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.DIGITAL
CAMRA
The On-line version of the Cornwall CAMRA
Branch Newsletter
ONE & ALE ON LINE
Summer 2006 (archived)
|
GBBF Taken by Storm -
Record turnout at Earl's Court
Local Beer Wins Bronze - Success at CBoB Summer Beerfests - Suddenly there are lots! |
'Forgotten Corner' Beerfest - Ambitious plans Cornish Pub News - Frequently updated - keep up with the pub changes (if you can) Cornish Breweries - Update on the local brewers |
Pubs Diary - Mini-beer festivals etc. One&Ale - the CAMRA Kernow branch newsletter |
|
GBBF
2006: Taken By Storm!
|
final numbers visiting in the region of 65,500.
On the Friday alone, over 16,000 people came, an increase of around
4,000 on the 2005 Friday session. No
wonder the organisers were worried by Wednesday – the drinking rate
suggested that everything would be gone by the Friday afternoon.
In the event, emergency beer orders were placed with a whole range
of brewers both big and small, they all rose to the occasion, and quick
deliveries were made. CAMRA’s good cellarmanship ensured that all the
re-orders were in place and in good condition in time to keep the show on
the road until the last day, which was the Saturday.
By the end, a total of 300,00 pints had been consumed, across a
selection of some 500 different real ales from all over the UK and beyond.
That works out at around 4½ pints per head, in line with the
average consumption observed at beer festivals around the country.
But perhaps the most
surprising statistic involved the ciders and perries.
These actually did almost run out on the Friday, and an emergency
supply was organised for delivery on Saturday morning, before opening
time. In the event, the
consignment that was got together was delayed in traffic and didn’t turn
up until the afternoon, which was not ideal considering the beerfest
closes at 1900. However, it
eventually came, was racked up, and all 210 gallons of the stuff were sold
in 1hour, 20 minutes. Or, to
put it another way, at an impressive pulling rate of 1 pint every 3
seconds! As the festival organiser Marc Holmes put it afterwards, “No wonder we had trouble getting the
buggers out at closing time”. So, another successful GBBF is put to bed, and the result has been that an incredible 1250 new CAMRA members have been signed up, bringing the total national membership up to the mid 80-thousands. So real ale is in decline, is it? Tell that, as my mother used to say, to the Marines! |
| Summer
Festival Season Under Way You can always tell when summer has arrived by the sudden flurry of beer festivals that spring up nowadays all over the county. One of CAMRA's many long-term successes has been the way that publicans, social clubs, even preserved steam railways and the like have, over the years, seen the promotion of real ales as one of their key activities. This year is proving to be no exception, with beer-lovers' diaries suddenly filling up for the months of July and August. First off, and a new boy on the block as far as pub festivals go, was the Watermill Inn at Lelant Downs, which had a successful little festival at the beginning of June in a marquee in the superb garden there. Although it clashed (by accident rather than design) with CAMRA Kernow's own festival in nearby St. Ives, the event was reportedly a success with around a dozen local beers selling out and plenty of entertainment to complement the drinking and eating. Next, and another 'first', was the Star Inn at Vogue, on the edge of St. Day near Redruth. Held on 23-24 June. This also featured local brews and was held in support of a charity, the National Autistic Society. The Constantine Social Club (that's the one near Helston) held its second beer festival on 7 July, again featuring local brews. Entry was free, there was entertainment part of the time and refreshments throughout. Many visitors to Stithians Show (allegedly the biggest one-day show in the country) chose to quench their thirst, not in the tent selling beer substitute but in the village pub, the Seven Stars Inn. Although a good 15-20 minutes walk from the showground, there was a shuttle bus, and the beer festival there featured around a dozen or so beers from micro-breweries all over the country. The beer festival ran from Friday 14 July through to and including Show day, 17 July.
