Pictured above: Steve Croot toasting the win!

Croots Farm Shop in Derbyshire has scooped a One Star Gold Great Taste Award for its Cow Juice Beer.

The awards run by the Guild of Fine Food, are regarded as the Oscars of the food and drink industry.

Cow Juice is one of four farmyard beers designed by Steve Croot, who runs the farm shop at Farnah House Farm, Wirksworth Road, Duffield.

It is the first accolade won by the ale, which is produced for Croots Farm Shop by Derbyshire brewery Nutbrook.

"We created our farmyard range of beers last year as part of our regional ale section, and they've all been very popular," said Steve Croot. "It's fantastic news that the Cow Juice Beer has won such a prestigious award as a one star gold Great Taste Award. It's a lovely ale and goes down well with our customers."

The Great Taste Awards are regarded as the benchmark in speciality fine food and drink, and have been running since 1993.

Last year Croots won a Gold Star Great Taste Award for its Black Pudding Sausage.

The Cow Juice Beer was one of only 23 bottled beers to receive a gold star rating in the 2010 Great Taste Awards.

Cow Juice (6%) is brewed in a traditional way using sugars also found in milk, which gives a full-bodied, thicker taste. With familiar roasted stout flavours, it has a warm soothing flavour.

The other beers in the Croots farmyard range are Pig in a Bottle, a 'hoppy beer' at 4.5%, Ewe Drink, a sweet beer with a rich golden colour at 3.6% and Croots Shire Ale, a strong brew at 6.2%, which pays tribute to the Shire horses that graze at Farnah House Farm, and features a 50-year-old photo on its label that shows Tom Yates - the grandfather of Steve's wife Kay - and two Shire horses that lived at the farm in 1959.

A fifth beer in the range, which will be given a rooster theme, is currently being developed by Croots in conjunction with West Hallam-based Nutbrook Brewery. Croots sells around 1,200 bottles of Nutbrook beer every month.

The farmyard beers cost £2.45 per bottle.