PPPPPIIIIINNNNNTS WTS WTS WTS WTS WEEEEESSSSSTTTTTAward-winning newsletter of the Bristol & District Branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale

AWARD-WINNING

www.camrabristol.org.uk

CAMPAIGNFOR

REAL ALE

No. 73Spring2007

CAMPAIGNFOR

REAL ALE

WE knew that the Bristol Beer Festival had become a very popular event,but demand for tickets this year has proved to be truly incredible.

In total we could have sold over 12,000 tickets, which is three times asmany as we have available for the four sessions.

The main reason for this increasing demand appears to be word of mouthrecommendations and the fact that people who attend one year want to comeback the following year and bring their friends. Obviously we must be doingsomething right!

We appreciate that this massive demand means that many people have

Massive Demand for Beer Festival Ticketsbeen disappointed as they were not able to get tickets. However, we ask themto spare a thought for the volunteers who have had to put in a lot of theirown time to sort out all the administration required and deal with hugeamounts of queries.

Postal applications continued to be received weeks after all the ticketshad sold out. We therefore intend to investigate alternative channels forselling the tickets in future to avoid this, as the current method plainly meanslots of unnecessary paperwork and wasted time and postage.

Richard Brooks

Take a Walk on the Mild SideMake May MildMAY has once again been desig-nated Mild Month by the Campaignfor Real Ale. This annual event is acelebration of Mild, a beer style ap-plauded by those in the know butincreasingly difficult to find at the bar.

CAMRA’s 197 branches nation-wide will be taking part in Mild Monthand running events to promote Mildin May. This may include a crawlaround pubs in the local area that sellmild, promotion of mild at beer festi-vals, or persuading local pubs tostock mild and get drinkers to try apint.

CAMRA press officer Owen Mor-ris said: “The number of breweriesrediscovering the delights of mild ison the increase, but unfortunately itis still not widely available in pubs.Consumers who love and miss mild,or even those who are simply curiousto try it, should ask for it in their localpub. By letting licensees and brew-eries know that there is a demand forthis flavoursome dark beer we willsee it make a comeback at the bar.”

During the month of May, customers of the Star Inn in Bath (pictured above) should be able to quenchtheir thirsts with a refreshing pint of Mild, the delicious, dark, smooth beer made by the nearby AbbeyAles brewery, owners of this historic pub. Managing Director of Abbey Ales, Alan “Bad News” Morgan,is a keen supporter of CAMRA’s Mild celebration, and we trust he will support the cause this year bybrewing it once again. Hopefully, readers of Pints West will be able to find this – and a range of other tastymilds – across the region in the coming months.

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Local CAMRA web site : www.camrabristol.org.uk2

Hidden at the Cornubia

Pictured smiling behind the bar of the Cornubia on launch night are the new landlord Ross Nicol,landlady Karen Beesley, brewer Gary Lumbar and director Lizzie Perry. (Photo by Richard Brooks)

WHEN the last Pints West went to press, thefate of the historic Bristol real ale haven, theCornubia, looked grim. Fortunately, a day ortwo later we heard the very welcome newsthat this hard-to-find Redcliffe gem wasreopening under the ownership of the HiddenBrewery of Wiltshire – and the pub waspacked and buzzing on launch night of 1stDecember 2006.

Created by converting two Georgian townhouses, the Cornubia is small, tall, butbeautifully-formed, with an L-shaped bar onthe ground floor and function rooms above.Michael Woodhouse from the Hidden Brewerysays, “The Cornubia has a long and interestinghistory and we are extremely excited to bereopening it. Over the years, the Cornubia hasbuilt a very loyal following, and we are keen toreinstate the warm, welcoming atmosphere,add good food and, of course, offer a widevariety of quality real ales from breweriesacross the region. Historically, CAMRABristol has also been a strong supporter of thepub and we would like this relationship to bere-cultivated.”

The new owners intend that the Cornubiawill offer a range of food at the bar from both alunchtime and supper menu, which will uselocal and seasonal ingredients where possible.The first-floor dining facilities will also be re-opened for private and business lunches.

Michael continues: “We are really lookingforward to welcoming people back into theCornubia and rebuilding its watering-holereputation for excellent real ales. We intend toput Hidden Pint on the bar as the session beerand rotate the other pumps between our ownrange and those of other microbreweries in theregion. We want our drinkers to help us selectthe beers and ciders that they are mostpassionate about. We will be keeping as much

of the original character of the building and itsinteriors as possible.”

The Hidden Brewery was founded byGary Lumber and Michael Woodhouse andfocuses on creating premium real ale usingtraditional production methods at its base inDinton, Wiltshire. The list of their award-winning beers is growing and includes Bath’s

Champion Beer of Festival 2006 for HiddenPotential, and Hidden Fantasy with threerecent festival ‘bests’.

The most recent addition to the list isHidden Strength, a copper coloured sessionbeer, full in taste but light in alcohol content at3.4% ABV. Gary comments: “Hidden Strengthis the Hidden Brewery’s lowest alcohol beerand was created so that real ale drinkers whoprefer to avoid high alcohol percentages can doso without losing out on taste. We named thebrew Hidden Strength to indicate the greatdepth and complexity of flavour and drawattention to the alcohol content at the sametime. It is great fun making, testing and tastingnew recipes and we always use qualityingredients and traditional brewing techniquesto make only premium real ale.”

The Cornubia is the second pub forHidden (the other is the Bell Inn at Wylye,Wiltshire). Formerly the executive suite andbrewery tap for Courage Bristol Brewery, andmost recently run by Smiles, the Cornubia istucked away between the old brewery site andoffices. A brisk ten-minute walk from TempleMeads or the Centre, it has several otherhistoric real-ale gems as near neighbours,including the Bridge and the King’s Head.

Whilst the Cornubia is almost as ‘hidden’in the Redcliffe area of Bristol as the HiddenBrewery is in the country lanes of Wiltshire, itand its neighbouring watering holes are wellworth seeking out.

Lesly Huxley

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National CAMRA web site : www.camra.org.uk 3

Called to Assembly

A BEDMINSTER pub has reopened after being boarded up for overtwo and a half years. The Fussells (previously the Nelson) pub on EastStreet has opened as the Assembly following an £800,000 revamp bythe Barracuda Group as one of its ‘Smith & Jones’ pubs.

The Assembly opened on 30th November, and was packed. Thislarge, long-roomed pub has an area to suit most people, with comfysofas around the fireplace, raised seating along the right-hand sideopposite the long wooden bar that occupies the centre of the left wall,

and a large area of seating towards the rear. It can seat 200 in thecomfortable padded-leather seats, and offers a wide range of food fromsnacks to main course meals.

Opening night offered Wye Valley Bitter, St Austell Tribute,Courage Best and Bass which the manager, Ian Newbold, said he willkeep on for several months to see how they sell. We spoke to Ian againin January, and he said sales of real ale were doing so well that he ishaving another six-barrel stillage delivered that will double his capacityto settle beers and prevent lines running out.

Ian is passionate about his real ales and previously ran the GoodBeer Guide-listed pub Restoration in Cheltenham, and says his goal is toget the Assembly listed as well. The beers have been in excellentcondition every time we visited over the past two months, and is one ofthe reasons why this pub continues to grow in popularity.

The pub opens from 11 a.m. to 12 midnight.It is great to see another pub selling well-kept real ale in Bedminster,

and this one brings a touch of classiness, as well as a new choice of ale tothe area.

Colin & Pennie Postlethwaite

BARRY and Angie took over the running of the Wadworth-ownedRobin Hood on St Michael’s Hill, Bristol in December 2006.

On a recent visit I was surprised to find a mild on draught brewedby the Pint Size brewery and very good it was too, being full of flavourfor a 3.3% beer.

The Pint Size brewery is a 2.5 barrel plant owned by Wadworthwho use it to try out more experimental beers, speciality beers and thiscask mild. Let’s hope that they brew this mild on a permanent basis. Iknow that Barry is keen to keep this mild as a permanent beer alongsidehis other three beers, Wadworth 6X, Henry’s IPA and Bishop’s Tipple.

On the occasion of my visit Old Father Timer, a winter seasonalfrom Wadworth, was also available and Barry intends to continue with aseasonal from Wadworth as and when they are available.

Barry is going to introduce live music: on Sunday afternoons thiswill be Jazz, Monday will be an open mic night, and on Saturday nightsthere will either be a band or a reggae DJ.

Home-made food, including planned Caribbean food and vegetarianoptions, is served from 12 to 8pm Monday to Saturday and a Sundayroast is served 12 to 6pm. Take-away food is also available to pre-order. The pub is open 12 to 11pm seven days a week.

Dave Jane

A promising start by the newlandlord of the Robin Hood

Photo by Duncan Shine

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Local CAMRA web site : www.camrabristol.org.uk4

Beer festival round-upCadbury Heath

Stuart Carrow of the Cadbury Heath SocialClub is staging his second beer festival from15th to 19th May, and is hoping it will be assuccessful as his last. There should be beersfrom Bath Ales, Newman’s, Wickwar,Courage, Bristol Beer Factory and others.

There will be entertainment on the lastnight with the Raggle Taggle folk band withwhom Stuart plays. There will be food such aspasties and cheeses, and this year it’s in aprivate function room which will be decoratedin a “West Country fashion” (that’s Stuart’sold theatrical background influence, havingbeen in musical theatre for 20 years).