|
Also on Friday 14
July, an interesting festival entered its fourth year in Delabole, north
Cornwall. Part of the annual Delabole Carnival, this
features 18 Cornish beers and ciders, and is set up in a marquee on the
playing field which is where the Carnival activities are centred. It
opened at 1800, and ran for one evening only (Delabole folk like their
ale!), and featured music to entertain, pasties to line the stomach,
and even souvenir glasses to take home. Moving into August, what promised to be an interesting event was planned for Fri-Sat 11-12 August when the St. Austell Rugby Club staged their first beer festival in the clubhouse. Billed as a 'Cornish Beer and Food Festival', reports are still awaited as to the success of this first dip into the beer festival waters by the rugby club. Back in the far north, the Widemouth Manor Hotel at Widemouth, near Bude, is again planning to hold their popular beer festival to coincide with the Bude Jazz Festival, details to be notified but this is usually a large and popular event with lots of beers from around the country. CAMRA, meanwhile, carries on with its regular campaigning beer festivals which are hugely popular and attract loyal followings from around the country (and abroad!). Plymouth CAMRA staged their 150-ale event at the Plymouth Pavilions 30 June-1July, and the Saturday evening ticket-only part was a sell-out. And, another 'first' - North Devon CAMRA held their first beer festival in Barnstaple, Friday evening 18 August and Saturday all day 19 August, at the Football and Social Club in Mill Road. A quiet start on Friday night was followed by a steadier afternoon on Saturday, with festival-goers travelling from as far afield as Blackpool and Birmingham especially for the event. |
| Beerfest Planned
for South-East Cornwall An ambitious plan for holding a beer festival in the south-eastern corner of Cornwall has been drawn up by a CAMRA member and friends in the Cawsand area of the Rame Peninsula. Dubbed the 'Forgotten Corner Beer Festival', it marks a radical departure from the format known and loved by followers of single-venue CAMRA festivals such as the ones at Falmouth and St. Ives, in that this one will be spread around a number of small pubs in the area as well as at the main event on Maker Heights. The final plan includes about 18 pubs, taking in Kingsand and Cawsand, Cremyll, Polbathic, St John and other villages in the area, as well as two or three near the Cremyll ferry on the Plymouth side for good measure. Two of the pubs do not normally sell real ale but |
have agreed to do
so during the event, which might encourage them to keep
selling it afterwards as well. The location of
Maker and the pubs gives an obvious transport problem of course, but this
is being taken care of by the organisers who have funded free buses to
transport people between the pubs, as well as an extra 2 late ferries back
to Plymouth (the last one normally leaves at 1800). |
|
|
|
|
In the Champion Beer of Britain competition held every year at the Great British Beer Festival, over 40 of Britain’s best real ales are put to the ultimate test as panels of invited tasters take part in a blind tasting to come up with the Champion Beer of Britain. As these tasters, who for the most part are ordinary beer drinkers rather than from the brewery or pub interests, have no idea what they are tasting, the result is as fair as it can get, and this year they surprised everyone by voting Crouch Vale Brewer’s Gold (from Essex) the Champion Beer of Britain. Surprising, because it was also the outright winner last year as well, which must say a lot about |
the quality of that particular brew. Runner-up, by just one vote as it later transpired, was Harvey’s Sussex Best Bitter. But an honourable mention went to our own Doom Bar, flagship beer of Sharp’s of Rock near Wadebridge, which won a joint bronze in the Bitter class alongside Woodforde Wherry of Norfolk. So congratulations to Sharp’s, who did extremely well to get into the top 6 bitter beers to be tasted in the final round, let alone be voted one of the best of them. Of course, we have 14 breweries in Cornwall, so let’s see what the others can do next year… |
West Cornwall
The Coach and Horses at Rosudgeon, on the main Helston-Penzance road, closed suddenly at the end of July with the receivers said to have gone in to take possession. CAMRA members have recently reported that the pub was in some sort of trouble; now their worst fears seem to have been realised. What happens next is not known at present, but the pub is a free house and has recently been selling real ales from Sharp's and Skinner's breweries by gravity dispense. Let's hope that Punch Taverns or the like don't get wind of it..... Other free houses currently up for sale or under offer include the Cornish Arms at Frogpool, which seems expensive at £520,000 but has just been sold having been on the market for ages; the Five Pilchards at Porthallow on the Lizard peninsula (£600,000); and the Old Inn at Crowlas (or Ludgvan, as you prefer). This last has been a St. Austell Brewery tied house but they now want out and would like to sell it freehold for £475,000. As far as the leased pubs go, currently in line for change of hands are the Plume of Feathers off the A30 at Scorrier (again!), going for £89,500, and the Longboat Hotel, Penzance, another one slow to shift and with an asking price of £225,000...... The leasehold on the Star Inn on Church St, St Erth is up for grabs, £299,950 ..... The freehold of the Brea Inn at Higher Brea is also for sale at £399,950 .... Down west, rumours abound locally concerning the Miners Arms free house in St Just. On the market for a while, it is said locally that If no buyer is found it may shut soon. Meanwhile, lots of people locally are said to be applying for the Star Inn in the same town ....
