EXMOOR Gold from Wiveliscombe is the best golden ale in the South West.

The ale - the first of its kind when brewed in 1986 – has been awarded top prize in the Golden Ale category of CAMRA’s South West Regional Champion Beer of Britain awards.

What made the award even sweeter for the Exmoor Ales brewery, which moved into new premises in 2015, was that in the summer those at CAMRA in charge of categorising beers for such competitions had decided that Exmoor Gold no longer suited the contemporary definition of a Golden Ale and declared it should in future be moved to the Best Bitter category.

“Who would have guessed it,” said Jonathan Price, Exmoor Ales’ managing director.

“Exmoor Gold winning top prize in the Golden Ale category for the South West Region Champion Beer of Britain, not long after we discovered that the new CAMRA beer judging categories would exclude it, the first and original golden ale, from the golden ale category!

“Never mind, this recognition from CAMRA members is much appreciated and it nicely crowns the quality of our head brewer’s output from our new brewery this year.”

Exmoor Gold was first brewed as a seasonal beer in 1986, when Exmoor Ales was called Golden Hill Brewery, and it was produced to celebrate the 1000th brew of the Wiveliscombe-based brewery’s flagship beer, Exmoor Ale.

What made it stand out was that it was a single malt beer and much paler than most of the copper and bronze coloured beers on the market then.

Little did the brewery know it was starting a trend in golden ales, and since its inception Exmoor Gold has won many awards.