Which Beer Won Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2025?

Updated

Cairngorm Black Gold was judged Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2025 at CAMRA's National Winter Ales Festival, held in Burton on Trent in February 2025. The result is reported on the CAMRA Scottish Branches (SCOTB) website, which serves as a portal for CAMRA's ten branches in Scotland.

The Winning Beer and Where It Was Judged

Detail Information
Beer Cairngorm Black Gold
Title Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2025
Competition CAMRA National Winter Ales Festival
Location Burton on Trent
Month February 2025

Cairngorm Black Gold is brewed by Cairngorm Brewery, the same Scottish brewery behind Wildcat, which took Bronze at the separate Champion Beer of Scotland 2025 judging. A winter title and a Scotland-wide title are different competitions, so the two results should not be conflated.

How This Result Relates to the Champion Beer of Scotland 2025

The SCOTB site lists both honours, and they were decided at different events:

  • Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2025 — Cairngorm Black Gold, judged at the National Winter Ales Festival in Burton on Trent in February 2025.
  • Champion Beer of Scotland 2025 — decided by blind tasting at the 24th Ayrshire Real Ale Festival on Friday, 3 October 2025:
    • Gold: Five Kingdoms Dark Storm
    • Silver: Five Kingdoms McGregor's Mild
    • Bronze: Cairngorm Wildcat

If you are looking for the Scottish champion rather than the British winter champion, the October result is the one to cite.

What the SCOTB Website Covers

SCOTB (CAMRA Scotland Branches) is one of CAMRA's 16 regional areas and represents a membership of over 4,000, within a national organisation of roughly 140,000 members. The site acts as a portal for all ten CAMRA branches in Scotland and also carries national competition news such as the winter beer result.

One naming note: references to "Scotland & Northern Ireland" (SNIB) appear because Northern Ireland was formerly part of the region. That arrangement ceased in April 2024, when Northern Ireland became its own region.

Checking the Result Yourself

To verify or follow future announcements, start at the SCOTB welcome page and look for the competition news sections, which is where the Champion Winter Beer of Britain and Champion Beer of Scotland results are posted. For branch-level events and local festival dates, use the links to the individual Scottish branches from the same portal.