Geipel Brewing has become the first Welsh brewery to be awarded gold in CAMRA’s Champion Bottled Beer of Britain competition.

The brewery took home the price for its Hefeweizen and follows on from the success that fellow Welsh business Monty’s brewery had securing a silver prize in 2025.

Geipel, which primarily focuses on brewing lagers, is run by American Eric Geipel, who developed a passion for brewing after a work trip to Burton-on-Trent. In the midst of losing his job after the 2008 financial crash he began to brew beers at home. 

Firmly “bitten by the bug”, he set up his microbrewery on the border of Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park.

The brewery is going from strength to strength, and follows a 500-year-old German brewing law, where beer is made from just four ingredients: barley, hops, water and yeast.

The award recognises the very best bottle-conditioned beers available in the UK, with rigorous blind tastings and nominations spanning two years of regional heats and national rounds.

Christine Cryne, CAMRA judging coordinator, said: ““This year, the competition was particularly stiff with the feedback from the judges on the final panel saying that every single beer assessed was worthy of their place; the quality was thought to be excellent.

“Hefeweizen was described by the judges as: ‘everything you would expect of a wheat beer’. It pipped two past winners to gain the top spot: Fuller’s Vintage Ale , a full flavoured strong amber ale, and Durham’s Temptation, a robust, complex imperial Russian stout”.

A Hefeweizen is the traditional cloudy wheat beer of Bavaria. “Hefe” means yeast and “weizen” means wheat in German. With at least 50% wheat malt, it has a very different flavour to barley based beers. But it’s the unique yeast that gives it a cloudy appearance and unusual flavours of banana, bubblegum, clove and coriander.

The yeast is top-fermenting at ale (warm) temperatures but the results must be lagered (cold conditioned) for best results. Hefeweizens normally have low bitterness, high carbonation and taste great in the Summer with a slice of lemon.

Eric Geipel, Geipel’s founder and head brewer, added: “We’re very honoured and amazed to win such a prestigious award. I never imagined that a non-native style would be a contender. Many thanks to the judges and ‘prosit’”