Issue 21 | Spring 2014

Your FREE guide to real ale and pubs in South Oxfordshire

CAMRA South Oxfordshire Branch www.soxoncamra.org.uk

New CAMRA Pub finderwebsite now live!

Also Inside:Local and National NewsFacinating articles on all things beery

see page10

Published every threemonths by the SouthOxfordshire branch ofthe Campaign for RealAle © CAMRA 2014SoxonAle is producedand distributed by

members of the branch in their own time. Views expressed in SoxonAle are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher orof CAMRA.

Edited by:Paul DixonEmail: contact@soxoncamra.org.uk.

Design & Production:Daniel Speed - Orchard House Media Ltd01733 211933Email: info@orchardhousemedia.co.uk

Advertising:For advertising enquiries please contact Jane Michelson on: 07732 393 62101733 211410jane@orchardhousemedia.co.uk

Distribution:3,000 copies / four times a year

Got a short pint? If you believe that you have been treated unfairly in a pub, club or bar, you should contact the Trading Standards service by writing to them at Oxfordshire Trading Standards, Graham Hill House, Electric Avenue, Ferry Hinksey Rd, Oxford OX2 0BYor call them on 0845 051 0845.

A wide range of consumer information andadvice is also available online from the Consumer Direct website at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk

LOCAL NEWS

The previous edition of SoxonAle was back in the summer of2013. We had a few production and financing issues but we’reback! and plan to publish every three months, as before. Quitea few things happened while we were off-line, so let’s take alook at what’s been going on.

South Oxfordshire CAMRA (SOX) presents five awards eachyear to pubs in our area. One is the Pub of the Year, which isthe first stage of a selection process that culminates with thenational award. (Incidentally, this year’s top UK pub is theSwan with Two Necks in Pendleton, Lancashire.) The otherfour are seasonal awards that we present to recognise pubsthat are making a real effort to provide the people of SouthOxfordshire with great places to drink.

So last autumn we werepleased to make the Plough,Long Wittenham, AutumnPub of the Season. ThePlough is a lovely village pubwith a spectacular long garden that backs onto withthe Thames. Liam Carberryand his partner Kim took

over the Plough last year and are really putting theirpersonal stamp on it. Butcombe Bitter is the regular beer, plustwo guest ales. And there’s good eating to be had in therestaurant too.

Then earlier this year we made theTown Arms, Wallingford, the WinterPub of the Year. The Town Arms hadfallen on hard times and was a possi-ble candidate for closure. Luckilyhowever, Paul Davies took it on andhas turned it into a real successstory. It’s now a great town pubwith two regular ales (West Berks GoodOld Boy, and Loose Cannon Abingdon Bridge) plus threeguests. The picture shows Paul (left) with SOX Branch Chair-man Richard Starkey.

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CAMRA, the Campaign forReal Ale is an independent,voluntary organisation campaigning for real ale,community pubs and consumer rights.

SOX is one of the branches that form the Central Southern region of CAMRA. The regional organisation makes an annualClub of the Year award. This is open to members’ clubs that allowentry on production of a CAMRA membership card or to anyonecarrying a copy of the Good Beer Guide. We are pleased andproud to be able to say that Goring Social Club won this in2013, having previously won it in 2011. It’s a great achievementto be able to maintain such a high standard over a number ofyears. The picture shows Club steward David Dean receivingthe award from CAMRA Regional Director Sandie Gill.

Publicans seem to move on more frequently than they used to, soit’s a great pleasure to be able to report that Graham and Celiahave notched up an impressive 20 years at the Bird in Hand, Henley. The Bird, of course, is a Good Beer Guide regular and aprevious Branch Pub of the Year. To mark this milestone the SOXBranch presented Graham and Celia with a special achievementcertificate.

