Beer lovers wanted to judge quality.

Byline: Tony Henderson

BEER buffs are being asked to help judge a contest to find the North's best brewers.

With 117 members, the North is the biggest region in the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) and this year its annual beer competition is being split into two parts to cope with the growing number of breweries.

The first part of the regional awards will be judged on November 6 in the Beer Hall at Hawkshead Brewery in the Lake District and will be followed by a SIBA beer festival.

The winners will then go on to the national final in February. A total of 160 beers have been entered in this year's awards by 45 different breweries across the region including Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and Cumbria.

Breweries who have entered this year's beer competition include Alnwick Ales; Consett Ale Works; Hexhamshire Brewery; High House Farm Brewery Matfen, Northumberland; Jarrow Brewery and Wylam Brewery.

SIBA, which represents almost 500 breweries, is inviting up to 10 members of the public who love beer to join industry professionals and beer experts to decide the region's best beers.

Alex Brodie, a SIBA North trustee who is also managing director of Hawkshead Brewery, said: "These awards are a celebration of the region's best beers and we want to recruit a good cross-section of judges from today's beer drinkers, including women and younger people." Each judge will sample up to 16 beers in a blind tasting, scoring them on their appearance, aroma, flavour, aftertaste and saleability.

Send contact details, including postal address, with up to 100 words saying when and how you first discovered real ale, to [e-mail] by October 26.

Tony Henderson