Entrance is £3, which can be paid on thedoor, or tickets can be ordered in advance bywriting to the club or calling 0117 9613526 or07859 310072.

HorfieldAre they trying to compete with the

Bristol Beer Festival in terms of the number ofbeers and ciders? The Inn On The Green inFilton Road, Horfield is hosting a festival onSunday 12th April from noon onwardsfeaturing no less than 60 real ales and 20ciders! This fund-raising event, supportinglocal charities, will include entertainment withtwo live bands and a barbecue. Should be agreat day out.

Dawkins TavernsEach of the pubs in Glen Dawkins’ estate

of three (know as Dawkins Taverns) will beholding beer festivals in the coming months.

First up is the Hillgrove in Dove Street,Kingsdown, which will be having an “IrishReal Ale Festival” over the weekend ofSaturday 17th (St Patrick’s day) to Monday19th March. This is expected to feature 18rare cask ales from five Irish brewers.

Our own St George is not forgotten, withthe Victoria in Southleigh Road, Cliftonhaving a weekend beer festival from Saturday21st to Monday 23rd April.

Last but not least, the Miners Arms inMina Road, St Werburghs will be holding a“Summer Beerfest” sometime in August –exact details yet to be finalised.

These three pubs are great places for realales at any time, let alone when they areholding beer festivals.

Central BristolThe Old Fish Market in Baldwin Street, a

Fuller’s pub, is due to hold its first annual beerfestival from March 17th to 25th.

There will be around 20 cask-conditionedales available over the week, including FestivalMild, Caledonian Six Nations, TheakstonCooper’s Butt, Butcombe Brunel IPA, BlackSheep Emmerdale and Everards Pitch Black.

The White Lion, located on Bristol CityCentre, recently had a five-week-long “WinterAles Showcase”, with over 30 special winterales available through that period. As afollow-up to that, landlord Les Clayton setabout organising the next event dubbed“Bristol’s smallest beer festival”. This wasscheduled to run from Friday 23rd Februaryuntil the Sunday – still in the future as I writethis, but over by the time you read it.

KeynshamJemma Walsh of the Bristol Beer Factory

is organising Keynsham Rugby Club’ssecond beer festival.

They will again be selling Beer Factorybeers plus several others from local breweriesincluding Newman’s, Keynsham, RCH and

White Lion landlord Les Clayton doing a qualityaudit of something dark

Rich

ard

Broo

ks

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National CAMRA web site : www.camra.org.uk 5

Bath Ales, to name but a few.The event will be held on Saturday 26th

May at Keynsham Rugby Club, Bristol Road,Keynsham, between 12 noon and 8pm. Jemmasays: “Entry is a fiver again with a free drink.”

HotwellsContinuing the now well-established

tradition, the Bag O’Nails in Hotwells will beholding another of its popular twice-yearlybeer festivals. The next one is due to take placein April, from Thursday 19th to Sunday 22ndinclusive.

As in previous years, the pub will beoffering forty or more different real ales fromall over the country. The pub is not exactlyhuge, so not all beers can be on at the sametime. However, if you popped along on allfour days you should get the chance to samplea good proportion of them (or all if you havethe stamina).

The pub should be open all day from noonover the period. Lovers of dark beers havenever been disappointed at the Bag O’Nailsfestivals as a good number of stouts, porters ormilds always feature.

Rodborough, StroudEaster 2007 will see the second “Local

Real Ale Festival” return to the Bear ofRodborough, set in 300 acres of NationalTrust land, high above Stroud on the wilds ofRodborouh Common. (The first one justmissed getting a mention in last year’s PintsWest.)

From April 7th to April 9th, this eventwill give you the chance to sample 30 local realales, traditional ciders and English wines – allfrom Gloucestershire and surrounding coun-ties. Starting at noon each day, the entranceprice is £5 and includes a souvenir tankard, afestival guide and your first half-pint.

Entertainment will include the Roy KirbyJazz Band, Crimson Flight, and DrunkenBrewers from the local Uley Beer Company.There will also be entertainment from the localmorris dancers and a bouncy castle for thechildren.

Food will include stalls from the localfarmers’ market, a barbecue, and bar food inthe hotel all day.

There is a special festival weekend package– stay three nights for the price of two fromApril 6th to 9th for just £55 per person pernight. Based on two people sharing a standarddouble/twin bedroom, this package includesentrance to the festival each day, dinner andfull English breakfast. The only extra is yourbeer money!

For more information on the hotel and thefestival, including the beer list with tastingnotes, have a look at their web site atwww.cotswold-inns-hotels.co.uk/bear.

ChippenhamThe Chippenham Beer Festival, like our

own in Bristol, is an annual event organised bya branch of CAMRA and is well worth makingthe effort to get to, with over 80 real ales,ciders and perries to tempt you.

This year’s event takes place on April27th and 28th at theOlympiad, only fiveminutes’ walk from thetrain station.

If you missed outon Bristol’s, why notgive this one a go?

BathPaul Waters is

holding a mini CornishBeer Festival at theStar in Bath on 5March, St Piran’s Day.St Piran is the patronsaint of Cornwall.

BittonOrganised by the

Avon Valley Railway,the fourth annualBitton Beer Festivaltakes place from Friday8th to Sunday 10thJune. You should beable to enjoy a pleasantweekend supping finereal ales in the nostalgicsurroundings of the1860s heritage railwaystation, taking theopportunity to view

2nd Annual Beer FestivalCadbury Heath Social Club

Cadbury Heath Road,Warmley, Bristol BS30 8BX

15th-19th MayTuesday - Friday 7pm - 11.30pm

Saturday 12noon - 11.45pmOver 25 real ales and ciders

with special guest“Wines of the World”

Food availiable:West Country pasties and fine fayre

Entertainment Saturday 19thwith The Raggle Taggles

Entrance £3For more information please call

0117 9613526 (club)or 07859 310072 (mobile)

CHIPPENHAM

BEER FESTIVALApril 27th & 28th 2007Studio Hall, Olympiad, ChippenhamFriday: 6-11pm (£4.50)Saturday: 11 – 3.30 (£3) & 7–11 (£4)

! Admission to evening sessions by advance ticket only! Over 80 real ales, ciders & perries! Foreign bottled beers on sale! Only 5 minutes from railway & bus stations! £2 of free beer tokens to CAMRA members

(join at festival and benefit!)! Live music at all sessionsTickets available mid-March from Olympiad, or from

CAMRA NWW, PO Box 2882, Chippenham SN14 6WT.Cheques payable to “CAMRA North West Wiltshire” –

please enclose SAE.Organised by the North West Wiltshire Branch of CAMRA

www.nwwiltscamra.org.uk

and ride on their steam and diesel locomotivesin their natural home on the rails.

Check out their web site atwww.avonvalleyrailway.org (following the“events” and “real ale festival” links) for moreinformation.

SP

Springtime in ClevedonFollowing its inclusion in the latest Good

Beer Guide, the Old Inn on Walton Road,Clevedon is showing its commitment to real aleby hosting a Springtime beer festival.

It’s the first time the pub has held such anevent, which will be spread over the weekendof Friday 30th and Saturday 31st of March andSunday 1st April.

The pub is gaining a reputation for servingconsistently good quality beer and landladyLesley Butler hopes to have twenty differentales on offer, plus cider, and local breweriesshould be well supported.

Pete Dommett

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Local CAMRA web site : www.camrabristol.org.uk6

Each year CAMRA promotes Mildthroughout the month of May, andthis year will celebrate NationalMild Day on Saturday 5th May.

Mild is one of the most traditionalbeer styles and is starting to enjoysomething of a revival in today’s realale market, often tempting lagerdrinkers to taste real ales. Usuallydark brown in colour, due to the use ofwell-roasted malts, it is less hopped(and less bitter) than normal bitterbeers, and often has a chocolatety

character with nutty and burnt flavours.Cask-conditioned mild is a rarity in

some parts of the country, includingthe Bristol, Bath and Weston-super-Mare areas, which is a crying shamebecause mild is a distinctive and tastybeer. Ask your licensee if they aregoing to give you a chance to taste amild in May.

Mild is one of, if not the oldest beerstyle in the country. Until the 15thcentury, ale and mead were the majorBritish brews, both made without hops.Hops were introduced from Holland,

Try a Mild in MayFrance and Germany after this time, whichmade our ales more bitter than previously,and they became known by the modifiedcontinental name of “beer”. This alsostarted the trend of reducing the gravityor strength of ale, as the hop is also apreservative, and ales had previouslybeen brewed very strong to help preservethem. The hop also started the rapiddecline of mead, which is only made invery few places today.

So what exaqctly is mild? It is an alewhich has tastes and textures all its ownand is less bitter than “bitter” beers. Thedarkness of dark milds, such as Wickwar’sPenny Black, Brain’s Dark and GreeneKing XX Mild, comes from the use ofdarker malts and/or roasted barley that areused to compensate for the loss of hopcharacter. “Chocolate”, “fruity”, “nutty”and “burnt” are all tastes to be found inthe complexity of milds. However, not allmilds are dark. Banks’s Original,Webster’s Green Label and Yorkshire-brewed Timothy Taylor’s Golden Best aresome of the examples of light colouredmilds. Some milds have changed theirnames from “Mild” to try to give them amore modern image. In Scotland, 60/- ale issimilar to mild (Belhaven’s being a goodexample).