Having spent the last few monthsunder water, it’s not easy to look back to last summer and remember that was actually a pretty good one. The Wood-cote Rally had been rained-off in 2012. But in 2013 theweather gods compensated by giving us fantastic week-endand the SOX beer tent was a particularly popular place tobe – note the clear blue sky and scorched grass in the picture! We almost ran out of beer by Saturday evening andour friends at West Berkshire Brewery had to deliver

some emergency supplieson Sunday morning. Laterin the year we presented the Woodcote Com-mittee with a large cheque as our contribution towards their charity donations. The picture shows SOXFestival Treasurer Derek Graham (left) handing the chequeto the Rally supremo Pete Solomons. The June edition ofSoxonAle will feature the beer-list for this year’s event,which will be held on Saturday 12th to Sunday 13th July.

The Pack Saddle, Mapledurham, re-opened in December 2013 followinga long closure for repair and refurbishment after the serious fire the previ-ous February. Wadworth Brewery has relinquished the tenancy on thisMapledurham Estate-owned pub and it is now being run by local businessman Sean Valentine as a freehouse. There has also been a slightchange to the name – it’s now the Pack Saddle at Mapledurham. The pubretains its inviting and welcoming environment and the layout is essentially the same as previously, with the upper bar area serving fourreal ales including two locally-brewed Loddon ales; Sharps Doombar

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Local News - continued

and Fullers London Pride are the other current offerings. A range of events are plannedthroughout the year for the large outdoor paddock area, including a beer and food festival.

The Admiral Benbow in Milton has been sold by Greene King. Happily, instead of immediatelytrying to turn it into a house or a mini-supermarket, the new owners have renamed it thePlum Pudding and are running it as a freehouse. Even more happily the owners, Jez andMandy, have a first-class track record in running Good Beer Guide pubs having previously hadthe Cherry Tree in Steventon and the Blue Boar in Aldbourn, Wiltshire. The Plum Pudding’sfirst beer festival will be on 4th and 5th April: at least 16 ales plus a range of ciders.

Good news too at the Sun, Hill Bottom near Whitchurch. The pub has been bought by localbuilder Richard Hazell who is running it as a free-house. On the down-side, along with manyother parts of the country we continue to experience pub closures. In our area these tend to bein villages – town pubs (mostly) seem to be able to keep going. In the last six months:The White Lion, Crays Pond, was closed by Greene King in August and sold. The new ownerhas submitted a planning application to turn it into a house and has already removed thekitchen and other interior fittings. The residents are fighting this vigorously, and at the time ofwriting are awaiting a decision from SODC.

The Bottle and Glass, Binfield Heath, closed in July and has been put on the market by Brakspear for £475k. Max Tilney, who used to drink there, is trying to get enough financialbacking from villagers to buy it for the community and manage it himself. The pub has been

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Local News - continued

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registered as an Asset of Community Value, and the villagers have until June to raise the cash.

It could be the end of the line for the Sprat, Didcot. At the time of writing it’s still open, butplanning permission is being sought to demolish it and build seven houses. Pubs that are closed at present and being advertised for sale include: the Barley Mow, Blewbury, and the Crown, Nuffield. Hopefully we’ll be able to report their reopening at somepoint. The Dog and Duck, Highmoor, has been closed and for sale for well over a year nowand looks like a lost cause.

The Queens Arms, Goring, is closed andGreene King has sold it. Tesco has been givenan option to lease it and plans to convert it to aconvenience store. This has attracted plenty ofopposition in the town. A lot of pubs have beenlost by this route because it doesn’t requireplanning permission for change of use.

The SOX Branch holds a meeting on the firstWednesday of each month and a social eveningon the third Thursday. We try to vary the ven-ues and cover all of the branch’s territory. Speaking of which, SOX memberHugh Steele has created a handsome map ofthe Branch’s pubs and breweries which wehave included in this SoxonAle as a useful pull-out centre-fold.

Check out the Branch website for news andevents: www.soxoncamra.org.uk. Alternatively, email us at contact@soxoncamra.org.uk.

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Local News - continued

Ever seen a hexagonal pool table before? Me neither, but here’s apicture of one. It was taken in the bar of the Haywain in Bramling,Kent. The idea is that it can be fitted into a corner and takes upless space than a conventional one. The table has a central pivotso that you can rotate it to wherever you want to take your shot.The landlord said that this one dates back to the 80s when it wasa popular concept, though certainly not anywhere I’ve been.

