Durham Beer Festival raises £1,300 for CLIC Sargent, Allendale END 22 named top ale

ALLENDALE Brewery‘s END 22 fought it’s way to the top of the pile, winning Durham Beer Festival’s Battle of the Beers.

Yard of Ale’s Flamebearer came second in the competition, which also saw entries from breweries like Just a Minute, Hadrian Border, WeardALE and Gambling Man.

But overall visitors to the event, which raised £1319.58 for children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent, named Hill Island’s Thai PA and Mighty Oak’s former Champion Beer of Britain Oscar Wilde Mild the drinks of the festival.

Beer festival director Lindsey Wright, a member of Durham Camra, said the three-day festival – from August 30 to September 1 2012 – had been a success.

“We had a lot of positive comments from people regarding its organisation, how the venue looked fab, that the beer was tasty and that staff were friendly and helpful,” she said.

“I would like to thank all the volunteers that offered their own time to help as without those people the festival would not be able to run.”

The Battle of the Beers was inspired by a similar contest at Newcastle Beer and Cider Festival, which Allendale came second in with their END 9 beer back in April.

Breweries were given the brief to create a bitter that had multiple hops, with Wetherspoons offering to buy a batch of the winning beer to go in the local pubs as a prize.

“The only issue was we had beer left which means we still need to talk more people into coming along on Saturday,” added Lindsey.

Cider of the Festival went to West Allotment-based Bourbon Cider, from Tyneside.