Out of the 110 different real ales on offer at the Cheltenham Real Ale Festival a beer from Deya Brewing Company, Cheltenham’s newest brewery, was voted ‘best beer’ by public vote.
For Deya, who only started brewing three months ago, it is a great achievement. What is even more remarkable is that the winning beer, ‘Steady Rolling Man’ a 5.2% APA, has never before appeared in cask commercially.
Accepting congratulations from Festival Organiser, Grant Cook, Deya’s Taproom Manager, Shandin Rickard-Hughes, said: ‘For a new brewery like Deya to win best beer is really exciting. The amazing thing is that this beer is typically only canned or kegged– we have never put ‘Steady Rolling Man’ in a ‘real ale’ cask for sale to the public. Maybe now we’ll consider doing so. The beer is unfiltered and unfined and, by being served a little warmer at real ale temperature, everyone seemed to agree that the tropical hop flavours and aroma were more pronounced than usual. We couldn’t be more pleased or honoured. Thanks Cheltenham!”
Grant Cook said: “The beer was chosen by popular vote. Each beer at the festival is numbered and people text their choice to register a vote. Steady Rolling Man attracted twice the votes of any other beer. I hope to see it again in cask format.”
Bar Manager Tony Lucas said: “From noon on Saturday, until the second cask of Steady Rolling Man was ready to serve at 3 p.m., we had a constant stream of people asking for the beer. When it came on we had a queue waiting. I had to put two servers on that one beer to keep up with demand and the entire 72-pint cask sold out in just two hours. I have never seen a beer sell that quickly at any of the festivals at which I have worked.”
Top Beers at Cheltenham Real Ale Festival
1. Steady Rolling Man (Deya, Cheltenham)
2. Bad Kitty (Brass Castle, Malton, Yorkshire)
3. Three beers in joint 3rd place, these were :
Attila (Oakham, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire)
Burnout (Brass Castle, Malton, Yorkshire)
Stay Puft (Tiny Rebel, Newport, Gwent)
Well done to all!