Freeminer bitter has been selected for a second time as the featured
small brewery guest beer for the House of Commons.

The beer will be on sale from 12 to 16 May. Freeminer brewery has supplied guest beers to the commons before and is delighted to have been selected for a second time for this high profile account.

The brewery has seen many changes since its beers were last featured in the commons, not least of which a considerable expansion to become the biggest brewery in Gloucestershire and having survived a fire and the collateral damage of Foot and mouth on local trade.

The beers have also won even greater recognition with successful exports to Holland and a growing market in the USA, a listing in the "Worlds Top 500 Beers" and two awards for speciality categories in the Great British Beer Festival.

A top slot in the Beauty of Hops competition has also lead to a forthcoming listing with a large national supplier. Volumes have grown alongside the success of the Wetherspoons trade, and local outlets report growing demand for this local product. Don Burgess, Founder of the brewery said "It is great to be featured for a second time and it is also good for the Forest, our strong local branding has helped to raise the profile of the area both nationally and internationally. We feature information about the Forest and Freemining on every bottle, on our literature and our web site. others have tried to copy us over the years, but ultimately, there is only one Forest of Dean, and only one Freeminer Brewery, many of the innovations which we have made, including the move to bottled beers and profiling the Forest and its mines , have been copied by others, but few have had the consistent successes of Freeminer."

There is certainly more to come from this Forest enterprise as it goes from strength to strength in its second decade of production.
(Photo - NWM brand development)

FREEMINER WINS SILVER.

Freeminer Brewery has struck Silver with Trafalgar IPA at The Bath and West show West Country Food Awards 2002.

The competition entries were all bottle conditioned.

Freeminer has received several awards for Trafalgar in the past, and in 2000, the beer was nominated as one of the top 500 beers in the world by Michael Jackson, and previously, the beer was awarded top honours by the National Hop Association.

Trafalgar is based on an original recipe from 1863, with some adaptations for modern practices in brewing (sending it on a trip to India and back to condition would be a bit expensive!).

The Beer is named after one of the biggest mines in the Royal Forest of Dean which was sunk in 1805, it is crammed with choice English hops and brewed to original strength at 6.0% ABV and full of character ( just like the Forest!).

Celestial Steam Gale

Winner strong bitter category, Bradford Beer Festival. 1995 (then sold as Stairway to Heaven).

Freeminer Bitter

Beer of the festival, Battersea Beer Festival. 1995.

Deep Shaft Stout

Beer of the festival. Somerset CAMRA. 1996.

Freeminer Bitter / Speculation Ale Bronze Medals

Taste of the West. 1996.

Speculation Ale

5 star award. Decanter magazine. 1996.

Deep Shaft Stout

CAMRA / Guardian. Champion bottle conditioned beer of Britain. 1996.

Trafalgar I.P.A.

Gold medal. Single [hop] varietal bottled beer, Goldings. Beauty of hops 1997.

Gold Standard

Gold medal. Single [hop] varietal cask ale. Beauty of hops 1998.

Gold Standard

Bronze medal. Single [hop] varietal bottled beer. Beauty of hops 1998.

Shakemantle Ginger Ale

Champion Speciality Beer of Britain 1998. CAMRA GBBF.

Speciality Beer of the Festival. Portsmouth 1998.

Beer of the Festival. Worcester beer festival. 1999.