Champion Winter Beer of Britain

The Champion Winter Beer Of Britain (also known as WiBOB) is an award presented by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), at their annual National Winter Ales Festival in January. The award is similar to the Champion Beer Of Britain (or CBOB) which is presented in August. Until the winter of 1996 these were presented as part of the main Champion Beer Of Britain awards, but were moved to the National Winter Ales Festival from its creation in 1997. As for CBOB, beers can qualify in three ways:

• CAMRA tasting panels judge the beers in their geographic area of the UK. The recommendations of these panels are put forward to 6 regional panels, with the winners of these qualifying for the finals in August.
• Votes from CAMRA members via a form in What's Brewing, the CAMRA newsletter.
• Winning one of the 150 Beer Of The Festival awards from CAMRA beer festivals held throughout the year

Nominated beers are then grouped into categories and go through several rounds of blind tasting at the National Winter Ales Festival. Category winners are then re-judged to determine the supreme champion - the Champion Winter Beer Of Britain.

Categories

Beers are split into categories depending on their style or strength.

• Old Ales & Strong Milds
• Barley Wines
• Porters & Stouts

Current Holders

Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for 2011 are:

• Gold: Hop Back Brewery Entire Stout
• Silver: Marble Brewery Chocolate
• Bronze: Dow Bridge Brewery Praetorian Porter

Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for 2010 were:

• Gold: Elland 1872 Porter
• Silver: Breconshire's Ramblers Ruin
• Bronze: Acorn's Gorlovka Imperial Stout

Previous Holders

There were two National Winter Ales Festivals in 1997. The first one at the beginning of the year presented the 1996/7 awards and the other, at the end of the year, presented the 1997/8 awards. There was no festival in 1998, the next one being in January 1999.

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1996/7	Hambleton Nightmare	Branscombe Vale Yo Ho Ho	Theakston Old Peculier
1997/8	Nethergate Old Growler	Shepherd Neame Original Porter	Daleside Monkey Wrench
1999	Dent T'Owd Top	Woodforde's Norfolk Nog	Daleside Monkey Wrench
2000	Robinson's Old Tom	Theakston Old Peculier	Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout
2001	Orkney Skullsplitter	Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild	O'Hanlon's Port Stout
2002	Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout	Bath Ales Festivity	Robinson's Old Tom
2003	Nethergate Old Growler	Gale's Festival Mild	Wentworth Oatmeal Stout
2004	Moor Old Freddy Walker	Gale's Festival Mild	Shepherd Neame Original Porter
2005	Robinson's Old Tom	Bath Ales Festivity	Woodforde's Headcracker
2006	Hogs Back A Over T	Gale's Festival Mild	Goff's Black Knight
2007	Green Jack Ripper	Fuller's London Porter	Orkney Skullsplitter
2008	Wickwar Station Porter	Robinson's Old Tom	Hop Back Entire Stout
2009	Oakham Attila	Elland 1872 Porter	Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild
2010	Elland 1872 Porter	Breconshire's Ramblers Ruin	Acorn's Gorlovka Imperial Stout
2011	Hop Back Entire Stout	Marble Chocolate	Dow Bridge Praetorian Porter