At the four-day Oakwood Beer Festival in Rotherham, Barnsley Bitter (3.8%abv) claimed the gold title for standard strength bitters, before winning bronze in the overall Champion Beer of Yorkshire final.

The success comes only three weeks after the fast growing brewer's Old Moor Porter took bronze award at the Camra (Campaign for Real Ale) annual National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester. Acorn has won more than 30 awards in less than five years and has doubled production capacity following its move to a purpose-built brewery in Wombwell last year.

Owner and head brewer Dave Hughes said: "This is a terrific result for our top selling ale. It means Barnsley Bitter is now officially recognised as the very best cask ale of its type in the whole region, while it has also effectively been voted the number one beer in South Yorkshire. Our beers are brewed using the same yeast strain as the original and famous Barnsley Brewery, so I believe this is a real feather in the cap for the town as well as for Acorn.

"This is a great boost for us as we settle into the new brewery. Now we already have two major wins under our belts for 2008 and sales are showing a very healthy upward swing on the back of the new production capacity."