Milds today tend to have an ABV(alcohol by volume) in the 3% to 3.5%range, with of course some notableexceptions (a popular example is the 6%Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby). In fact, a lot ofthe micro-breweries who try their hand atmild are bringing the alcohol content backup somewhat! Mild wasn’t always weakerthough. In the latter half of the 19thcentury, milds were brewed to about thesame strength as bitters as a response tothe demand for a sweeter beer from theworking classes, and in those days mostbitters were around 6% to 7% ABV.

During the First World War, maltrationing and pressure from the temper-ance movement led brewers to rapidlyreduced the strength. Following theSecond World War, as prosperity re-turned, mild’s popularity as a cheap alebegan to fade, not being helped by beingkept badly in run-down pubs as the “bigbrewers” began to heavily promote theirkeg bitter and lager brands. Coupled tothis was a gradual but steady decline inheavy industry in the North and Midlandsof Britain, mild’s great marketplace.

By the 1970s, the keg lager boom hadseen mild’s share of the market fall toaround 13% and it was a shame to see abland, gassy and overpriced product –lager, which was generally weaker thanthe mild it was trying to oust – succeed inmany cases. So lager drinkers (and therest of you) ... try a mild in May?

Laurie Gibney

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National CAMRA web site : www.camra.org.uk 7

MAY is CAMRA’s month for promoting Mild ales, where we encour-age as many local pubs as possible to stock a Mild Ale. This style of alehas seen a steady increase in popularity in Bristol over the last couple ofyears, with several pubs now stocking one as a regular.

We want to promote those pubs that will be putting on a Mildduring the month of May, by publishing a list of availability on ourwebsite at www.camrabristol.org.uk and planning pub crawls.

So far we know of four pubs that regularly stock mild. In Bristol,the Ship, Lower Park Row has Theakston’s Mild; the CommercialRooms, Corn street has changing dark milds; the Robin Hood, StMichael’s Hill has Pint Size Brewery Mild (from Wadworth); and inClapton in Gordano the Black Horse has Webster’s Green Label (a lightmild).

We need to know what the landlords of your locals are planning forMay, and what dates they would expect the mild to be available.

Please email your pub’s mild plans tobadrag@camrabristol.org.uk, including pub name and location,dates mild available and what milds they will be (if known).

Promotional literature is also available for your pub landlord throughCAMRA head office by writing to:

CAMRA Admin. Dept.230 Hatfield Road,St.Albans, Herts, AL1 4LW.Tel: 01727 867 201 Email: camra@camra.org.uk

Colin Postlethwaite

. . . or STOUT or MILD or OLD ALE. These beer styles have almostdisappeared from our pubs, and along with barley wine and weak bittersare classed as “RARE”.

These rare ale styles are sought out by lovers of that style and thosewho like to try something different, as can be seen at beer festivalswhere these ales are often among the first to run out.

We are setting up a list of pubs in the Bristol & District area whereyou can find these ales, and we need your help to let us know what isout there. This list will then be accessible through the CAMRA websiteat www.camrabristol.org.uk where it will be kept up-to-date.

The info we need is: pub name, location, name of beer (and brewer),date spotted, and whether this is a regularly available or an occasional orguest ale.

For example: “The Ship”, “Lower Park Row, Bristol”,“Theakston’s Mild and Theakston’s Old Peculier”, “14/01/2007”,“Both are regulars.”

Please email details to badrag@camrabristol.org.uk or sendthem by post to:Rare Ales List, c/o Pints West editor, Garden Flat, 6 Royal YorkVillas, Clifton, Bristol BS8 4JRor bring them along to any CAMRA branch meeting.

Colin Postlethwaite

GO WILD FOR MILD IN MAY TELL ME WHERE I CANBUY A PINT OF PORTER . . .

THE SHIP in Lower Park Row is a good place to sample a nicedrop of that elusive beer known as Mild.

The pub is within sight of Zerodegrees, the microbrewery, bar& restaurant which opened a few years ago in a blaze of public-ity, overshadowing its nearby older cousin a little.

Tony Kirk, the licensee of the Ship told Pints West that onApril 10th the pub will close for a month to enable major renova-tion and improvements to take place. Unfortunately therefore thepub, which until recently has been the only pub in Bristoloffering a mild regularly, will be closed for part of Mild Month2007 and on National Mild Day on Saturday 5th May.

The Ship, is owned by Enterprise Inns which is Britain’sbiggest pub group, and comprises three properties rising up afairly steep hill, thus has numerous changes in floor level. Someof the changes in level are being alleviated, an improved foodcounter will help them compete with their nearby cousin, and thenumber of hand pumps and lines is being increased from six totwelve to enable the number of real ales on offer at any time to beincreased and maybe to provide some real ciders. The renova-tions are taking full account of the unique character of thisexceptional pub, and two blocked up fireplaces are being re-stored. It is planned to provide a smoking shelter in the smallyard at the rear of the pub.

Theakston’s Mild, Old Peculier and XB, as well as Wells &Young’s Bombadier and Greene King Old Speckled Hen, arecurrently the resident ales and the sixth pump is home to achanging guest ale which on a recent visit was Timothy TaylorLandlord. The Ship hosted a CAMRA meeting on Sunday 14thJanuary which laid the foundations for the formation of a groupwithin the local branch to campaign for pubs to widen their realale range and include some rare ales, the new group is due to beofficially launched at the Bristol Beer Festival in March.

Laurie Gibney

National Mild Day – MildAles Trail pub crawlSaturday 5th May is National Mild Day.

To celebrate this CAMRA will be organizing a pub crawl in thecentral area of Bristol visiting the pubs that will be featuring mild ales.

You are welcome to join us at any point in the crawl which isintended to start at the Victoria in Southleigh Road, off St Paul’s Road,Clifton, at midday. Proceeding downhill we will call at several pubs yetto be finalized before visiting the White Lion on the Centre, theCommercial Rooms in Corn Street, the Old Fish Market in BaldwinStreet, and finishing at the Cornubia, Temple Street in the earlyevening. Final details will be available at the end of April on theCAMRA web site (www.camrabristol.org.uk). Alternatively, send astamped, addressed envelope to 33, Stanbury Avenue, Fishponds,Bristol BS16 5AL and you will receive a copy of the itinerary.

Henry Davies

Photo by Duncan Shine

Ship Shape andBristol Fashion!

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Local CAMRA web site : www.camrabristol.org.uk8

The Annexe InnSeymour Road, Bishopston, Bristol

Tel. 0117 9493931

Enjoy a Warm Welcomeand a Pleasant Atmosphere

A Real Ale Pub!!!!! 6 Real Ales!!!!! Large conservatory (available for private hire)!!!!! Family room (including baby changing facilities)!!!!! Enclosed garden open throughout the year!!!!! Disabled access!!!!! Lunchtime and early evening snacks - including children’s menu -!!!!! Pool table!!!!! All TV sports events covered!!!!! Relaxed, friendly atmosphere

Open Lunchtimes & EveningsAll day Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holidays

Monday Night is Quiz NightYou can also enjoy various promotions

and special offers during the year

MANY readers will know that the EastAnglian brewer Greene King bought Hardy’s& Hanson’s brewery in Nottinghamshire lastyear. They made no bones about theirintentions, which were to shut the breweryand keep the pubs – and this was accom-plished by Christmas 2006.

This sadly predictable outcome is just thelatest in a series of acquisitions and closures ofsmaller local and regional brewers by biggerones that has been going on for decades, if notcenturies. What has changed in recent years isthat two brewers who were not multinationalsalready, but who had pub estates coveringlarge parts of the UK, have become dominantin such takeovers. These two have made nosecret of their aspiration to grow into nationalor multinational companies. Their names?Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries – whorecently renamed themselves Marston’sbecause one of the brands they acquired bytakeover was more popular than theirs – andGreene King.

The problem about all this for people whoenjoy the taste of beer is that much of thediversity and interest, not to mention historyand local heritage of brewing, is being lost. Theacquiring company typically discontinues allthe brands it has acquired – Marston’s being a

shining exception to this rule – and substitutesits own product range in the pubs it hasbought. Being brewed for a mass audience, andusually widely advertised, these are necessar-ily bland and standardised by comparison withwhat they have replaced. Thanks to GreeneKing’s (GK’s) efforts in particular, many long-established and locally popular brands havedisappeared in only a few years. Names suchas Ridley’s of Chelmsford, and now Hardy’s& Hanson’s, are only the latest in a string oflosses.

The loss of Kimberley Ales (the nameused by Hardy’s & Hanson’s and theircustomers for their products, which werebrewed in the small town of Kimberley nearNottingham) is especially poignant for me, as Igrew up in their trading area. My earliestexperiences of bitter and mild drinkinginvolved their products, and I have remainedparticularly fond of them to this day. Theywere far more palatable to me than their rivalsShipstone’s and Home Ales, both of whomalso brewed a bitter and a mild, although thesehave now sadly disappeared through takeoverand brewery closure.

