KEAN Brown was grinning from ear to ear when his Golden Smile beer scooped a trio of awards from real ale enthusiasts at last weekend's Fleetwood Beer Festival.

The Blackpool Brewery Co Ltd -- the first working brewery in the town for 28 years -- was singled out for recognition by East Lancashire's CAMRA group, the campaign for real ale.

The beer Golden Smile picked up two awards -- one of them being the highly coveted beer of the festival, voted for by the people who go to the festival. There was also a special award from the writers of cask ale magazine Witch Ale.

Mr Brown said of the recognition: "I was absolutely delighted -- it took me completely by surprise. I was told about the award by Barry Tyson, editor of Witch Ale."

The award was voted by the staff on Witch Ale, and Golden Smile picked up the award because "the editorial team found it to be the most flavoursome, palatable, the best at stimulating the taste buds and the ale that went down the best." Kean describes the beer as "light gold in colour with a very hoppy aroma which is down to the recipe of different types of hops which are more prominent in the flavour."

Golden Smile wasn't the only pint you could enjoy at the Fleetwood festival, and in fact Blackpool Brewery had five different ales on sale, the product of several weeks' work.

And they proved so popular that by the time Sunday had come round, there was not one drop left.

Plus the brewery's Blackpool Pale Ale, BPA, also picked up joint third place in the beer of the festival award.

"The most popular beer we had there was one we brewed especially for the festival called Sweet FA -- Fleetwood Ale that stands for," said Kean.

Pictured is Kean Brown looking delighted with the success of his new brew.