Cornish Brewery News

The newly-revivified Wooden Hand Brewery at Grampound Road goes from strength to strength, recently adding a third beer to their portfolio.  Called Black Pearl, it is not a stout but a dark brown bitter with a strength of 4.0%abv, and is said to be a strongly malty beer with an underlying hop flavour.  It will be officially launched at the |Falmouth Beer Festival 22-24 October, and is seen as a challenge to the likes of Doom Bar and Betty Stogs.  The other two beers produced by ex-Redruth Brewery employees Kevin Frantham and Mel Hill are Cornish Mutiny (4.8%abv, their first brew), and Smugglers' Gold, a lighter beer at 3.6%abv that has sold well in spite of the limited summer weather!  The brewery's premises, the original Ventonwyn Brewery site, was too cramped for everything that Kev and Mel want to do, so they have acquired another industrial unit close by where they can store the beer for maturing.

Meanwhile, on the islands, Mark Praeger of Ales of Scilly Brewery has produced another new brew, coinciding with the autumn surge in business when the islands are invaded by bird-watchers, or 'twitchers'.  Last October saw the bird-men almost drink the islands dry, so Mark thought a new brew for this season would be a good idea.  In somewhat of a departure for the brewery, the beer is black as Guinness and named Old Bustard.  It is reported to have a sweet edge to it, and has a strength of 4.2%.  It will be available at the forthcoming beer festival in Falmouth, 22-24 October.

Sharp's Brewery has been going all out recently to expand its operation both within the county and beyond.  Sales have gone up 30% during the recent quarter of the year compared with the same period last year, presumably as a result of their new sales team operating all over the south-west, as far up as Swindon  so far.  The brewery has installed 6 new fermenters, and plan to have doubled plant capacity to 100 barrels by this time next year with further work planned for the winter months.

Skinner's Brewery in Truro have once again brewed their seasonal Green Hop, which can only be made at harvest time since, as its name implies, the hops used are 'green' or fresh, rather than in their usual dry form.  The beer is available for a limited time in selected outlets.  They are also brewing Pennycomequick Stout again, which is now available in selected pubs.  They have recently launched more 'special' brews to celebrate events in the county, among them a D-Day anniversary special called D-Day 60, and, it is understood, one for Remembrance Day to be available in the Royal British Legion's bars.  Meanwhile, the new shop, though small, offers an impressive range of brewery merchandise and all of Skinner's bottled beer range, as well as an interesting selection of bottle-conditioned beers from other national and foreign breweries.  The shop opens Monday to Saturday, 10.00 to 17.30.  Expansion plans have led to the purchase of two more fermenters to instal in the brewhouse.  This will be the first stage in a move into keg lager, already available occasionally in cask form as Cornish Storm, but the plant looks likely to handle a keg version of Pennycomequick Stout as well, hopefully to rival Guinness in some of the local pubs.

St. Austell Brewery have sent their head brewer Roger Ryman across to the US to investigate the hop harvest and purchase some of the best, such as the aromatic Mount Hood variety.  Meanwhile, Admiral's Ale is being brewed again after a long period of absence; the plan is to sell it in bottled form next year.  Its strength is 5.0%abv.

The Driftwood Spars Brewery recently stopped dry-hopping its Cuckoo Ale, which has reportedly improved the flavour.  Keltek Brewery continues to be very busy, selling everything it can brew as well as being kept busy bottling the Spingo range for the Blue Anchor in Helston and other brewers in the county and beyond.  Keltek have also initiated a serious expansion on their Lostwithiel site, with new fermenters installed to increase their brewing capacity to a massive 20 barrels from two and a half. Not all of this will be used immediately however, which will allow some capacity for experimental brewing.  Blackawton Brewery in Saltash is reported to have been sold, with the new owner continuing production of the beers as before.  Last but not least, Doghouse Brewery report brisk sales of Staffi Stout, now competing well with Guinness since the prices of the latter in Cornwall started to reach near rip-off levels.  There is also good demand for Dingo Lager since its success in winning the 'Punters' Pint' vote at CAMRA's St. Ives beer festival in June; it has been tweaked down slightly and now sits at a round 5.0%abv.  And - at last - a name has been decided for the long-awaited brew using the new Susan hops.  It will probably be available as an autumn seasonal ale, and is called Snoozy Suzy.  Its strength is 4.3%abv.

