The company, which based in Stavely, near Windermere, released 'IPA', a 7% ABV India Pale Ale, and Iti, a 3.5% ABV session version of the brewery’s New Zealand Pale Ale, at its brewery tap last Thursday (27 October).
The beers were made using a mixture of USA and New Zealand hops and have been made available to other trade outlets since Monday 31 October.
Going for Gold
The microbrewery picked up multiple awards last week – four Gold’s, a Silver and a Bronze – at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) North West Beer Competition in Bolton.
Its limited-edition beer, Tonka, was crowned the overall winner after beating 81 other small pack (bottle and canned) beers, while Windermere Pale came second.
Head brewer Matt Clarke said: “It's been a busy year and to come away with these awards is brilliant, I'm particularly pleased that Tonka not only won its category, but took overall champion.
“Tonka and Windermere Pale couldn’t be more different and we’re delighted the judges appreciated both the complex, dark, rich flavours.”
Lakeland Lager was also given Gold in the Bottle and Premium Lager & Pilsners category, while IPA won Bronze in the Premium Strong Beers category.
Tonka, Windermere and Lakeland Lager will now be entered in the SIBA National Finals, which will take place in Sheffield in March 2017.
Rainbow Project
Last month (Saturday 17 September), Hawkshead Brewery took part for the fourth year in the 2016’s International Rainbow Project, an event that brings together seven of the UK’s most innovative and forward-thinking breweries with seven similar breweries from New Zealand.
The collaborating breweries were randomly paired challenged to create a new beer based on an assigned colour.
Hawkshead was teamed up with New Zealand microbrewery Yeastie Boys and launched the bespoke, fruity beer Kai Moana Gose.