But we live in a small world these days. A brief Google search reveals that not only are these tables available to buy from Rotapool in Manchester but appearto be relatively common throughout the pool-playing world. Who knew?

Paul Dixon

Award-winning, family Cider makers since 2006

sales@tuttsclumpcider.co.ukwww.tuttsclumpcider.co.uk

Tel: 0118 974 4649or 07836 296996

CRAFT BEER– Some Rambling Incoherent Thoughts From The Editor

You hear “craft beer” being mentioned quite a lot these days. Unfortunately it’s a tricky thing topin down because there’s no generally accepted definition of what “craft beer” is. The people atthe Brew Dog brewery (www.brewdog.com) believe that they make craft beer and they’ve of-fered their take on it. This is actually a Europeanised version of a definition produced by the USBrewers’ Association, and goes like this:

A European Craft Brewery is:1) Small. It brews less than 500,000 hectolitres annually.2) Authentic. It brews all its beers at original gravity and does not use rice, corn or any otheradjuncts to lessen flavour and reduce costs. 3) Honest. All ingredients are clearly listed on the label. The place where the beer is brewed isclearly stated too. All the beer is brewed at craft breweries.4) Independent. It is not more than 20% owned by a brewing company which operates anybrewery which is not a craft brewery.

One can take issue with some aspects of this definition. If my calculations are correct 500,000 hlis 370,000 barrels, or over 100 million pints – that’s more than 1% of the beer drunk in the UKin a year. I’m no expert, but that actually sounds pretty big to me. And point 3 is a bit of a circularargument – it’s a craft brewery if the beer is brewed in a craft brewery. But you can see wherethey’re coming from and most people won’t object too much to the overall philosophy; but it’snot that much help as a definition.

CAMRA had a go at discussing this at its AGM in 2012. It ducked the issue of trying to come upwith a definition but noted that a beer labelled as “craft” can refer to craft keg or craft real ale.It recommended that in the majority of cases the term “craft keg” (i.e. pasteurised and servedunder CO2 pressure) should be used when appropriate. And “real ale” should be used for “craftreal ale” since the majority of real ales are craft.

Fiona Beckett, writing in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago, suggested that craft beers havebridged the gap between beer drinkers and wine drinkers. This implies that craft beers are some-thing you have instead of wine when out for dinner. Her article reviewed some bottled so-calledcraft beers – but, to be honest, they were just bottled beers. Because the term “craft” hasachieved a certain cachet there are signs of it being appropriated by some brewers as a marketingploy – a bit like “artisan”. Which means it could end up losing whatever meaning it has now andbecome another word for “hoppy”.

So I suppose what constitutes craft beer is to a large extent down to personal opinion. For me,“craft” tends to mean either bottled or keg beer and is frequently (though not always) pale incolour and highly-hopped, often with citrusy American hops. Which is another way of saying thatit’s keg beer, but tastes nicer than the keg produced by most big brewers. Anything that stimulatesinterest in beer and encourages people to experiment is to be welcomed. This interest has beendriven largely by the steady increase in the number of breweries which has resulted in a huge increase in choice. Craft brewing (however you want to define it) has certainly played a part inthis. But it’s quite clear what real ale is, and traditional ales already deliver the complete range ofbeer flavours and types. So why not just stick with the real thing?

Paul Dixon

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NATIONAL NEWS

CAMRA membership continues to rise!Nationally, the big news of the last few months is that CAMRA’s membership crashed throughthe 150,000 barrier in September, and is currently a whisker under 160,000! It seems that thesteady increase in the number of micro-breweries over the last 15 years or so has driven a cor-responding increase in interest in beer. Decades ago CAMRA stopped being a fringe organisationand is now a force to be reckoned with. Regular readers will remember CAMRA’s successfulmass-lobby of Parliament last year that resulted in the beer-duty escalator being scrapped.