Mid-Cornwall
The long-awaited opening of the new J D Wetherspoon pub in Truro took place on Monday 24 July, although sneak previews had been offered to a selected audience during the staff training sessions of the previous week. Called the Try Dowr, it is housed in part of the old offices of the West Briton on Lemon Quay. A promising start with the real ale selection has been made; the JDW usual suspects (Courage Director's, Marston Pedigree, Green King Abbot and the like) are lined up on the left-hand array of four handpumps, while the rightmost four are host to more local brews (Skinner's, Sharp's and Butcombe ales all appeared during the first week). In fact, Skinner's produced a 4.5% best bitter called try Dower for the occasion. Actually a 'Lloyds No. 1' version of the JDW brand, which means the pub allows piped music and television screens, it proved an instant hit with the locals although what the impact will be on the city's other pubs will doubtless emerge in due course. Doubtless some of the popularity stems from the beer being on sale at £1.79/pint in what has become an expensive beer town, where it is common to be asked for upwards of £2.40 these days. Interestingly, the pub has a no-smoking policy throughout, but that doesn't seem to have put anyone off.
A recent surprise arrival on the market is Skinner's Ale House in Newquay. Although no longer belonging to Skinner's Brewery, it has passed through several hands since they sold it a few years back but nevertheless kept the ale house format and still sells a good range of that brewery's products. It is going as an untied lease at £250,000..... Meanwhile, the pub chain-owned Bolingey Inn near Perranporth is for sale leasehold at £120,000.....
East Cornwall
High on the moors above the Tamar Valley, the Rifle Volunteer at St Ann's Chapel near Gunnislake has made an appearance in the 'for sale' listings. Licensees Frank and Lynda Hilldrup have run the pub for ten years or so, but are now looking for something different to do, and are selling up. The pub is a free house, and is on the Tamar Valley Rail Ale Trail........ Meanwhile, a Punch Taverns leasehold pub is on the market. The 17th century Caradon Inn at Upton Cross, high above Liskeard, is going for an asking price of £150,000.... The Punch Bowl at Lanreath, between Looe and Polperro, has been sold.
North Cornwall
The Hole in the Wall in Bodmin is up for sale again. Once a regular in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide, it has not featured for a while owing to a decline in the quality of the beer in the glass (with a lack of imagination in beer choice not helping).
(Sources: CAMRA members, Beer Today, Packet Newspapers, the West Briton and allied publications, pub gossip, Scilly locals and Lizard's beer-stained notebook. And One & Ale!)
| Top of Page | Brewery News |
The Lizard Brewery,
which started brewing just over a year ago, has added a new ale to its
portfolio. A light quaffing ale called Helford River Bitter, it has a
strength of 3.6% abv and was given its first outing at the Crown Inn, Crowntown
to coincide with a CAMRA branch meeting there in March. The brewery has three other ales available in limited outlets in the Lizard area, although the number of
pubs taking the beer is slowly expanding. Kernow Gold and Lizard
Bitter, both around 4%abv, were the first two brews.
At the Ring O'Bells Brewery near
Launceston, recent rapid expansion into a new building to cope with demand has
allowed production of more of its beer to be shipped ‘up country’ for
distribution through the Jolly’s/LWC network, as well as brewing beer brands
owned by LWC. Ring O’Bells has
also started production of a lager called Cornish Steam, mainly for keg and
bottle although the occasional cask-conditioned version is to be found.
The brew is sent to Burtonwood for kegging and bottling.
In Stithians, the tiny Bathtub Brewery ('nano-brewery' according to its head brewer) is now brewing on site. Some experimental brews appeared over the bar in the village pub, and following the success of Pete's Porter a premium bitter called Stithians Special has been developed. Based on an earlier trial version called Wasted, it went through several iterations to its current incarnation, slightly weaker, at 4.5% abv. Another, weaker brew which has proved popular has also appeared. Called Stithians Golden Bitter, it weighs in at 3.8%abv. Brewing remains sporadic, however, as Peter Martin the brewer strives to get the balance of ingredients and his other calling, sculpture, right before going into continuous production. He plans to have three brews in his portfolio, one of which however, the Porter, will be brewed for beer festivals only. Tickers are advised to call the pub (01209 860003) before setting off on a journey to taste the brews!
