A BIRKENHEAD micro-brewery is raising its glass to success after triumphing at the North’s leading beer contest.

Peerless Brewing Company scooped four top accolades for its newly-launched bottled range at the Siba (Society of Independent Brewers) Great Northern Beer Festival, in Manchester – to mark a very happy second birthday for the Pool Street artisan brewing company.

Fledgling brew Jinja Ninja was first voted gold in its class of speciality bottled ales, before being hailed as Champion Bottled Beer of the North.

The beer is brewed with root ginger, chillies and lemons – a golden ginger beer with a fiery finish. It will now be judged at the Siba national competition next year.

Earlier, in the golden ales category, Hilbre Gold – named after the islands at the mouth of the Dee estuary – took first place, while sister brew Viking Gold won silver.

Siba represents more than 500 UK craft brewers, while the North is the society’s largest region.

The competition attracted more than 300 entries across the cask beer and bottled categories.

Celebrating the victory – and birthday – with colleagues at the brewery, head brewer and managing director Steve Briscoe said: “It was amazing. At the presentation I lost track of what we were winning.

“The win comes just in time to celebrate our second birthday, and we will certainly be doing that in style this year.

“The North region is the largest of the Siba regions, and we take great pride in this win for three beers in our recently launched bottled range.

“It is a major boost to our plans to grow business in the off-trade sector as we enter our third year of trading.