Pressure for pubco reformIn April last year, as part of an overall aim to secure a healthy pubs industry, the Governmentlaunched an 8-week consultation into reform of the large pub companies. The consultation closedin June and the Government published a full list of responses in December 2013. In the consul-tation the Government proposed to establish:

• A statutory Code and independent Adjudicator. • An overarching fair-deal provision in which the core principle, that a tied tenant should be noworse off than a free-of-tie tenant, is enshrined in law.

Despite the campaign being actively supported by 206 MPs, and 96% of the people who responded to the Government’s consultation survey declaring their support for an independentadjudicator, the Government is still hasn’t acted.

To call on Government to act quickly and implement legislation to help struggling publicans beforeit is too late, CAMRA has launched an online petition to show the high level of public support forreform. CAMRA demonstrated its campaigning power by securing more than 31,000 signatureson the Pubs Watchdog petition in just six days. But after an opposition motion on the issue wasdefeated, CAMRA members have been urged to keep the pressure on to secure pubco reforms.

With 26 pubs being lost in the UK every week, CAMRA agrees a watchdog is needed to preventbig pub companies putting many individual publicans’ pubs under threat due to unfair practices.Go to www.pubscandal.org.uk to sign the petition.

WhatPubHopefully you noticed this issue’s cover featuring WhatPub, another great innovation fromCAMRA. This is an online guide to the nation’s pubs where all the information is provided bythousands of CAMRA volunteers. Go to http://whatpub.com and simply type a place name orpub and immediately get loads of information. If you’re a CAMRA member you can log in andsubmit beer scores for any pub that you’ve visited. Local CAMRA branches use this informationfor keeping abreast of developments in their patch and to make informed decisions about GoodBeer Guide selections. If you’ve got a smartphone you can do it before you’ve finished your pint!If you want to be part of CAMRA (and let’s face it – why wouldn’t you?) you can join online atwww.camra.org.uk. If you pay by direct debit, membership is £23 a year. One of the benefits isthat you’ll get £20 of Wetherspoons vouchers each year – so membership is almost free!

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I’ve struggled sometimes to find a suitable present for my husband David, so for his lastbirthday I decided to buy him a memorable experience involving beer. After some researchI found Nutbrook Brewery, just outside Derby, where Dean Richards and his team offerwhat they refer to as ‘The Brewing Experience’. This is a day spent designing and brewingyour own beer. The end result is 72 bottles with your self-designed label. For a small addi-tional charge guests can come along to the brew-day to watch.

We travelled to Derby on a wet and windy Thursday in January and stayed at a boutiqueB&B called Hayeswood Lodge, which is recommended by Nutbrook and didn’t disappoint.Nutbrook recommend that you tell them the type of beer you want to brew a few days inadvance; this enables them to ensure they have the necessary ingredients ready. David waskeen to have a beer which ‘tastes like a porter but is a better session beer’.

We arrived at Dean’s house at 8.30am with David ready to create his masterpiece. The firsthour or so was spent with Dean using a bespoke computer programme they have developedto enable anyone to make a unique beer. David and Dean agreed the porter idea but neededto lighten it to be more quaffable as a session beer. The name chosen was ‘Pitter Bitter’with an ABV of 3.7 %.

Dean took David through the process choosing his malts – base of Maris Otter Pale Ale witha smattering of Crystal, roasted barley and malted wheat. He then showed David the optionsfor hops. There is a choice of around ten, but you only select a couple. David chose Fuggle,a good bittering hop and I chose Progress, a spicier American one. Once the profile of PitterBitter was complete, Dean went through the heath and safety issues, printed off the brew-sheet and they went to work.

Dean runs the Brew Days from his home garage, which has been retro-fitted as a microbrewery. The envy of any home brewer! He has a full set-up from mash tun through tobrew tubs, with hot water on tap. David weighed out and created his malt brew in the mashtun first, which required some heavy lifting and weighing, plus a lot of stirring. It was thenleft for a period of time to mash.