In Stithians, the newly-installed Bathtub Brewery is at last near to brewing its first batch on site.  Some experimental brews have already appeared over the bar in the village pub, the latest being a bitter called Star Light (4.2%abv).  Shades of Watney's!  Only in name, though - Bathtub's version had both taste and alcohol, unlike its namesake of the 'sixties.  The plan is to concentrate on two beers, probably brewing them alternately for sale in the Seven Stars Inn.  Latest estimate for first appearance is during November.

Cornish Pub News

West Cornwall

In Falmouth, the long-running saga of the Admiral Nelson (or Dock & Railway, via the Riviera Hotel depending on your preference and age), rumbles on.  Following unsuccessful attempts by local residents, Cornwall CAMRA and Carrick District Council to save the historic pub, it was finally closed at the end of September to allow the developer who bought it to demolish all but the frontage and build 'luxury apartments'.  The irony has not been lost on locals that the pub has been closed down just a year before the town's big celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of Admiral Horatio Nelson's victory at the battle of Trafalgar, and it could have been at centre stage during the proceedings.  However, there is a slim chance that the situation might yet be saved.  Our lounging reporter Lizard's ears started flapping at bar-corner reports that the developer has pulled out of the deal, and there are moves to try to reopen it as a pub again.  The truth of this will no doubt surface in due course - we'll let you know if the corpse of this grand old building has new life breathed into it.

Shorts....... The Union Hotel in Penzance is on the market.  Once famous for its draught Bass, it refurbished its back room, the old Theatre Bar, last spring and relaunched it as a 'prime real ale venue' for the town (see report, May-June Digital CAMRA).  However, reports of restricted opening times and sporadically available ale (of sometimes dubious quality) cannot have helped the hotel's continuing success.  The asking price for the freehold is upwards of £880.000..... Landlady Rosie Angwin at the Star Inn, St. Just is leaving the pub at the end of October following the death of her husband Peter.  It seems the new licensee is to be the Deputy Mayor of St. Just, who has never run a pub before but says he knows what he wants from one - and that involves keeping the Star exactly as it was.  We shall see....  The New Inn at Wendron has been reported as in trouble again and on the market, since the landlord suffered a stroke during the summer.  This free house, which for some time has offered at least three decent real ales, has suffered several landlord changes in recent years, so making only sporadic appearances in the Good Beer Guide. It appears in the new 2005 edition, so the local CAMRA branch have decided to have it removed through an amendment..... The prominent Plume of Feathers, by the A30 slip road at Scorrier and somewhat isolated by the surrounding road network, is up for sale again.  Its recent real ale career has been something of a roller-coaster and has attracted only sporadic interest from CAMRA, but we remain hopeful.  The Punch Taverns lease is going for £75,000.....  Just down the road close to Redruth, the foodie road-house the Inn for All Seasons is back on the market at a guide price of £260,000....  Changes are planned in Falmouth.  The St. Austell Brewery distribution depot behind the Four Winds is to close along with the similar depot at Hayle.  The plan is then to refurbish and extend the Four Winds, turning it into a lodge-style of operation...

