HOW can you beat your own multi-award winning Champion Beer of Britain?

By using American Mount Hood hops and a touch of wheat alongside traditional barley and calling it Bluebird XB - that's how.

And, believe me, Bluebird XB is Xtra Brilliant!

It's a soft and fruity beer that has a slightly citrus flavour and a wonderfully rich golden marmalade colour that should appeal to a wide spectrum of beer drinkers.

Brewer and owner of the all-conquering Coniston Brewery Ian Bradley explained that "at 4.2% it has a base of Challenger hops with the Mount Hood hops reducing bitterness while adding floral and citrus hints.

Really, it's good old Bluebird with the edges taken off - a little more polished and not quite as sharp."

With the launch at the picturesque Wateredge Inn, at Ambleside, you may be forgiven for thinking: "What's the connection with Bluebird and Windermere?"

Well, apart from a firm friendship between Ian and Scott Cowap, who has been successfully selling Coniston's award winning Bluebird bitter since the opening of the Wateredge's new public bar, racing driver Sir Malcolm Campbell used Windermere for practice in 1938 before later breaking the waterspeed record on Coniston in Bluebird K4.

So to help commemorate the recent lifting of his son Donald's Bluebird K7 from Coniston earlier this year, this fine brew - is it the winner of next year's Cumbrian Challenge? - is now available at the following watering holes: The Wateredge Inn, Ambleside; Burgundy's, Kendal; Kings Arms, Cartmel; Kirkstone Pass Inn, Ambleside; Dutton Arms, Burton-in-Kendal; Three Shires, Little Langdale; Sun Inn, Troutbeck Bridge; Royal Oak, Bowness; The Watermill, Ings; Eagle & Child, Staveley; Queen's Head, Troutbeck; Black Dog, Holmes Green; Kings Arms, Hawkshead; Tweedies Bar, Grasmere; Britannia Inn, Elterwater; Red Loin, Dalton; Sun Hotel, Coniston; Manor Arms, Broughton; Queens Hotel, Ambleside; and Black Bull Hotel, Coniston.