Best Beer: Twin Golds for Scotland

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) held the Champion Beer of Scotland competition at the Ayrshire Real Ale Festival on 4^th October 2024.

After a close competition, in which all the finalists are blind judged, Cairngorm Brewery’s Black Gold, a 4.4% Session Stout, was chosen to be the Champion Beer of Scotland for 2024, retaining the title that it won last year, as well as back in 2015 and 2005.

Black Gold is described as having roast malt which dominates throughout, slight smokiness in aroma leading to a liquorice and blackcurrant background taste giving it a background sweetness. Very long, dry bitter finish. No less than four colours of malt make the grist! 

CAMRA’s Scotland Director Stuart McMahon said “Cairngorm Brewery, which is based in Aviemore, continues to brew a variety of tasty beers.

“Black Gold was a very worthy winner, despite the strong competition from the other category winners. It is a very good example of a rich stout, with the strong roast and burnt malts to the fore, but with a lovely smooth, bitter but sweet aftertaste. Since it was initially brewed, Black Gold has now received the most awards issued by CAMRA in Scotland.”

Five Kingdoms Brewery, Scotland’s most southerly brewery based in Isle of Whithorn took the Champion Beer of Scotland’s silver award, with Dark Storm, a 6.9% strong stout.

However, at a recent competition held in London the bottle-conditioned version of Dark Storm won CAMRA’s National Champion Bottled Beer of the Year – a testament and well-deserved award for the high quality of beers the small brewery is currently producing.