Mid-Cornwall

East Cornwall

The Rifle Volunteer at St. Ann's Chapel near Gunnislake has made some internal changes to provide a novel solution to the problem of a long pull from cellar to bar.  They have actually moved the cellar closer!  Part of the external wall behind the bar was removed and a new temperature-controlled cellar space constructed behind it.  A 'flexi' glass screen was then installed between the cask stillage and the bar, allowing customers to see the beer racked up.  The pints are now drawn by gravity dispense, passing from the cask down a tube that penetrates the screen to the tap controlling the flow.  There is space for up two 10 casks in the new cellar, 5 each on two levels, and although not all this space will be normally in use, it is intended to feature mainly local south-west brewery beers with one or two from Sharp's always present.
(thanks to Bob Husband for this report)

North Cornwall

Shorts....... The Golden Lion Inn in Padstow, the town's oldest pub, is to be sold..... And across the river at Rock, landlord Jeremy Turner is selling the lease of the Rock Inn and is taking the nearby Pityme Inn instead.....

(Sources: CAMRA members, Packet Newspapers, the West Briton and allied publications, pub gossip, Scilly locals and Lizard's beer-stained notebook).  And One & Ale!

Pubs Diary

Welcome to our feature, the Cornish Pubs Diary. The idea is that anything to do with the promotion of real ale by our local landlords will warrant an entry here. Events will mostly take the form of beer festivals no doubt, but with a growing fund of experience in this field and their growing popularity, we feel that some central listing is useful - which also helps landlords to avoid clashes! Do let us know of any planned real ale events at your local boozer. For further details of pub festivals, go to our beer festival page.

Cornish Ale Guide On Sale

This is the definitive guide to real ale in Cornwall - and it is on sale now, with recent updates included.

Members of Cornwall CAMRA spent no less than 12 months researching every one (we hope) of the county's pubs, sampling the ale, and writing about it in order to bring you the most comprehensive guide to date. Every known real ale pub has been listed in standard Good Beer Guide format, and the ones which don't have any also get a mention, so that you don't have to waste time going through the door (and in the hope that they may change their policy in future).  AND we are not standing still.  Research is continuous, so every so often we can bring the listings up to date, even if the cover still looks the same.

Because we are such a large county, the Guide has been divided into 5 geographical areas for convenience - north, east, mid-Cornwall, west, and Scilly. This keeps nearby pubs grouped together in the book and should make it easier to refer to. Street maps are provided for the bigger towns, and all of Cornwall's 13 breweries - including the newest on the Isles of Scilly - are listed with a description of the beers they produce.

Due to the lack of public transport in some areas, willing driving partners and the foot & mouth epidemic (one of our busiest researchers is a ministry vet!), as well as everyone being volunteers with other jobs to do, it took us longer than anticipated to get the thing published. However, the means are now in place to update it easily, and we are now able quickly to produce updated editions from time to time.

Want a copy? Of course you do. It is available by post to UK CAMRA members for £5.00 including the stamp (quote your membership number) or £5.66 to non-CAMRA members. Send cheques (made payable to Cornwall CAMRA) to editor Steve Willmott - see Contacts list for address details. Or we'll take €10.

One & Ale - the Cornwall CAMRA Newsletter

In common with the other branches of CAMRA, the Cornwall branch produces its own hard-copy newsletter, One & Ale. It appears about 5 times a year, at slightly irregular intervals because it may be timed to coincide with the major events such as the local beer festivals. It is aimed both at the branch membership, who are widely scattered around the county and each get a copy through the post, and non-members who may pick it up to read in selected pubs.

One & Ale contains news of breweries, brews and pubs in the county, as well as views and reports of pub crawls and the like written by the branch members. As a free publication, its only source of funding is its advertising income, which is of course to an extent dependent on how interesting the contents are. We are always looking for reports or articles from CAMRA members, and new contributors are especially welcome. Copy should be submitted to Steve Willmott, who is also the Editor and Distribution Manager (see Contacts page). If it is a word processor file and sent on a floppy disk, it's even more welcome!

Some earlier editions of One & Ale On-line can be seen in our archive. Just click on the one you want to see:

January-February 2004 
March-April 2004 
May-June 2004 
July-August 2004 

The views expressed in these pages are of course those of the authors, and not necessarily of CAMRA Ltd or the Cornwall Branch of CAMRA.