The Hucknall Beer & Cider Festival took place between Thursday 13th and Sunday 16th February and was held at the John Godber Centre, a community venue at the heart of Hucknall, owned by The St Mary Magdalene Church and governed by the Church Council.
The 2025 festival again hosted the annual Spyke Golding Challenge which involved twelve Nottinghamshire breweries submitting new and original beers which would be judged by the paying public. To make it a fair and open competition, only the tasting notes for the beers were provided with the brewery names being revealed on Saturday afternoon – after the judging had been completed.
Judges were asked to score out of 10 how close the beer matched the tasting notes and also a score based on: ‘Would you buy the beer in a pub?’ After extensive judging over two days the winner of the competition was:
Blue Monkey Brewery with Choca Mocha Stout 5%
A 5.0% Mocha Stout with a complex malt character backbone of speciality malts delivering a chocolate and biscuity base, this has lent itself to be conditioned on fresh Guatemala roasted coffee. Ground moments before addition, this has brought subtle notes of Cocoa, Blueberry, Hibiscus and Vanilla.
Photo, from left to right, Laura Beavon-Lee, Ian Wesley, Mattia Curreli, Marcin Lech and Daniel Froggatt, from Blue Monkey receiving the Spyke Golding shield and certificate from Andrew Ludlow
Ian Wesley, Commercial Director, Blue Monkey Brewery said:
“A great atmosphere and wonderful beer and cider selection as always. Thanks to CAMRA and the general public for voting for us to win this fantastic honorary award for our Choca Mocha Stout amongst such high-quality entries. Congratulations to our friends at Two Matts Brewing Co, Milestone Brewing Co and Lenton Lane Brewery for their commendations. Looking forward to next year.”
The scoring was so high that three other entries were awarded ‘Highly Commended’
• Lenton Lane Brewery, in collaboration with Adventure Beer Company, with “Guinevere”.
• Milestone Brewery with a 5.0% Chocolate Stout.
• Two Matts Brewery with a 3.4% Baby New England IPA.
Photo: from left to right, Jack Winter Lenton Lane & Ant Haywood Adventure Beer Company, Phil Howard Milestone and Matt & Matt Two Matts
The organisers wish to thank Milestone; Nottingham; Beer Mats; Hollowstone; Lincoln Green; Aither; Magpie; Lenton Lane; Castle Rock; Blue Monkey; Two Matts and Jacaranda for submitting beers for the competition. All of the beers were well received and all sold out.
The full list of beer entries and from which brewery can be downloaded from the link below:
Photo: Hucknall Beer & Cider Festival Organisers, from left to right Ray Blockley, Kim Pears and Andrew Ludlow
Overall the Festival was another great success and if you want to see some of the highlights, please visit the Hucknall Beer Festival Facebook site, link as below:
