IT'S not only raining, it's positively pouring good news on a Worcestershire hop farm that was battered by last summer's floods.

Having recovered from the double whammy of being flooded in both June and July last year, the hops at Newnham Farm, near Tenbury Wells, were awarded the most cherished trophy in English hop growing earlier this year, the weighty Morris Hanbury Jackson Le May silver cup for the best aroma hops in the Institute of Brewing and Distilling English National Hop Competition.

Now the award winning crop has played a vital part in special recognition for one of the country's top bitter beers.

The Newnham hops are used in Young's Bitter, which has just gained a new Red Tractor quality mark.

The Red Tractor logo has been introduced by the Government's Assured Food Standards to tell shoppers the food can be traced back to the farm it was made on. In the case of Bedford-brewed Young's Bitter, the award means the ingredients, which include hops farmed at Newnham, are guaranteed to be quality British products.

"It's tremendous news," said Newnham Farm manager Richard Powell. "When we were flooded not once, but twice, last year, I thought we'd be lucky to survive let alone achieve anything like this.

"I'd never experienced anything like it; no one had and the worry was what we would find when the floods went down, because the floods came at a critical growing time for the young hops."

Newnham Farm crops 172 acres of hops and the first flood at the end of June rose to around three feet, but then a couple of weeks later in the middle of July came the big one and in places the hopyards were six feet under water.

Remarkably, there was very little physical damage either time, the hops strings survived the pressure of the water and when the harvest was gathered in late August/early September 2007 only two acres of production were lost.

"Because of our riverside position, we are used to being flooded in winter, that's part of what gives the soil its special quality," Mr Powell said.

"But last summer was the first time we have been flooded out of season."

Judging by the quality of the crop, maybe it should happen more often. Only joking. But certainly the accolades have been flooding in since. The latest means that Young's Bitter will now carry the Red Tractor logo on all its bottles and is a sign to the shopper that the raw ingredients come from quality UK farmed ingredients.

Head brewer at Wells and Young's Brewery, Jim Robertson, said: "Young's Bitter is very special in the beer world and we are proud of this enviable position. It is incredibly important to us that we work with our farmers and suppliers like Richard Powell at Newnham Farm and know for certain the exact source of the raw materials.

"Ale is a very natural drink. It takes just four ingredients to make and is still brewed in the same method as it was a hundred years ago."

Jonathan Tipples, vice-chairman of Assured Food Standards, the organisation behind Red Tractor, added: "Wells and Young's is one of the leading brewers of speciality beers in Britain and we welcome their commitment to what is a new arena for the Red Tractor scheme.

Young's Bitter is one of the fastest growing national brands in the UK and the Red Tractor logo will give consumers complete confidence about the strict standards of production upheld by the scheme.

And they're raising a glass at Newnham Farm to that.