A brewery is celebrating after scooping two awards in a national competition.

Bosses at the multi-award winning Wibblers Brewery, based in Southminster, were delighted to be recognised for their bottled ale at the prestigious Society of Independent Brewers competition in Liverpool.

The brewery was crowned national champion in the speciality medium to dark beer category and for bottle and canned beer.

Judges were blown away by the winning ale – the brewery’s port barrel-aged imperial stout Porty Imperial Stoaty.

Head brewer Phil Wilcox was overjoyed with the result.

He said: “This is an incredible achievement for our team especially on the back of being presented with our regional gold award from Camra only a few days ago for our old ale Winter Wibble.

“The challenge now is to source more port barrels to be able to make more.”

Regional winners from around the UK were judged by brewing industry professionals, including fellow brewers, suppliers and beer writers.

There were three overall national winners – one each for cask, keg and bottle or can, covering bitters, milds, porters, strong ales and more.

Competition chairman Guy Sheppard said: “These really are the best of the best independent craft beers in cask, keg, bottle and can, and I would like to congratulate all of the winners.”