The Magpie Brewery based in Nottingham city centre were the winners of the Spyke Golding Challenge Shield at this year's Hucknall Beer Festival.

The competition replaced the Champion Beer of Nottinghamshire and was open to local breweries only. Each entrant was tasked with producing a new, never before sold beer.

Each beer was available for the public to sample throughout the festival. They were then given the chance to score each beer out of 20 and give feedback to the brewer if they wished to do so.

The average score of each beer was calculated once the festival finished with the winner being the beer that averaged the best score.

It was The Magpie's creation 'All Vanilla, No Filler', that triumphed. The beer was described as a 'Strong, dark stout, 7.2% ABV with rich chocolate and malt flavours. Subtle vanilla for a slightly sweet kick. Made with chocolate malt and roast barley.'

The scoring was so high that three other entries were awarded 'Highly Commended'.

These were: Castle Rock Brewery (in collaboration with SALT Beer Factory) with Ankle Biter, a 5.2% very, very special, Extra Special Bitter; Lincoln Green Brewing Co. with Papplewick Witch, a 5.8% American IPA; Totally Brewed brewery with 'Small Batch 16', a Hazy Pale 4.6% ABV Vegan Ale.

The organisers placed on record their thanks to Blue Monkey Brewery; Nottingham Brewery; Navigation Brewery; Kings Clipstone Brewery; Shipstones/Hollowstone Brewery and Lenton Lane Brewery for also submitting beers for the competition.

All of the beers were well received and all sold out. Full details of each beer and from which brewery it came from can be found by clicking here.

The competition is named after Peter 'Spyke' Golding who was one of the earliest members of Nottingham CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), eventually becoming Chairman. He also edited 'The Nottingham Drinker', a magazine all about local real ale. His passion for beer as well as his colourful personality meant he was well known across the county.

He sadly passed away in 2010 and ever since Hucknall Beer Festival has run a competition in his honour bearing his name.

Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News, Andrew Ludlow, Nottingham CAMRA Branch Secretary said: "Spyke was without a doubt one of those people that whatever circumstances you met him you would always remember you'd seen him. He was larger than life in everything he did. His passion was travel and beer. One thing we felt we had to do (when he died) was honour and keep his name alive."

Of this year's new competition, Mr Ludlow added: "It's all down to the public and I think that's so important because if you're a brewer what is the best thing you can get? It is feedback from people who are paying for beer. And the last thing we've deliberately done, it says on the form if you would like to make constructive comments write them on the back and whatever people write we're going to feed back to the brewer. In reality you're getting genuine customer feedback in a good environment. That's why the competition works because you're not actually saying is this one better than that one, you're actually saying is this a beer that I actually think tastes how it says, and I'd like to drink it again. I think that's a far better way of doing it."

Kim Pears, Manager of the John Godber Centre said: "We were so excited that the Nottingham CAMRA challenge was held at the Hucknall Beer Festival for the first time and that it featured ten never before tried beers to be enjoyed and judged by real ale fans. Only a few of us got to see the entry list in advance and it was fascinating to talk to real ale fans and brewers over the weekend trying to guess who have brewed them. We're so pleased these great selection of beers were sampled first in Hucknall at the festival in the John Godber Centre and we look forward to trying them in local pubs soon.

"Thank you to everyone who supported the event and the challenge, and we look forward to the 2024 event."

Away from the ales, the festival also offered a great selection of ciders opening initially with 11 ciders and one perry, from makers near and far across England and Wales.

Cider Bar organiser Ray Blockley of Torkard Cider in Hucknall explained that: "The focus was on full- or whole-juice natural products made solely from apples or pears by small independent makers. We based the volume ordered on previous years, but such was the interest in the Cider Bar that by Friday evening we knew we needed more; so fresh supplies were ordered and delivered Saturday morning - and by Saturday afternoon we had to pop out to fetch yet more cider!

"This ensured we still had cider available on the bar until close on Sunday. It was great fun talking to those really interested about what "truly real cider" is, how it's made, and how there are excellent cider makers on our doorstep. In 2024 we hope to further the interest in quality whole-juice cider and perry and meet the needs of our growing band of cider drinking visitors."

Did you go to this year's Hucknall Beer Festival? If so, why not send us your best photos from the event? Email them to [email protected].