The next stage was to drain the mash tun and sparge (or wash) the grain to ensure all thesugars went into the beer. The wort (the beer before it’s fermented) was heated to a rollingboil in the copper, which took about another half hour. Under Dean’s supervision, David

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“Give a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach aman to brew, and waste a lifetime!” Bill Owen

Brewer For a Day

then weighed his initial and secondary hops. Dean explained that there would be two lotsof hops added. The first would be left for over 90 minutes to add flavour, and the secondwould be added shortly before the brew was transferred to give the aroma.

During the first boil, we adjourned to a local pub for lunch nearby. Dean was very knowledgeable about beer and explained that he had shadowed a head brewer some yearsago after having mediocre results making home brew. From this initial exposure to the brewprocess, he and his son Chris had developed their beer range and moved into local stablesto increase production. We met Chris several times during the brew day as he was poppingin to drop off hops and malts. We were also taken down to see their main production brew-ery and sampled several of their range including Banter (a bitter) and a delicious porter calledBlack Beauty.

When we returned from lunch, the brew was nearly ready. David measured out the yeastand prepared a yeast starter using warm water. He then added the secondary hops, in a different proportion to the first batch. Once they had drained the wort from the copperinto the fermenting vessel, they added the yeast and folded it in. Dean explained that it wasvery important to make sure that the mix did not rise above 21°C. He had a heat exchangerto make sure that the temperature was correct.

The final part of the day was to clean everything that had been used. David was employedfor most of this task but I also helped in getting the grain out of the mash tun which wasgiven to the stables next to the brewery for cattle feed. The hops were removed from thecopper, destined for Dean’s garden. The beer was to be sent to us in about 4-6 weeks, afterthe fermentation and bottling.

David said that the best part was Dean’s enthusiasm and knowledge about beer making: theworst was having to wait to try your beer, but that’s the nature of brewing …. He felt thatit was a good practical experience of how beer is made, including cleaning out – ‘if you useit you clean it’. With all the barley and hop choices the recipe combinations are practicallyendless. In fact he couldn’t think of anything about the day that could be improved.

The Brew Day gives a novice or keen amateur the proper experience of designing and mak-ing their own beer with professional equipment, and offers a personalised and individual giftfor beer lovers everywhere.

Nutbrook Brewery Beer Experiencewww.nutbrookbrewery.comHayeswood Lodge Boutique Bed and Breakfast, Hayswood Lodge Farm, Common Lane Stanley Common,Ilkeston, DE7 6GG www.hayeswoodfarm.co.uk

Janet Humphrey

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Brewer for a Day - continued

Registering a Pub as anAsset Of Community ValueOne of CAMRA’s key campaigns is called List Your Local. It has a target to register 400 pubsas an Asset of Community Value (ACV) by the end of 2014. This process has been availableas legislation since the 2011 Localism Act. The campaign is progressing well: over 300 havealready been registered.

What is an ACV? It’s a piece of land or a building that has a special value for that communityor local area. For instance it could be a Methodist Church: one has already been registeredin the South Oxfordshire District Council (SODC) area. But if it’s a pub it should be onethat has a distinctive local value. To succeed in achieving registration it is more likely to beone of the last remaining of its type in its area. The following text is taken from a MinisterialForeword in the Government’s own guidance for local authorities on ACVs, which begins:“from local pubs and shops to village halls and community centres, the past decade has seenmany communities lose local amenities and buildings that are of great importance to them.”

Pubs represent the very essence of a community asset, providing a meeting place wheresocial networks are strengthened and extended and where people can mix with others fromdifferent backgrounds to their own. Pubs host a wide variety of community-orientated events and activities that add considerably to local civic life. As well as injecting an averageof £80,000 into their local economy each year, pubs play a key role in raising money for localcharities: it has been estimated that the average pub raises around £3000 a year.

