Powder Monkey Brewing Company in Gosport scoops regional awards for its well-loved beers

A BELOVED brewery in Gosport has won a raft of awards for its top-notch beers.

The Powder Monkey Brewing Company, based at Priddy’s Hard, picked up three medals at this year’s SIBA Regional Bottle and Can Awards for the south east, winning two silvers and a bronze.

The silver medal winning entries were The Mary Rose, a pale wheat beer inspired by the Mary Rose Museum, and Explosion IPA. Drop Anchor, a Vienna Pale Ale was awarded bronze in the pale ale category.

Powder Monkey started production in 2021 out of a former naval gunpowder store, and takes its name from the young people who were historically employed to bring gunpowder aboard ships.

CEO Andy Burdon said: ‘In that fairly short period of time, it’s been quite a ride.’

Mr Burdon, 55, said his ‘go-to favourite’ beer is Bubbleheads, which was originally created for the unveiling of the Vernon Mine Warfare & Diving Monument at Gunwharf Quays.

A portion of proceeds from the award winning ‘Mary Rose’, named after Henry VIII’s famous warship, goes towards The Mary Rose Trust which maintains the vessel and runs the museum where its remains are displayed.

Head brewer Mark Hamblin was inspired to choose hops with a peppery taste after being inspired by seeing preserved peppercorns from the shipwreck on display in the museum.

Mark, 28, was recognised as runner-up at the Brewer’s Choice Awards hosted by The Brewer’s Journal London on Thursday, December 8, receiving a ‘highly commended’ plaudit in the Young Brewer category.

Mark said: ‘We’ve been working so hard over the past two years on the project. In line with the other awards we’ve picked up this year for the beers, it feels nice to get some recognition and the event itself was amazing - there were loads of other class brewers there to talk to.

Mark’s interest in brewing developed while he was completing a master’s degree in Biochemistry at Oxford University and ‘spent the majority of that time drinking beer’.

He added: ‘There are so many parallels and crossovers between biochemistry and brewing that I was able to find something that I was passionate about and fed my appetite for science as well.

‘Coming into work every day I’m still just as passionate about it as I was back then.’