This loss of good quality, popularproducts is bad enough, but there might besome compensation if the alternatives thatcompanies such as Greene King and Marston’soffer were themselves tasty and distinctive.Sadly, in my opinion at least, most of them are

not. Greene King havebeen known to brewsome interesting ales – apremium bitter known asTriumph was particu-larly good in the late1990s, but personally Ihave not seen it forseveral years – and theirXX Mild is a verypleasant dark-colouredale brewed to a lowgravity. Will these beoffered in KimberleyAles’ former pubs? IfGK’s performance inthe pubs they haveacquired around Bristolin recent years isanything to go by, thebest we can expect istheir IPA (to my tastean uninspired andinsipid drink, and animpostor – IPAs orIndia Pale Ales wereoriginally brewed verystrong and hoppy tosurvive the sea voyageto India, and 3.6%ABV does not qualify)and Abbot Ale, whichdespite its goodreputation 30 years or

Greene King and Marston’s cut realale choice so ago is no longer worth seeking out, in my

view.Taken in conjunction with the recent news

that pubs owned by companies in the Marstongroup will no longer be allowed to sell “guestbeers” (i.e. those brewed by other companiesand chosen by the licensee to suit the prefer-ences of local customers), this all looks like arenewed effort on the part of suppliers to tellthe customer what we are allowed to have. It isreminiscent of what the “Big Six” nationalbrewing companies tried in the 1960s and1970s, and that led to the formation ofCAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, thebiggest and most successful consumer groupthe UK has seen.

The newly renamed Marston’s companyhas at least retained brands of companies ittook over, and whose breweries it shut, suchas Mansfield bitter and mild. The maincomplaint about them for us in Bristol is thatwe hear they have withdrawn from many oftheir licensees the choice to offer somethingbrewed locally, alongside their main productrange which is brought in from the Midlands.

If you agree with any of the sentimentsexpressed above about the loss of choice andthe blandness of what suppliers offer in placeof distinctiveness and diversity, you don’thave to give your money to the companies thatdo these things. Vote with your feet! Chooselocally brewed and other distinctive products,drink where they can be found, and do pleaselet the offending suppliers know what you aredoing and why. If you want to lend yoursupport to a movement that opposes thesetrends, and perhaps to meet other people whofeel the same way, you can join CAMRA –there is a membership application formsomewhere in this publication. We lookforward to hearing from you.

Norman Spalding

Real Ales:6X

Henry’s IPABishop’s Tipple

Wadworth seasonalsLovely Bass

Beautiful Butcombe

Public House, Barrow Gurney

Give us a try

Good honest home-cooked foodMonday to Friday lunchtimes

Dave & Kate DinhamPrince’s Motto, Barrow Street,Barrow Gurney 01275 472282

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ON Saturday morning of the 25thNovember, passports at the ready, wecaught the train to Cardiff to experienceour first visit to a Welsh beer festival.

Arriving at Cardiff Central station wemake our way through crowds ofshoppers and rugby supporters past theMillenium Stadium where Wales areplaying New Zealand in six hours time.We head down the high street towardsCardiff Castle, past the Good BeerGuide-litsed pub, the Goat Major, andthen head towards the city hall where thefestival is being held. The tall clock towerof the city hall is clearly visible on top ofone of the white stone Victorianbuildings that form the civic area ofCardiff.

The festival is housed over twofloors of this ornately decorated building,with over 150 beers, 40 ciders andperries, and a large range of Germandraught and bottled beers. It is a greatopportunity to taste beers from Welshbrewers, with over 24 represented fromsmall brew-pubs like Black Mountainbrewery, just started recently at theTelegraph Inn in Llangadog,Carmarthenshire, to this year’s festivalsponsors and Wales’ largest brewery, thefamily-owned Brains.

We soon get stuck into the hard work of sampling our way throughthe range, accompanied by faint snatches from the Welsh male voice

The Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festivalchoir. About 20 beers have already runout, but beers of interest were the 3.6%Dark Mild from Wigan’s Rosebridgebrewery that was so smokey that itmight have been brewed on a barbecue;the Wye Valley Brewery’s DorothyGoodbody’s Wholesome Stout, a 4.6%rich creamy stout with a dry roastflavour; and my favourite today, anexcellent pale amber beer from theBryncelyn brew-plant housed in thecellar of the Wern Fawr pub inYstalyfera, Swansea, called HollyHops: it was a hoppy and fruity beeroverflowing with flavour and only3.8%.

The Champion Beer of Walescompetition was won by OtleyBrewery of Pontypridd with O8, an8.0% winter ale. Second was BrainsDark a 3.5% Mild, and third wasOtley’s OG a 5.4% Golden colouredale. Regrettably all these beers weresold out, as were many of the strongerales, and when we left at 3pm it lookedlike about half the beers had run out.Despite this, it was still a good festivalwith a large selection of beers to try,many from new breweries that haveonly opened in the past 12 months.

The venue’s ambience was friendly and the traditional Cornish pastywas the size of a dinner plate. We caught the train home in time towatch the Rugby on the TV (Wales 10 : 45 New Zealand).

Colin & Pennie Postlethwaite

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Watering Holes in the Desertnews from Weston-super-Mare

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Weston Whispers (pub and beer news)

Only 302 miles to gofor our beer now

LOCAL CAMRA members were bitterlydisappointed to hear that Gary Havardwas leaving the Raglan Arms on UpperChurch Road.

Over the three years that Gary had been incharge, he had taken “The Rag” from being areal ale non-entity to proudly appearing in thelast two editions of the Good Beer Guide.

The leaving party for Gary and Jo went ona bit, with the last revellers getting out justbefore daybreak (and we are talking Januaryhere). The pub was then closed for threeweeks, with a hopeful sign in the windowsaying that it would be re-opening under newmanagement on 1st February with “real ales…..back with a vengeance.”

The re-opening did indeed happen andover the first weekend Sharp’s Doom Bar andRCH Pitchfork and East Street Cream were onoffer. Fingers crossed that the new manage-ment will still be looking to attract discerningreal ale drinkers.

In the last Pints West we mentioned thatthe Ancaster on Drove Road was about to re-open. Local CAMRA members had beenkeeping an eye out for the big day, whichoccurred on Friday 1st December.

The pub has been taken over by RaySparks, who also owns also the RoyalArtillery in West Huntspill. As part ofbreaking with the past, when the Ancaster didnot always have a good reputation, it has beenre-named as the Oak House. The great newsfor Weston’s real ale drinkers is that Ray hasclose connections with the local award-winningRCH brewery and all his ales will come fromthere, as well as some of their equally finebottled range of beers. Several CAMRAmembers had the pleasure of seeing in the NewYear sipping RCH’s Santa Fe, although givenits strength I am not sure how much theycould actually see at midnight.

The Oak House should be a very welcomedevelopment for the local ale scene. On my

last visit, Pitchfork, Santa Fe and Steaming Icewere all available.

Come and decide for yourself at our socialon Wednesday 21st March.

Another positive change of managementhas taken place at the Red Admiral onAlexandra Parade, opposite Tesco. After aperiod of closure, behind depressing steelshutters, it has now re-opened with a manage-ment team of John Bowles and Rob Button,both CAMRA members – Rob also being aguitar maker. Not surprisingly, they are keento put real ale at the forefront of the business.At present they are selling Butcombe Bitter atan attractive £2 a pint and a changing guestbeer.

The pub is owned by Admiral Taverns andthe list of beers from which they can choosetheir guest ales from is small. However, goodquality Timothy Taylor Landlord, AdnamsBroadside, Wychwood Hobgoblin and othershave been enjoyed by their new customers.John reports that they are trying to getAdmiral to join the Society of IndependentBrewers scheme which would allow them tosource a wider range of ales – in particularmore local ones. The main aim for now is tobuild up trade to support the addition of athird ale. Another pub worthy of yoursupport if you enjoy real ale. The localCAMRA branch will be visiting for our Aprilsocial on Wednesday the 18th, but don’t waitfor that – get along now!

Good news from Mike Fletcher of WestonCricket Club on Devonshire Road. A beerfestival is to take place over the weekend ofthe 24th and 25th of March. On the Saturday,proceedings will begin at 12 noon. From thenthrough to 6pm there will be exhibition cricketmatches played by the clubs youth teams.Food will also be available.

Admission will be free throughout the twodays, with the exception being from 8pm until

midnight on the Saturday evening, when therewill be a live band and disco. Admission tothis will cost £5 for two people.

On Sunday, the festival will run from 12noon until 5pm. Pre-booked Sunday luncheswill be available. There will also be sponsoredhead shavings going on from 12 till 2 and liverugby between Bristol and Northampton onthe big screen from 3pm.

There will be ten real ales available –including Pitchfork and East Street Cream fromRCH brewery.

The Parish Pump in Worle has beenselling a very nice pint of Gales (or ratherFuller’s) HSB, along with Wadworth 6X andCourage Best.

The local branch of the Licensed Victual-lers Association in conjunction with ArchersBrewery has organised a one-day (or rather aone-afternoon) mini-beer festival at the 49Club on Baker Street.

This will be held on Monday 2nd April,running from 1pm to 7pm. There will be sixArchers beers on offer for the incredible priceof 80p a pint. CAMRA members are welcomeas guests of the club.

If you are not a member of CAMRA orthe 49 Club, I suggest that you do some-thing about it now, as you will quickly getan excellent deal for your money.

You can’t keep a good woman down – norDi Bradley landlady of the Night Jar. Thelatest appearance of the Mead Vale pub in thelocal press concerned six people beingconfirmed by the Right Reverend RogerSainsbury during one of the regular monthlyservices held there. Everyone apparentlycelebrated with a pint.