The Wooden Hand Brewery at Grampound Road goes from strength to strength, with four beers in their portfolio. The most recent addition, called Cornish Buccaneer, is a 4.3% abv brew. The other three beers produced by ex-Redruth Brewery employees Kevin Frantham and Mel Hill are Cornish Mutiny (4.8%abv, their first brew), Smugglers' Gold, a lighter beer at 3.6%abv that has sold well in spite of limited fine weather; and Black Pearl (4.3%), not a dark beer as its name implies but a best bitter aimed at the likes of Doom Bar and Betty Stogs drinkers. The brewery's premises, the original Ventonwyn Brewery site, was too cramped for everything that Kev and Mel want to do, so they recently acquired two other industrial units close by where they can store beer for maturing and bottling.
Sharp's Brewery has been going all out recently to expand its operation both within the county and beyond. Sales went up 30% during the autumn quarter of 2004 compared with the same period in 2003, 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 were planning to have doubled plant capacity to 100 barrels by now, although reports suggest that further expansion has been put on hold for the moment.
Skinner's Brewery in Truro have now moved into keg lager to satisfy the demands of the surfing fraternity. Called Cornish Storm, the lager is in production and being kegged by Robinson’s of Stockport pending installation of Skinner’s own plant. It is reportedly knocking sales of the 'nationals' such as Stella into a cocked hat in the pubs on the north coast. A recent addition to the real ale portfolio is Davy Jones Knocker at 5%abv. Now appearing in various pubs, the brewery is donating 5p for each pint sold towards training of beach lifeguards. Meanwhile, the seasonal brew Hunny Bunny (4.5% abv) was to be seen at many pubs over the Easter holiday.
St. Austell Brewery The new Admiral’s Ale (5.0%) was been launched in bottle, and is also available in draught form during the summer months, albeit as a weaker brew at 4.0%, which puts it head-to-head with Tribute. Bottles are available in ASDA, Somerfield and Spar shops. Meanwhile, brewing overall remains very healthy, with an 11% increase in annual sales recently announced which takes the total volume produced to 26,000 barrels.
Keltek Brewery has apparently started cask ale production again, with several of its range appearing at the Lizard 2000 beer festival in Helston including a new one called 'Pork Pie Stout', believed to be the one they have been making for Tesco to put in one of their pie products. The range advertised includes King and Magick as well as several other brands, and the brewery is offering the beer for sale in firkins, pins etc as well as bottles. Since moving its 20-barrel plant to Redruth last October, however, Keltek ales have been noticeably absent from the pubs, so any reports of sightings would be welcome.
The Organic
Brewhouse is still brewing steadily but suffered a slowdown
over the winter months with operations just barely ticking over. New sources of organic ingredients (malt and hops) have been
identified which brewer Andy Hamer plans to use to widen the scope of his
production of real ales.
The Driftwood Spars Brewery recently stopped dry-hopping its Cuckoo Ale, which has reportedly improved the flavour. Blackawton Brewery in Saltash is continuing production of the beers developed before being sold 18 months or so ago, and the new proprietor/brewer Steve Horn has now developed a brew of his own - Peninsula Ale. The Scorrier-based micro-brewery, Doghouse, has broken with its tradition of doggy-themed beer names with a brew clebrating the birth of railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It is called Brunel's Bridge Builder. Finally, the small-scale Wheal Ale brewery based at Paradise Park in Hayle appears to have stopped brewing after around 20 years of operations behind the Bird In Hand pub. Domestic problems rather than financial are thought to be the reason.
| Top of Page | 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.
| Inclusive Dates | Venue | Event |
| 25-28 Aug | Widemouth Manor Hotel, Widemouth Bay | Beer festival (Bude Jazz Festival weekend) |
| (all events subject to confirmation - check if in doubt) | ||
| Top of Page | One&Ale |
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
September-October 2004
November-December 2004
January-February 2005
March-April 2005
May-June 2005
July-August 2005
September-October 2005
November-December 2005
Spring 2006
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.