Wisbech brewer Elgood’s is popping bottles in celebration after it won the ‘Europe’s Best Sour Beer Lambic’ at the recent annual World Beer Awards.

Over 1,000 beers from more than 30 countries were blind tasted and scored over four rounds of judging, with Elgood’s Coolship Ale coming out on top in this year’s Best Sour Beer Lambic category.

Chairman of the judges, Adrian Tierney-Jones said:”Elgood’s’ triumph in a category expected to be dominated by Belgian breweries is great news especially as it demonstrates that British family breweries can be as experimental and prepared to take risks and come up with a world class beer.”

Elgood’s is one of the only regional brewers in the UK who are able to brew a Lambic-style beer, due to owning a unique pair of open cooling trays, known as ‘coolship trays’. These are needed for the brewing process, allowing the beer to cool naturally overnight, attracting a range of wild yeasts and flavours dominant in the area. The beer then undergoes a spontaneous fermentation over a period of six to nine months.

Elgood’s Coolship Ale was voted for by a hand-picked group of beer experts and writers from Europe, Asia and USA.

Claire Simpson, Elgood’s Marketing and New Product Development Director said: “Winning this accolade for our Coolship Ale is fantastic news especially as this Sour beer was also awarded the Silver Medal at the recent International Brewing Awards. We hope to invest in more tanks next year for our Sour Beer range which includes, Coolship Fruit and Coolship Blonde as the whole range has been so well received.”