Twenty breweries: Blue Monkey

Nottingham CAMRA have seen some sights at their festivals, but few have had the same impact as a monkey.

In a corner of the main tent in 2008, Blue Monkey Brewing launched their debut beer and thirsty punters lapped it up. That beer, a 3.6% session bitter called Original, had taken brewer John Hickling over twenty test brews to perfect. He was rewarded with over 1,200 pints of it being sold during the three-day festival.

A year later John launched his first dark beer, Guerrilla Stout, which promptly won the Champion Beer award at the SIBA Midlands competition. Blue Monkey brews have since been sold in over a hundred pubs throughout Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. The brewery expanded into new premises in 2010 to meet the ever-growing demand for its beer.

Why try? John and the team brew well balanced, moreish beer.

What to look for? The pale and hoppy BG Sips or the surprisingly-light-bodied Guerrilla Stout.

Where to buy? Blue Monkey concentrate their sales in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Look for their distinctive pump clips which feature a blue chimpanzee (chimps look funnier than monkeys so we'll let them off).