The votes are in and St Austell Brewery's Tribute Ale is the people's choice as the region's favourite cask ale in the first ‘Best of British Beer Awards'. Tribute has been chosen as the top tipple in the South West region - following a ‘beer election', held in local pubs across the area. Cask Marque, which organised the awards in association with national newspaper the Daily Telegraph, accredits pubs serving the perfect pint of cask ale. The awards have the backing of organisations including the Campaign for Real Ale and the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group.

Cask Marque Director Paul Nunny explains: "Cask ale has regional variations in flavours due to the differing characteristics of the key ingredients of malt, hops yeast and water. Burton beers frequently have a sulphur nose, those in East Anglia a higher degree of bitterness, and West Country beers have malty tones. Consumers have their preferences and this competition was designed to find the most popular ales by region."

To determine the winner drinkers from across the region voted for their favourite cask ale at ‘polling stations' inside their local Cask Marque accredited pubs, using special voting forms printed on beer mats provided ready for posting into bar-top ballot boxes

All of the winning brewers will be invited to an awards lunch in London in May, to celebrate their success.

Paul Nunny concludes: "This is the first year of the Best of British Beer Awards and over 2,000 pubs acted as polling stations. Six million £1 off vouchers were printed in the Daily Telegraph to encourage drinkers to visit their ‘local' and cast their vote. We look forward to building on our success next year and congratulate St Austell Tribute as the worthy winner of the accolade of the South West's favourite cask ale."

Tribute's success in the Best of British Beer Awards comes just a week after it beat off competition from more than 250 beers from all 58 breweries in the South West to be elected ‘Supreme Champion' at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) South West Beer Festival held in Devon.

St Austell Brewery Managing Director James Staughton said to now be judged the people's choice as the best cask ale in the South West was an "enormous accolade" for Tribute.

James said: "This year is the first that beer drinkers in pubs up and down the country have had the chance to vote for their favourite beer and it is fantastic that they have put Tribute at the top of their list for the South West

"This award puts Tribute well and truly on the national stage and will lend enormous support to our marketing campaign to spread the word about our unique beers and achieve our ambition of seeing Tribute established as a national brand."

Cask Marque currently has 3,800 licensees holding the Cask Marque award. These pubs are inspected at least twice a year with assessors checking the cask ales on sale for temperature, appearance, aroma and taste.

For further information about Cask Marque visit http://www.cask-marque.co.uk/