Shortly after my glowing comments in thelast edition of Pints West, Steve and Rose leftthe Ebdon Arms in Worle. They have takenover at the Butcombe-owned Swan atRowberrow.

The Swan has been a Good Beer Guideregular in recent years and I am sure that Stevewill deliver beer of the high standard that thelocals have come to expect at the Swan.

Back at the Ebdon Arms, the new manage-ment are still putting a strong emphasis on realales, with at least seven ales usually available.The ales now seem to be fairly rigidly sourcedfrom the Wolverhampton & Dudley-approvedrange, so the local RCH beers that had provedpopular (not to mention Steve’s occasionalwhims like running a Welsh micro-brewery

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mini-festival) are likely to be a thing of thepast. Indeed some of the beers are brewed atthe Jennings brewery site in Cockermouth,Cumbria.

So now instead of beers being sold thathave travelled two miles to get to the pub,they will now travel 302 miles. It’s calledcaring for the environment. Almost makesyou look forward to the oil running out.

And finally …… on the branch’s WorleCrawl in January, our resident “King of theSnuff”, Robin E Wild, met a soulmate in theguise of the landlord of the Lamb on WorleHigh Street. Robin came away armed with awide array of new varieties to try. Severalother CAMRA members have been seen to“have a sniff” recently and Robin has alreadyweaned one person off tobacco and on tosnuff.

Could snuff-taking replace smoking whenthe ban comes into force? If so, Robin will bewell-placed to provide an expert consultancyservice.

Further snuff news in A Round With Robin.Tim Nickolls

McVittie goes crackers at ChristmasWELL here I sit at my word processor raring togo, after another fun evening out with theWeston-super-Mare CAMRA sub-branch on ourChristmas Ales Crawl – two versions of my PintsWest article zooming around my beer befuddledbrain. (Is befuddled a word? Sounds like a goodname for an ale – copyright Dave McVittie,2006).

We started off, most of us, at the RaglanArms. Excellent as always with more thanenough ales to suit even the most fussy CAMRApallet. Me? I had Wickwar’s ChristmasCracker followed by their Station Porter, afterwhich delights the Raglan’s own KnightstoneNectar seemed poor!

I cannot remember what else was on offerbut Gary had, as always, an impressive range ofales and he was encouraging us to stay longerwith a very nice free buffet. It is rare thatpublicans support CAMRA so well and we tooshould support pubs that are aware of the‘power’ of CAMRA.

From the Raglan we went to the Regency.Of course with twenty or so of us in the ‘crawl’we had decided to travel in small groups. It mustbe frustrating for pub staff when ten or moredrinkers walk in all wanting halves. Groups offive or six are somehow more manageable.

Duncan (remember him from the last PintsWest?) ordered three halves of Young’s Christ-mas Ale. It was very nice, better than it was atthe same place last year. Perhap’s Young’s haveimproved it. Unfortunately we got pints, ohdear! But we did agree that the Station Porterhad probably ruined our taste-buds before theKnightstone Nectar, and the walk from pub topub had re-aligned our taste buds.

Anyway after the Regency it was the RoyalHotel. Very posh and a great lady bluesvocalist. Exmoor’s Exmas Ale ran out as we

arrived so we drank some very cold, butdelicious, Fuller’s London Pride in front of avery nice, fake, coal fire. It is a comfortable barin the Royal with some genuine character, wellworth a visit and usually a couple of ales on thepumps. Free live music is a good bonus too.

The next establishment was to be the newlyrefurbished bar of the London Inn. However mycompanions and I felt rather old in this placeand left as soon as we arrived. They were sellingthe Young’s Christmas Ale but we were notabout to fight our way through the crowds of theyoung and beautiful at the bar to try it. Whilstwriting I note that the other half of the LondonInn is now being refurbished. Great to seeinvestment in pubs when all about us is doom andgloom. I must go back to the London Inn whenit is a little quieter.

Wetherspoon is a chain of pubs that sell awonderful range of real ales. For me theproblem is, because they sell such vast quantitiesof reasonably priced food, getting a beer aroundlunchtime can be difficult and tediously long-winded. Oh how I like pubs to be pubs andrestaurants to be restaurants! Having said that,Wetherspoon do have great pubs – their pubs areattractive, atmospheric and in good locations.Well we had arrived at the Dragon latish, wellafter food service had stopped, and our beerswere delicious and the service excellent. Theseasonal beers on were RCH Steaming Santa,Smiles/Highgate Holly Hops, Shepherd NeameCracker Ale and Bath Ales Festive Gem. I wassuitably impressed and pleased. I think that infuture I will be careful to visit JD Wetherspoon’spubs after food service has ended. I am sure “MrWetherspoon” will be relieved!

Some members had been to Bar Shallusbeforehand for some reportedly very goodNewman’s Hoppy Gristmas and so were off to

Off The Rails. That is where we all eventuallyended up. RCH Santa Fé was promised but wasnot actually available so we happily drank OtterAle. (Unlucky Dave, the barman eventuallyrelented in the face of sustained public demandand Sante Fé went on – Tim Nickolls.)

I don’t think I mentioned our new member.It seems my articles in Pints West, combined withour great leader Tim Nickolls’ visit to our localRotary Club, may have found us a new CAMRAmember. Peter, like me, is more of a socialCAMRA member, out for the fun of the trips,conscious of the need to promote real ale, butnot really interested in the fine detail of whichbrewer invented what. On this occasion Duncan(our new member mentioned in the last PintsWest) had failed to get a kebab, but managed toplay with his phone all evening; Peter was, Ithink, convinced that CAMRA is worth joiningand we, all the WSM CAMRA members, had athoroughly good night out.

If you live in or around Weston and fancycoming on our next trip check out the diary listsin Pints West, maybe give our Hon. Sec. Tim acall, and come along next time round. It reallyis a fun night out.

Postscript – Since writing the above the Raglanhas closed, but only for a short time, andmessages are filtering through that it has now re-opened. I feel the need to go forth and find outmore.

I missed out on the WSM January crawl inWorle as I was working and I must miss out onthe minibus crawl in February (oversubscribed Iam told!) as I shall be warming myself in España.So, dear reader, you may not find these inspira-tional notes in the next Pints West (unless I canfind another excuse for writing drivel).

Dave McVittie

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DID you get any beer for Christmas? Myniece gave me a “Beers from around theWorld” pack and I was so pleased at the timefor her to acknowledge that her uncle is a beerdrinker; it was only later that I suffered thedisappointment of finding that they were allbrewed by InBev in the UK!

The Crediton Inn beer festival that Imentioned in Pints West 72 went ahead and Iattended on the first and second days, with myfavourite ale of the festival being the DowntonChimera Golden Delight, this being new to me.More recently I went with four others fromWeston sub-branch to the Exeter WinterAles Festival, where over 50 ales ranging from3.8% to 8.2% were on offer, with three cidersincluding a “dangerously easy drinking” 7.5%Devon cider from Wiscombe named Suicider.We didn’t have a bad beer amongst what wehad, though not all were to each other’s taste.My favourites were the Welsh Otley Ho HoHo (5%), Branscombe Vale Yo Ho Ho (Ho), astronger version of their Yo Ho Ho coming inat 8.2%, Ashcott Old Freddie Walker (7%) andKent ale from Westerham, God’s Wallop(4.3%). On our way back we visited a coupleof Exeter’s waterfront pubs, the Prospect Innand the Bishop Blaise – both are worth avisit, with Otter ale featuring strongly in bothpubs.

On our annual Christmas Ales Crawlaround Weston (see Dave McVittie’s article)

we had a few surprises, one being the RoyalHotel having Exmoor Exmas, and furthermorethat many folk commented that the Young’sWinter Ale at the Regency was so muchimproved on the same beer last year (maybethe move to Bedford has improved it?). In factat least two people thought it was the best aleon the crawl.

Between Christmas and the new year asmall group of us went to Bath to search forthe (up to now) elusive Abbey Ales TwelfthNight, only available up to the 6th of January.We started with breakfast at the Wetherspoonpub, Kings of Wessex, and moved to theCoeur de Lion where to my joy the TwelfthNight was on; not surprising, I suppose, asAbbey Ales have bought the pub. We found itto our taste, but to check on the beer ratherthan the pub we opted to have another of thesame at the Star Inn.

After a few half pints (which was theorder of the day) in other pubs in Bath webroke our train journey back to have a visit tothe Cornubia, which I imagine will havereceived some praise elsewhere in this PintsWest. As well as there being four beers fromthe Hidden Brewery, they were showcasingthe Black Country Bradley range of beers, theFireside (5%) being my favourite. HiddenDepths vied with Hidden Pleasure for mydelight.

On Saturday 20th January I went with theChalice Morris Men tothe Wassail at theWestcroft cider farmat Brent Knoll.Although Westcroft isbetter known for theiraward-winning Janet’sJungle Juice, they alsoproduce much othertraditional cider bothmedium and dry. TheWassail there is heldon very old-fashionedmethods, no shotgunsbeing used as they arepost-medieval,whereas the wassail ispre-Roman invasion.Although the morrismen danced and led thesinging of the oldwassail song, it’s ashame to report thatunless new membersare found the Chalicemen may not in futurebe able to continue toattend this and otherfestivities. So if youwant to know more orwould like to join us,visit our website atwww.chalicemorris.org.It is also a great way

to visit many real ale pubs in Somerset, andoccasionally elsewhere in England.