The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) has used ‘Social Return on Investment’ method-ology to quantify the wider social value which pubs generate for their communities, andwhich cannot be captured in financial terms. These wider community benefits range fromthe amount of money the pub raises for charity to the reduced risk of social isolation throughopportunities for pub-goers to make new friends and strengthen community ties. The IPPR’sresearch found that each pub generates between £20,000 and £120,000 of wider socialvalue to their communities.

How can you list your local?First, visit the local council website (SODC or Vale of White Horse for most of us) and searchon “Assets of Community Value” or “Right to Bid”. The standard nomination form is ninepages long and is in Adobe Acrobat format. (If you can’t write or edit this programme formatyou can request a Microsoft Word version that is much easier to complete and amend.)

Parish councils can nominate any community asset, including pubs. Alternatively, groups ofindividuals can nominate their local pub in what is described as an Unincorporated Group:i.e. a group of at least 21 individuals in the pub’s catchment area who are on the Register ofelectors for your area district council. The council uses this to check that the names put for-ward are genuine.

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What features of your local should you list? There are plenty of examples on the CAMRAwebsite - here is just a few. Perhaps the pub is used for quizzes, or meetings of sports teams,community groups or charities. It may be the venue for darts, pool, Aunt Sally or dominoesteams. There may be regular music events at the pub and open-mic nights. Other relevantfactors which determine viability are the potential catchment area of the pub including howmany adults live in a one mile radius and whether the pub is in a well-visited or popular lo-cation, such as in a picturesque area or near a popular walking route. And has the pub beenin the CAMRA Good Beer Guide?

The process can take up to eight weeks to complete and if successful lasts for a period offive years. For any questions on nominating an ACV you can call the Government fundedLocality advice line on 0845 345 4564, or email the CAMRA Campaigns Team at cam-paigns@camra.org.uk.

What happens when you have registered your local pub? Well, nothing unless the ownerwishes to sell the property. In this case the Local Authority must be informed by the sellerand the local group (not necessarily the nominees) has six months to put together a Rightto Bid for the pub on the open market at the “going” rate.

A list of approved ACVs can be viewed on the SODC website. They include pubs, an allot-ment, a Post Office and a chapel. For the record, the SOX pubs are currently: the Perch &Pike, South Stoke; the FleurdeLys, Dorchester; the Sun Inn, Hill Bottom; the White Lion,Crays Pond; the Vine, Long Wittenham; the Bottle & Glass, Binfield Heath.

Chris Hill

ACV Information - continued

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Telephone David or Cristina on 01235 847446www.theswanfoodhouse.co.uk

or email reservations@theswanfoodhouse.co.uk

Modern British cooking

Authentic tapas and paellas

All produce cooked to order and sourcedas locally as possible

Large family garden with childrens outdoor play area

Real log fire • Three guest ales

Fresh FishFriday

Two fish maincourses and abottle of wine.

£26.00 (for two)

CAMRA’s organisation starts off at branchlevel, ours of course being South Oxford-shire. Each branch is part of a regionalgroup. SOX is one of 11 branches in theCentral Southern Region, covering Oxfordshire,Berkshire, and part of Buckinghamshire.Each January the CS Region runs a pubcrawl in central London. This is invariablywell-attended; typically 40-50 membersturn out. It’s not practical to herd such alarge number of people around in a singlegroup – particularly later in the day. So overalltarget times are set and it’s down to groupsor individuals to navigate themselvesaround.

The 2014 crawl was held in Bermondsey. Now, back in the stone-age when I was a lad growingup in south London, Bermondsey was always viewed as a lawless place where no one in theirright mind would venture during the day, let alone at night. Consequently, until now I’d neverset foot in the place. However, things change and Bermondsey has too. Like some other partsof London (such as Hoxton) where fear and terror once stalked the streets, fresh pasta and balsamic salad dressing now rule. Bermondsey is only a few minutes’ walk from Southwark andBorough Market, a regular hunting-ground for the Capital’s foodies. So the population is notice-ably young (late 20s to 30s) and reasonably prosperous-looking.

The pubs we visited are rather different from those found north of the River, in that they don’tgo in much for the extensive wood and glass. They also seem to feature craft beers quite a lot –presumably a reflection of the people that now live in the area.

