Hebridean beer 'pioneers' win battle of the tiny islands

A GERMAN beer-drinking society has awarded Colonsay the title "smallest island with its own brewery in the world".

An Aktion Gutes Bier (Action For Good Beer) delegate, Ludger Bergef, travelled from Germany to bestow the Hebridean island's brewery with its new title.

He came bearing the gift of a special certificate which, as well as officially recording the island's new title, notes the "pioneering" work of the Colonsay brewery staff, in ensuring "a constant supply of beer in a very remote corner of the Earth".

Colonsay, which covers an area of 40sq km and serves a resident population of about 100 beat Rarotonga, the home of Cooks Lager, which is 65sq km, with 14,200 residents, into second place, while Borooy, the home of Foraya Bjor beer, in Tonga, was third. Arran was fourth, Orkney was eighth, Islay tenth and Mull 12th.