In Weston-super-Mare we have lost theRaglan Arms’ Gary and Jo, and therefore theacoustic music session on Friday nights (whenincidentally the most real ales were freshest)has moved to the Red Admiral pub in LockingRoad on Sunday afternoons. This pub, re-opened in mid December, sells ButcombeBitter at £2 a pint, and recent guest ales haveincluded Greene King Abbot Ale, AdnamsBroadside and Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. Itwas a great shame to see the Raglan Armsclose as a real ale pub, but the good news isthat Weston has been re-opening pubs andclubs that a few months ago had a doubtfulfuture. The Oak House in Drove Road hasdone well with a continuous supply of RCHSanta Fé and its own RCH Steaming Ice(unavailable anywhere else), this retailing at £2a pint. I saw the New Year in at the OakHouse and a friendly place it is, with the dailypapers available.

Colin at Off The Rails also had Santa Féand continues to have a good varied selectionof real ales, recently having the new CheddarAles brewery’s Best Bitter, and Skinner’s alesfrom Cornwall. He is open to suggestions frombeer (and cider) drinkers on what to order, as isLou at the White Hart, where since Christmaswe have had a few really good real ales,Archer’s Marley’s Ghost (7%) and ChurchEnd Fallen Angel (5%) being two of the best.

After a year or so in the doldrums theWetherspoon Dragon Inn (once a regular inthe Good Beer Guide) has picked up with theappointment of a new cellar manager. It wasgreat the other day to visit and see O’Hanlon’sPort Stout, Bath Ales Wild Hare, OakhamInferno, and RCH East Street Cream lined uptogether.

On the recent Worle crawl it was hearten-ing to be able to have a varied selection ofbeers in the evening: Otter and Old SpeckledHen at the Woodspring, St Austell Tribute atthe Nut Tree, Newman’s Hoppy Gristmas atthe Old King’s Head, and Butcombe Bitter atthe Lamb Inn. The last two were very goodvalue for money: £2.26 for the Newman’s and£2 at the Lamb.

Although I have been sitting on the fence,so to speak, on the impending smokinglegislation, I would point out that snuff couldmake a comeback as it is almost impossible tosuffer from secondary snuff-taking. I mentionthis here, as the Lamb at Worle has beenselling snuff for as long as I can remember, asdo the Star Inn at Bath, the Miner’s Arms atShipham, and no doubt readers will know ofothers in Bristol. I have taken snuff on a socialbasis since about 1979 and it can be pleasur-able without being addictive. It also goes wellwith real ale, as the aroma of one can heightenthe aroma of the other. If you see me at BristolBeer Festival I will have a selection on me –when I am not at the bar, just ask for a pinch!

Robin E Wild

A Round with Robin

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The Albion,Bristol Road

Andrew and Dawn only took over themanagement of this Greene King establishmentin December last year. Andrew mainly doesthe hard work producing the food while Dawnlooks after the bar. It isn’t Andrew’s first stinthere – he left for further GK pastures eightyears ago.

A major refit is planned from 12thFebruary when the pub will be closed for upto two weeks. The local public can then expectto see some big improvements – including asports bar with telly screens and pool tables atthe back of the place.

At the moment, the real ales are GreeneKing’s IPA (at a very reasonable £2 a pint)and Abbot Ale, £2.20. The hope is that therefit will also allow room for barrels ofchanging guest ales and cider. If these are asgood as the Abbot I sampled, we can expectexciting things from this friendly couple.

The Plough,High Street

I gave the Plough a quick shufti the otherday. As expected, as far as I could make out allthe drinks were keg which didn’t seem to putoff the mainly young and lively crowd.Although this may not be a typical CAMRAmember’s cup of tea, it undoubtedly has aplace in town. I have to say the Thatcher’scider tried went down well while watching agripping session of “Deal or No Deal” onwidescreen.

The White Lion,High Street

At Number 1, the High Street, this pub ispart of the history of Portishead. In fact, someof its walls formed part of the original sea wall

and barges used to flow under its archway. Atalmost 300 years old, according to landlordBarry who has been here five years, this is thethird oldest building in town. Previous liveswere as a working mill and then a hotel.

There are two bars separated by a largefireplace. At the rear, most of the seatingseems to be made up of comfy sofas whereasthe front looks to be more of a bar wherepeople who have got their hands cold and dirtyon the local building sites are not turned away.OK, lagers are the biggest seller, and this isdefinitely on the lively side for some. How-ever, Barry and his team are friendly andhelpful and the one real ale, Bass, was tip-top.A second cask ale is being considered so watchout for it. Sky Sports is provided andhomemade pies and Sunday lunches featureamongst the food available.

The Windmill,Nore Road

I have to admit to being fairly regular atthis joint, drawn mainly by the excellentlykept beers and the regular turnover of the guestales. Local independent breweries are sup-ported in particular and personal favourites inthe last couple of months have been RCH’sSanta Fé and Bath Ales’ Barnstormer. At thetime of writing this, I’m in a state of someexcitement – Exmoor Ales’ Beast will be readyin a couple of days – hubba hubba!

I’m also pleased to say the EasterWeekend Beer Festival is being plannedat the moment. All nine of the real aletaps will provide constantly changingbrews from Friday 6th to Monday 9thApril. There is no admission charge.Just turn up and enjoy.

Neil Ravenscroft

Portishead pub update

Name: Nick Evans, landlord of the BlackHorse, Clapton for 14 years.Age: 45Where from: Born in Barry, South Wales but,in his defence, he grew up locally and attendedGordano School.Interests: All sport but especially rugbysupporting England, Bristol and Gordano RFC(the pub sponsors this local club).Memorable moment: When one of the pub’smany “characters” – Skinner – had his sheepwander into the pub looking for him.Previous pubs: Horse and Groom, near Stow-on-the-Wold.Other jobs: Wine salesman. English Teacherin Spain.Best thing about being a landlord: Thecustomers.Worst thing: Can’t think of any.Favourite other pub: None comes to mind.Average hours worked in a week: 45.Last holiday: France in September.

The Black Horse,Clapton in Gordano

On a recent lunchtime visit to “Meet theLandlord” all my preconceived ideas on thisplace were only reinforced. What a great pub!The “Kicker” is in a 14th -century buildingwhich had served as the local lock-up and stillfeatures the gaol window with bars. Morerecently, this had been a Courage pub. Therange of real ales is now wider with CourageBest, Butcombe Bitter, Wadworth 6X,Shepher Neame Spitfire and Webster’s GreenLabel as the regulars. Also, when I visited, OldHooky (4.6%) from Hook Norton Brewerywas the extra guest. OK, I’m biased, but thatwas the best pint of Hooky I’ve tasted.

If I have a problem with this place it isthat it panders to personal indecision. One dayI drink the cider, another the beer. This time,the beer was washed down by some Black Ratcider – at £1.80 a pint that often equals a goodnight out for less than a tenner for thislightweight.

Meet the Landlord

Jane and Nick of the Black HorseThe Black Horse, Clapton in Gordano

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RCH Brewery

Guest Beers and Beer Festivals catered for

""""" P.G. Steam""""" Pitchfork""""" East Street Cream""""" Firebox

Brewers of award-wining beers including

West HewishNr Weston-super-Mare

Tel: 01934-834447

blindmansbrewery

Award-Winning Real AlesBrewed with Natural Spring Water

Buff 3.6% Golden Spring 4.0%Mine Beer 4.2% Icarus 4.5%Eclipse 4.2% Siberia 4.7%

BLINDMANS BREWERY LTDTalbot Farm, Leighton, Nr Frome, Somerset BA11 4PN

Tel: 01749 880038 Fax: 01749 880379email: info@blindmansbrewery.co.uk

www.blindmansbrewery.co.uk

** ALES ALSO AVAILABLE VIA SIBA DDS **

The VictoriaREAL ALE, REAL FOOD, REAL PUB

Five beautifully kept real ales, including Wadworth 6X,Butcombe and rotating seasonal guests.

Awarded 100% with Cask Marquefor the past six years running!

10% discount on all real ales with a valid CAMRAmembership card – making IPA only £1.94 a pint.

A great selection of home-cooked meals served daily.

Visit our website for events and menuswww.thevictoriapub.co.uk

The Victoria, Chock Lane, Westbury-on-Trym, BristolTel: 0117 - 9500 441 Fax: 0117 - 9502656

Email: contact@thevictoriapub.co.uk

Remember a Pint ofCourage Best?Well probably – you can still find it in some pubs in Bristol, butno where near as many as a few years ago when it dominated thereal ale market locally.

How about Courage Directors though? This was once highlyregarded ale with quite a large following locally. Trying to find apint of the stuff in Bristol these days is almost akin to the fruit-less search for a black cat down a coal mine.

Most readers will be aware of the disgraceful decision toclose the Courage brewery in central Bristol just a few years agothus ending hundreds of years of brewing on the site. Thebrewing of the Courage real ales, namely Best and Directors, wastransferred to Tadcaster in Yorkshire. So, you can now be surethat, if you see Courage ales in Bristol, they will have clocked up

a not inconsiderable amount of “beer miles” to get to your localpub. The Tadcaster brewery, which is best known for theproduction of John Smith’s beer, is part of the Scottish & New-castle (S&N) empire.

The Courage beers, however, are on the move again! S&Nhave done a deal with the Wells & Young’s Brewing Company ofBedford to brew the beers there.

