TOWN brewery Connoisseur Ales has been named as Merseyside's best new brewer by an international beer guide.

Online rating company RateBeer, lists the town centre brewer, which opened in autumn 2014, as the county's best ale producer, listing it alongside breweries from other English counties, as well as Germany, Canada and the United States.

Connoisseur, a relatively new kid on the block in the St Helens beer scene, is based beneath Wolverhampton House in Church Street.

Kevin Yates, of Connoisseur, said: "We were surprised and delighted to receive this rating. All the awards are based on tastings only and our beers were competing against over 21,000 beers worldwide in the new brewer's category.

"We have no idea exactly who has rated our beers and where they tasted them, but we are very proud to receive this accolade and we're going to carry on doing what we've been doing because its obviously working. Truly exciting times."

Connoisseur's plans include branching out to use American hops to produce their first pale ale and Guatemalan yeast to create their first sour beer. They are also finalising plans to distribute their beers in Yorkshire and the North East.

Kevin said: "We're finalising the recipes of 12 new beers which will be released in the coming months - it's an exciting time for us as we experiment with our first American Pale Ale using all American hops. Our first sour beer is on the cards too using wild yeast harvested from the rainforests of Guatemala."

Connoisseur is a family-run business consisting of Mark and Gillian Yates and their son Kevin. They learned to brew on a large scale at Liverpool's Wapping Brewery before running the Albion Pub in Warrington, winning CAMRA's Cheshire pub of the year 2012 and Cheshire cider pub of the year 2012.

Connoisseur Ales will be holding an open day - which includes free tours and tasters - this Saturday (February 6) from noon until 10pm.

For further information on Connoisseur, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/connoisseur.ales.brewery.