The 2014 crawl was something of a departure from previous years in that it kicked off with abrewery visit. The Kernel Brewery [SE16 3SF, www.thekernelbrewery.com] is located in coupleof arches under a railway bridge. Given the comments above it’s no surprise to learn that it’snext door to an artisan butcher and that there’s a specialist chutney shop round the back. Thebrewery is open to the public on Saturdays from 9am to 3pm for carry-outs and drinking-in. It’sa fairly basic set-up with bench-seating at trestle tables and no heating. Which I suppose againfits in with the new Bermondsey. The beer isn’t exactly cheap: £2.50 for a half pint. However, itis top-weight stuff. There are several IPAs in the range of 5%-7% ABV. The Export India Porter

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Beers InBermondsey,January 2014

The Kernel Brewery

is very good at 6.5% ABV. And over all of them is the Imperial Brown Stout at 9.9% ABV. This isnot exactly a sensible way to start a lengthy pub crawl, but frankly is too good to pass by.

The first pub on the programme was the Shipwrights Arms [SE1 2TF, www.shipwrightsarms.co.uk].This is in the current Good Beer Guide, and is apparently a traditional locals’ pub with nauticaltheme and central island bar. I say apparently because some of the SOX group spent too muchtime sucking down Imperial Brown Stout in the Kernel Brewery and missed out this pub altogether. The beer selection is pretty mainstream, sono real regrets about that.

Next up was the Woolpack [SE1 3UB, www.woolpackbar.com]. Three handpumps here – I had Hackney Brewery’s American Pale Ale 4.5% ABV;ok but not great. Some of the more commonly-availableUS bottled beers are available, if you like that sort ofthing. Seating is on green leather benches in the formof open booths around a central bar.

The Rose [SE1 3ST, www.therosepublichouse.co.uk] is anew venture by the owners of the Woolpack, and sellsbeers from Red Squirrel on two handpumps and keg. Iplumped for Fubar at 4.4% ABV from Tiny Rebel. Thisis a pale hoppy beer, in the modern way: not bad but abit bland. (FUBAR is an acronym unsuitable for spellingout in a family publication.) There is also an interestingBritish bottled beer and cider list. The pub features a lotof dark wood panelling with a slight Victorian feel.Those on a budget should note that beer is priced atmore than £4 a pint.

Simon the Tanner, [SE1 4PR, www.simonthetanner.co.uk]is another Good Beer Guide pub. It’s a Grade II listed build-ing (mainly for the exterior) and has a more boozer-ish vibe.There are four handpumps, one of which is for cider. Theother three are for local microbrewery beers. Kernel beeris on keg and in bottles. There is a bottled beer list on thetables. I tried Trumans Emperor, 4.2% ABV. Trumans wasonce the archetypal London brewer. It was established in1666, swallowed up in the merger-mania of the 1980s andthen disappeared in 1989. It’s been resurrected in Hack-ney Wick and brews using the original yeast strain thathad been preserved in the National Collection. Emperor is a seasonal beer, apparentlyin the style of American Brown Ale – I never knew such a thing existed, but there you are. It’snot a bad drop – reddish and nutty. I also had Mighty Oak’s Maldon Gold, 3.8% ABV, and a pre-vious Champion Golden Ale in 2007.

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Beers in Bermondsey - continued

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Dean Swift [SE1 2NE, www.thedeanswift.com] has four handpumps for microbrewery beers,plus craft keg beers and a bottled selection featuring five London breweries, others from aroundthe UK, two Orchard Pig ciders and some Belgian German and US offerings. I tried the DeanSwift Pilsner, 4.2% ABV and brewed by the Swifty Brewing Company. It was certainly drinkable,but rather bland. Quite a nice pub – busy and friendly.