If you can’t quite keep up with the ever changing world ofbrewery ownership, takeovers, mergers, etc, Wells & Young’s arethe brewery recently formed following the very sad closure of thefamous Young’s brewery in Wandsworth, South West London,and the merging of their brewing operations with the CharlesWells brewery in Bedford.

At least with the transferring of the Courage beers to Bedford,there will be no brewery closure. The deal S&N has struck withWells & Young’s is for the latter to purchase the rights forproduction, marketing and sales of the Courage portfolio of alebrands.

However, the sale demonstrates a concern that the globalbreweries have no real interest in real ale production or promo-tion. It is good news that Wells & Young’s will be putting quitea substantial marketing push into the brands – any promotion ofreal ale is surely welcome in a market dominated by ads for lagersand gassy ciders. However, when S&N refer to “niche brands” intheir press release on this matter, I think it must reflect their viewon the ale market as not one they have a primary interest in. Imean, Courage beers “niche”? – they were once iconic!

Had S&N put an equal amount of marketing spend behind theCourage beers as some of their other products, perhaps theywould not be so “niche”.

This is obviously good business for Well & Young’s. Thenew business will grant them an initial seven-year licence for theCourage beers. There should be no impact for Courage drinkers.S&N will retain a 17% stake and continue to sell and distributeCourage beers throughout its direct regional on-trade business.Wells & Young’s will be free to promote the brands within itsown customer base and seek new stockists in the UK.

The transfer of brewing of the beers from Tadcaster toBedford will take place over the next few months. See if you cantell the difference.

Pete Bridle

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HAVE you ever walked into a real ale pub,been faced with an array of handpumps andthought this is your idea of beer heaven?

Well, for some people, this would be theiridea of beer hell! This is because they wouldnot know what the difference was between thedifferent beers on offer and, to avoid admittingtheir lack of knowledge in front of friends, thebar staff and the punters at the bar, theywould probably opt for a “safe” beer, i.e. onethey had tried before, or, worse still, a kegbeer. There are a vast array of beer style andflavours available down the pub, but they arenot realising their full potential in the market-place, particularly amongst new drinkers,because of poor salesmanship and the lack ofinformation available to help the consumermake an informed choice at the bar.

I am somewhat surprised that, althoughbeer is our national alcoholic drink, it appearsto be the poor relation of wine in terms ofknowledgeable people being prepared to writeand talk to the public about the kaleidoscopeof tastes and flavours that are provided by realale, which is the simple combination of maltedbarley and hops, water and yeast together witha bit of craft from the brewer.

However, the beer industry is fighting backand people like Brian Yorston, Head Brewer atthe Wadworth brewery located at Devizes inWiltshire, are leading the charge by passing ontheir knowledge to the masses to help educatethem. Brian is a professional beer taster withmany years of experience and a passion forreal ale. Back in December, he hosted a beerappreciation evening at the Victoria inWestbury-on-Trym. His co-hosts wereAlistair & Fiona Deas and Rhona Murdoch ofthis excellent Wadworth pub that also servesguest beers, which is tucked away downChock Lane in the heart of the village (themore eagle-eyed amongst you will have read inthe local press recently that Alistair helped tofoil a burglary in Westbury-on-Trym with thehelp of a neighbour).

The event was held to mark the launch ofWadworth’s winter beer, Old Father Timer,and Alistair went to collect the beer from thebrewery himself to ensure he got one of thefirst casks. Following an interesting talk onthe history of brewing, we were treated to atutored tasting of eight different beers fromBritain, Ireland and Belgium: Wadworth PintSize Mild (3.3% ABV), Wadworth Henry’sOriginal IPA (3.6%), Butcombe Bitter (4.0%),Guinness (4.5%), Hoegaarden White Beer(4.9%), Belle-Vue Framboise (5.7%),Wadworth Old Father Timer (5.8%) andChimay Red (7.0%).

This relatively small sample of beers, someon draught and some in bottles, were carefullyselected to expose us to a wide range of stylesand flavours in terms of colour, bitterness,sweetness and alcohol content. We experiencedthe dry roasted bitterness of the Guinness, thecitrus and spice flavours of the Hoegaarden(you could recognise coriander as well asclove-like flavours) and the complex (rasp-

berry) flavour of the Chimay.A good time was had by all and we left

with a greater appreciation of what is acomplex beverage made from simple ingredi-ents. Many thanks to both Wadworth’s andthe Victoria for putting on this excellent eventto promote the cause of real ale.

CyclopsThere are over 2,500 real ales produced by

over 600 breweries in Britain. There arebitters, golden ales, stouts, porters and barleywines to name but a few styles. Nobody canknow what they all taste like, but there are anumber of initiatives in place to help withmaking an informed choice when presentedwith a new beer or a selection of beers tochoose from.

On an annual basis, CAMRA holds the“Great British Beer Festival” in London toshowcase a wide range of real ales from Britainand abroad. At the event held in August lastyear, a new “wine-like” tasting scheme to de-mystify real ale was launched by CAMRAand 14 breweries (Caledonian, Camerons,Charles Wells, Elgoods, Everards, Fuller’s,Hall & Woodhouse, Hook Norton, RefreshUK, Robinson’s, Titanic, Wadworth, Wolver-hampton & Dudley Brands and Woodforde’s).The scheme is called “Cyclops” due to the oneeye, nose and mouth imagery used on thepromotional material.

As mentioned above, real ale is an incred-ibly complex drink with an enormous range ofstyles and flavours. A great deal of skill andcare goes into the brewing process, and thereare many thousands of dedicated enthusiastsand connoisseurs, which has led to a wholenew and fascinating language behind beertasting. Some beer experts in the past haveused very “flowery” language to describe realale and many consumers have found this hardto understand.

The aim of Cyclops is to inform existing,and particularly new, real ale drinkers of whatstyle of beer they are drinking, what its alcoholcontent is, what is should look like, what itshould smell like and, of course, what it shouldtaste like. This is achieved by using verysimple but informative language. Sweetnessand bitterness are the two dominant tastequalities of real ale, and Cyclops uses a scaleof 1 to 5 for each to enable drinkers to workout how sweet and bitter they like their beers.The idea is that drinkers will know what a beerwill look, smell and taste like before they partwith their cash at the bar.

Hopefully, many more drinkers will learnto appreciate the complex flavours of real aleand, in time, they will become the dedicatedenthusiasts and connoisseurs of the future.

There are other initiatives too and the pubsare doing their bit. It is quite common thesedays to find real ale pubs offering a “try beforeyou buy” scheme where you can try a smallsample of the beer, or beers, you are interested

in so that you can see it, smell it and taste itbefore you make a final selection. Some mightargue that this small volume of beer effectivelygiven away for free is money down the drain.However, I would argue that it is a smallinvestment as it is much more likely that theconsumer is going to return to buy more beer ifthey initially find one they like and enjoy.

Many real ale pubs today have thecurrently available beers on tap chalked up ona board and it is not uncommon for simpletasting notes to be provided too, as can befound at the Hillgrove Porter Stores inKingsdown. Alternatively, some real ale pubssuch as the Cross Hands at Fishponds havethe tasting notes on the bar adjacent to eachhandpump. The most unusual approach I haveseen to date is at the Royal Oak in Bath wherethey have a small sample of beer on the baradjacent to each handpump so that you can seewhat it looks like. Perhaps you are allowed tosmell it and taste it too?

It is still not uncommon to go into a realale pub to be faced by an array of pump clipswith striking imagery but very little informa-tion about the product on offer, with thealcohol content only discernable with the aidof a magnifying glass. However, the brewersare also trying to help the consumer make aninformed choice, with many re-designing theirpump clips to provide clear information aboutthe style of beer and the alcohol content.

So, next time you are down the pub, take alook around you see what is available to helpyou select a beer that you will like and enjoy.The person behind the bar should be able tooffer you informed advice and there is alwaysCAMRA’s Good Beer Guide to fall back on.However, although it is updated and publishedon an annual basis, it can never be totallycomprehensive as there as so many new andone-off beers brewed these days.

Finally, just to show how times havechanged, I noticed in the latest edition ofWhat’s Brewing, the monthly newspaper forCAMRA members, an article which containeda quote from a major player in the beerindustry who was borrowing language from thewine industry. Two award-winning Scottishbeers, Caledonian’s Deuchars IPA andHarviestoun’s Bitter & Twisted, were beingcompared, with the former described as a“Chardonnay” and the latter as a “SauvignonBlanc”.

For those of you familiar with these twopopular beers and white wines, this was aparticularly apt comparison when youconsider the greater assertive and sharpness offlavour of Bitter & Twisted when comparedwith Deuchars IPA. I for one am perfectlyhappy for the beer industry to beg, steal orborrow language from the wider drinksindustry if it helps to de-mystify real ale forthe consumer!

Dave Graham

Taste the difference at the Victoria (and elsewhere)

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THE Old Farmhouse on Lansdown Roadhas reopened after a low-key and sympatheticrefurbishment – and not only is the beer asgood as ever; the jazz is back as well. Matthewand Mark Warburton, (whose parents run theOld House at Home in Burton, the NortheyArms in Box and the Crown in Dyrham), havetaken over the Farmhouse, and, apart fromserving quality pub food, they aim to keep itmuch as it was.

