The popular brewery took the title for the first time in 12 years, having previously won it four times in five years between 2013 and 2017.
The festival is organised by the Nottinghamshire Branch of the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA) and was held at the John Godber Centre in Hucknall.
The highlight of the festival again was the Spyke Golding Challenge which involved 12 Nottinghamshire breweries submitting new and original beers which would be judged by the paying public.
To make it a fair and open competition, only the tasting notes for the beers were provided with the brewery names being revealed only after the judging had been completed.
After extensive judging over two days the winner of the competition was Blue Monkey'sChoca Mocha Stout, which was described as ‘a complex malt character backbone of speciality malts delivering a chocolate and biscuity base, this has lent itself to be conditioning on fresh Guatemala roasted coffee, ground moments before addition and this has, brought subtle notes of cocoa, blueberry, hibiscus and vanilla’.
The scoring was so high that three other entries were awarded ‘Highly Commended’ – Lenton Lane Brewery in collaboration with Adventure Beer Company with their beer Guinevere, Two Matts Brewery with its baby New England IPA and Milestone Brewery with its Chocolate Stout.
Organisers also thanked breweries Nottingham, Beer Mats, Hollowstone, Aither, Magpie, Lenton Lane, Castle Rock, Jacaranda and Hucknall’s own Lincoln Green for submitting beers for the competition.
Ian Wesley, commercial director at Blue Monkey Brewery said: “A great atmosphere and wonderful beer and cider selection as always.
"Thanks to CAMRA and the general public for voting for us to win this fantastic honorary award for our Choca Mocha Stout amongst such high quality entries.
"Congratulations to our friends at Two Matts, Milestone and Lenton Lane for their commendations.
"We are looking forward to next year.”
As well as ales, the festival also offered a great selection of ciders opening with 10 ciders and five perries, from makers near and far across England and Wales.
Kim Pears, manager at the John Godber Centre said: “We were so excited that the Nottingham CAMRA challenge was held at Hucknall and that it featured 11 never-before-tried beers to be enjoyed and judged by real ale fans.
“Thank you to everyone who supported the event and the challenge.”