There were some very, very happy people here yesterday and we’ve pre-sold nearly 500 tickets on the door so we think it’s going to be really busy on Saturday.”

Interested imbibers tried out seasonal beers from the “Dog Decathlon” range including Wheelchair Bassett Ball and Taekwondog.

Elgoods Beer festival, Judging.

There were also special beers available like Double Swan, Black Eagle Imperial Stout, North Brink Porter, Wenceslas Winter Warmer, Snake Slayer Stout, and Warrior.”

Mrs Pateman said: “We also had an experimental fruit corner with four fruit-flavoured beers exclusively available for the festival with apricot, cherry, blackberry and peach flavoured beers.”

Entertainment was provided by local band Dr Busker on Friday night and The Bewildered on Saturday night from 7pm onwards.

Mrs Pateman said: “On Saturday afternoon we also had a swing band of teachers and pupils from Wisbech Grammar School playing jazz and swing music.”