Southwold brewer Adnams flew the flag for East Anglia on day one of the Great British Beer Festival in London today.

Adnams’ Explorer won silver in the Golden Ale category, missing out on gold to Jaguar from the Kelburn Brewing Company from Barrhead in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, which went on to claim silver in the overall Champion Beer of Britain (CBoB) contest, the winner of which is chosen from among the category winners.

The overall title went to Cwtch (Welsh for “cuddle”) which is brewed by the Tiny Rebel Brewing Company in Newport, Wales, and qualified by winning the Best Bitter category.

Bronze overall went to Dark Drake, brewed by the Dancing Duck Brewery in Derby, which was the winner of the Stout category of the Champion Winter Beer of Britain awards which were announced in January with the winners going forward to CBoB.

Explorer, styled by Adnams as a “Blonde” beer, was one of the early examples of the golden ale genre, which combines some of the traditional bitterness of English ale with lighter malts which produce the characteristic golden colouring.

Many golden ales feature New World hops, which tend to add citrus notes to the aroma and flavour, and Explorer is no exception, with the use of Columbus and Chinook hops from America, alongside Pale Ale malt, delivering a refreshing pink grapefruit-like bitterness.

Another success for East Anglia yesterday came in the form of bronze in the Strong Bitter category for Grain Brewery, from Alburgh, near Harleston in Norfolk, with its India Pale Ale.

The Great British Beer Festival, organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), is being held at Olympia and runs until Saturday.