Finally, the Draft House [SE1 2UP www.thedrafthouse.co.uk]. Like the Dean Swift, this operates mainly in craft beer territory. There are microbrewery beers on handpump, craft kegbeers, British and foreign bottled selection. It’s a large pub just south of Tower Bridge, with acentral island seating area, seating around the perimeter and a separate dining area. I tried Sambrook’s Powerhouse Porter, 4.9% ABV, which was excellent. I tried some of the bottledbeers too, but my notes on this are illegible so sadly the record has been lost to history.

Overall then – quite a good area for a session. The Kernel Brewery is definitely worth a visit.The pubs are not classic London in the way they are over the River, but very pleasant drinkingvenues with a lot of different beers to try.

Paul Dixon

Beers in Bermondsey - continued

For the third year running the SOX Branch spent an Octoberweekend in Belgium. The 2013 visit kept away from the bigcities, instead opting for the rural delights of Poperinge. Thisarea is actually quite popular with Brits, partly because it’s soeasy to get there – just an hour’s drive from Calais. Poperinge is a very pleasant town, about the sizeof Wallingford. This area accounts for around 80% of the hops produced in Belgium, so it’s no surprisethat such an important crop features prominently around the town. The national hop museum is hereand at the end of October there’s a beer festival to celebrate the hop. Even the tourist trail aroundthe town is marked out with little brass plaques, embossed with a hop, let into the pavement.

The local brew is Hommelbier (hommel means hop in the West Flanders dialect) made by the VanEeke brewery in Watou (www.brouwerijvaneecke.be). This is a pale top-fermented beer at 7.5%ABV – the bottled beer seems noticeably hoppier than the draught. A very drinkable beer we drankmostly in the Cafe de la Paix in the town main square. Previous trips have been in cities and featureda relentless programme of visits to classic Belgian bars. This time the visit was dominated by two brewery visits.

The first was to De Plukker, just to the north-east of Poperinge (www.plukker.be). This is a micro-brewery that produces organic beers using only self-grown hops. Their beers are the pale Keikoppenbier (6.1% ABV), the brown ale Rookop (6.5% ABV) and the very limited-edition seasonalamber Single Green Hop (5.5% ABV). The De Plukker team is a very friendly crew and like a chat.The picture shows Graham Hards (SOX Membership Secretary), Paul Dixon (SOX Branch Secretary),Joris Cambie (hop grower), Richard Starkey (SOX Chairman) and Kris Langouche (brewer). The brew-ery shop is open on Saturdays from 2pm to 5pm, but if you want some carry-outs it’s probably bestto phone first to check the stock.

This is good advice with regards to the other brewery we visited – the leg-endary Westvleteren Trappist brewery at the Saint Sixtus abbey

(www.sintsixtus.be). The Westvleteren beers are world-famous, butproduction is severely limited and they can only be obtained directly from the brewery shop. The three beers are: Blond(5.8% ABV), 8 (8% ABV) and 12 (10.2% ABV). (Regular readersmay recall SOX member Ian King’s article about his delight onstumbling across a single bottle of 12 in a Brussels bar.) You canbuy crates of 24 bottles but must order by phone first. The system

is such that the same car can’t do more than one pick-up every 60days; neither will the phone system accept calls from the same phone

more than once in 60 days. If you’re lucky you can buy a couple of six-packs at the brewery shop – but we had to make two visits to achieve

this. However, you can drink it in the large cafe next to the shop – but be awarethat it does get very crowded. The picture shows a glass of the delicious 12, partly

consumed. Paul Dixon

22

Sox Visitto Belgium

the Bear at Home

The Bear at Home, High St, North Moreton. OX11 9AT

Tel: 01235 811311www.bear-at-home.co.uk

Patrick and Lucy invite you to visit us at this popular village pub in North Moreton. Dating from the 16th

Century, you can be sure of a warm welcome, a range ofgood quality ales and excellent food.

Opening Times Weekdays: 12 - 3pm lunchtimes, and 6pm -11pm in the evenings.

Saturday and Sunday: All day from 12 noon during the summer months.

To book, please phone Lucy on 01235 811311

North Moreton

South OxfordshireCAMRA

PUB OF THE YEAR

2013