THIS week something brilliant happened. A Malton brewery won a prize. Doesn’t sound amazing? Well this wasn’t any old prize. This was the daddy of prizes, the mother lode of prizes.

This was the Arnold Schwarzenegger of prizes – I am proud to say Malton now is home to the Supreme Champion Beer of the UK. Now that is amazing.

Brass Castle Brewery was the winner and after moving to Malton just over a year ago have quietly and diligently gone about the business of brewing really top-quality beer.

Last week, all the hard work paid off at the Society of Independent Brewers Awards in Sheffield.

Beers from all across the country were fighting it out, but there could be only one winner and that was Brass Castle’s Burnout.

Burnout is a burnt porter and is dark, creamy, deep, luxurious. Actually, you better go out and taste it yourself as my descriptions will never do it justice. It’s suitably delicious, though.

Although it’s not currently available in a bottle (it soon will be), I hear a rumour that the brewery has taken an avalanche of pre-orders since the win.

Awards aren’t everything but they certainly help and Brass Castle has fired the starting gun for every other food and drink producer in the area to up their game and bring home the awards.

The more awards Malton and this area of Ryedale and Yorkshire is known for food excellence, the better for tourism and the local economy in general.

What is exciting is that Brass Castle Brewery was the first Made In Malton producer to relocate to town and to badge their bottles with Malton’s logo.

With this award, the Made In Malton project has really taken off, especially as all but two of the new artisan food units at Talbot Yard have been snapped up.

Bluebird Bakery is already in and baking delicious bread and Food 2 Remember, a fishcake company, is moving in soon.

Talbot Yard will welcome two additional food producers later this spring So with only two units left to fill at Talbot Yard, the plan is for the Made in Malton project to expand into new buildings across town. The next stage is to then create the Made In Malton artisan food tour, a year-round visitor attraction for Malton and Yorkshire.

What is amazing is you can already start the tour by visiting the award-winners Brass Castle. Their town centre location means they are open to visitors (Monday to Saturday) and their tap room is open every second Saturday of the month to coincide with the Malton monthly food market.

Anyway, congratulations to Brass Castle, they deserve it, I urge you to visit them, try their beers and support this amazing local success story, To order Brass Castle beers, visit brasscastlebrewery.co.uk