Regulars at the Plume of Feathers Princetown were treated to a Christmas treat when manager Sarah Ruffles decided to run a beer festival to decide the best local Christmas brew.

Local brewers were invited to enter their festive offering and 10 brewers took up the challenge. The Beer Festival ran for two days but a judging panel of the pubs customers and members of Plymouth CAMRA were entrusted to determine the overall winner. 

In a closely matched and tense day of judging the eventual winner was St Austell Brewery’s Raisins to be Cheerful, a 5.5% abv ale, brewed as the names suggests with lashings of juicy raisins to create a brew that was dark, superbly rich and fruity just like a Christmas cake. 

Sarah Ruffles commented, “ Our locals really had a great day tasting all the unusual beers on offer and we were delighted to get the help of CAMRA members to judge the winner. 

St Austell Brewery’s Head Brewer visited the pub to receive the winner’s trophy and said “ What a wonderful idea to hold a Beer Festival just for festive brews. Raisins to be Cheerful is a beer we brew once a year and we know it’s Christmas once this brew emerges from the mash tuns. It’s a lovely beer, full of flavour and bigger and bolder than any Boxing Day jumper!”