The opening night, just before Christmas,saw the old place packed, and it was good tosee John and Mary Bradshaw, who gave upthe lease in August, chatting to a large group ofold friends. Five pumps dispensed a range ofWadsworth’s beers, and newly-commissionedmurals took the place of the collection of jazzmemorabilia that once covered the walls. Thebar that once extended along the wall of theback room had been replaced by tables,creating much more room to sit and watch thesuperb Berry Goddard Band performing at thefar end.

So, full marks for a sensitive makeover,and for keeping alive a great Bath institution –but with one small caveat: the video screenbehind the band which, on opening night, wasplaying a selection of vintage slapstickcomedies. At the right time – i.e. when there’sno band playing – this might have been OK: asit was, it was more than a little distracting and,with performers of this calibre, the last thingyou want is distraction.

Another Wadworth’s pub to receive a newlease of life is the Curfew on Cleveland

Place East. This was a cracking little boozer,with possibly the best pub room in Bath onthe first-floor, but latterly trade had droppedoff and opening hours were cut back. ThisJanuary, however, it was taken over by HeidiHunt and Anna Livesey from Chippenham,who, in between getting to know the residentghost, have started to turn the place around.

The Curfew is now open all day, and –something of rarity for Bath – bar snacks(toasties, baguettes and soup) are available inthe evenings. Special theme nights are plannedfor the Six Nations championship, and the beer(which included Old Timer on a recent visit) isspot on.

The Curfew has only been a pub since the1960s. Before that it was a wine merchant’s;earlier still it was a bookshop. Built by HenryGoodridge (who also designed the Corridor andBeckford’s Tower), its Regency facade, datingfrom 1827, is one of the most elegant in thecity. Refurbishment by Wadworth’s in the

News from Bath and Widcombe

The Curfew by night

1960s entailed the lowering of the ground-floorceiling and the addition of a lovely wood-panelled snug, down a few steps from the mainbar. Add a secluded beer garden – anotherrarity in Bath – and you have a pub worthseeking out. And, as it’s midway between theStar and the King William, you don’t reallyhave to go too far out of your way.

Another Bath pub that’s recently joinedthe league of ones to watch is the WhiteHorse at Twerton which changed hands lastJuly. Ten minutes walk from the Royal Oakon the Lower Bristol Road (carry on along theLower Bristol Road; just past the pedestriancrossing lights turn up Jew’s Lane and you’llfind it at the top), it’s worth a detour. The oldplace has been revamped, smartened up, givena new lease of life as a friendly communitypub – and, most important, has four hand-pumps. Hobgoblin and Sharp’s Doom Bar arethe regulars, along with guests such as Otter.The White Horse is open everyday frommidday. The website can be found atwww.thewhitehorsebath.com.

The events calendar at the Raven inQuiet Street, local CAMRA pub of the year,keeps getting longer. A science café, a story-telling circle, an acoustic club and a cyclingcampaign group all meet regularly in theupstairs bar. The latest venture is a blues nightevery Tuesday, while on 5 April there will bea night of Acoustic Punk. If you drop in for apint during the latter part of February, you’llalso get chance to vote in the Raven’s beerelection: vote for your favourite beer and,when the results are counted, the top six brewswill appear at the Raven throughout March.

There will also be a beer festival with adifference at the Raven for St George’s Day(or rather St George’s Week), with brews fromlong-established English breweries. For details,see www.theravenofbath.co.uk.

The Old Farmhouse

Reopening night at the Old Farmhouse

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In case you haven’t discovered it yet, thereis a great website featuring all of Bath’s pubs,complete with picture gallery, recent news,etc, at www.bathpubs.co.uk. Another enter-taining site is www.beerintheevening.com,which features reviews of most of Bath’sboozers. A recent pub crawl round some ofBath’s real ale pubs can also be found onwww.scoopergen.co.uk/Main_Page_again.htm.

The Salamander in John Street nowfeatures an Irish session every Tuesday night,organised by Marick Baxter, who is alsoinvolved in the weekly session on Wednesdaysat the Royal Oak. Tuesday is also the night tocatch local Celtic band, Sulis, at the Star Inn.

The Star was the featured heritage pub onthe front cover of February’s Beer magazinefrom CAMRA, with some atmosphericphotos by Mick Slaughter.

THE Royal Oak on Pulteney Road (not to beconfused with the Royal Oak on the LowerBristol Road) has changed hands and iscurrently closed for refurbishment until 24thFebruary.

A few doors down, the Golden Fleece,which closed in the 1990s but whose incisedlettering still advertises beers from the long-defunct Lamb Brewery at Frome, reopenedearly this year as a sushi bar, but closed againalmost immediately.

The White Horse at Twerton

Elsewhere in Widcombe, the Ram, whichfeatured in the 2005 Good Beer Guide, hasalso changed hands, but, apart from removingthe bit of the bar counter that jutted out intothe room, little has changed. Bass, Bellringer,Otter and Courage Best can still be found on

DRINKERS across Bath will soon be able toraise a toast to mark ten years of top tipplesfrom Abbey Ales. Alan Morgan set up Abbeyten years ago – reviving a brewing tradition inthe city that had been lost for decades.

And to this day Abbey Ales are stillbrewed in the centre of Bath, a World HeritageCity, at Camden Row.

The firm’s first pint was produced inOctober 1997 and since then the brewery hasbeen swamped by demand.

Because of that, it has also been able tointroduce a range of guest and seasonal beers,such as Black Friar, Twelfth Night andChorister, Steeplejack and Mild.

To mark the company’s tenth birthday ithas produced a new clip for its popularBellringer beer, which will be appearing inpubs across the city from late February.

Alan Morgan said: “I think it is quite anachievement in this day and age for a smallbrewery to survive as long as Abbey Ales has.There is so much competition out there andthere are so many new breweries starting upand even more unfortunatly closing. Everyonewe talk to in Bath seems amazed that it hasbeen ten years. People keep telling me howquickly it’s gone – especially many of ourcustomers who have been with us since dayone. This new clip is part of our birthdaycelebrations which will go on all year.”

Abbey is also planning a special birthday

brew to mark its anniversary which will belaunched at the forthcoming annual BathCAMRA beer festival.

The brewery recently released Bellringer ina 500ml bottle which has proved extremelypopular with the city’s restaurant and winebar trade.

draught, as well as Thatcher’s cider. There areplans to bring in some old church pews to fillthe gap left by the removal of the bar, whichshould nicely complement the décor of thisatmospheric pub.

For anyone planning to come to Bath for apub crawl by train, a detour to the Ram caneasily be included. On leaving the station, turnright, go through the tunnel under the tracks,cross the river, cross the road, turn left andyou’ll find it less than 100 yards along on theleft.

There are two more historic pubs over theroad serving real ale as well – the Ring ofBells, where you can currently find ‘Beer!’from Milk Street brewery, and the WhiteHart, with Butcombe Bitter and Butty Bachfrom Wye Valley, plus one of the best beergardens in Bath.

Andrew Swift

Abbey Ales is 10!

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b a t h a l e sTo enjoy the full range of bath ales beers

at their best, pay a visit to one of our pubs

The Hop PoleUpper Bristol Road, Bath (opposite Victoria Park playground)

The Hare on the HillDove Street, Kingsdown, Bristol

The Merchants ArmsMerchants Road, Hotwells, Bristol

The SalamanderJohn Street, Bath

The WellingtonGloucester Road, Horfield, Bristol

The Bridge InnPassage Street, Bristol

The SwanBath Road, Swineford

Casks and beer boxes available for parties and functionsContact bath ales on 0117 9474797 or email hare@bathales.co.uk

www.bathales.co.uk

DO real ale and vinyl records mix? They do at the Hareon the Hill in Kingsdown on Saturdays between 12 and4.

Those who have gone to the Hare for a Saturdayafternoon drink over the last few weeks have been eitherbemused or amused to find stacks of vinyl records onsale, and after a bit of a slow start on week one it seemsthat this is an idea whose time has come.

This last Saturday (as I write) the Hare was pleas-antly inhabited by a mixture of people who had come todrink a very well-kept pint or two (or three) of the WildHare whilst watching England on the box along withthose who had come specifically to buy vinyl records.The upshot of this interesting mix was that severalpeople missed most of the rugby match because theywere sorting through boxes of records, some rediscover-ing those records that they’d had and lost back in theiryouth, and those of a younger generation buyinganything that looked ‘interesting’…and most of thosewho had come to buy records ended up staying for a pintor two (or three) themselves and watching the end of therugby.

The idea for having a record fayre in a Bath Ales pubwas first mooted when Paul and Dee were running theWellington in Horefield. This didn’t happen, but theybrought the idea to the Hare with them, and the intentionis that, apart from having record dealers, private collec-tors can sell their own collections at the fayre. Even Paulis threatening to bring his own collection down for saleone of these weeks.

The records on offer (and sold) so far have coveredeverything from Gato Barbieri to Count Basie, DireStraits to the Beatles, sound effects to Gong, steam

engine noises to Louis Armstrong, and plenty of good,old progressive rock – it’s nice to see all those old Yes,Bo Hansson, ELP, Van der Graaf Generator, PFM,King Crimson, Man, Soft Machine and Rick WakemanLPs again!

So if you’ve got an old record collection gatheringdust in the attic, or if you’re a record dealer who likesthe sound of an afternoon in a real ale pub (who careshow many records you sell when you’ve got tip-topcondition Bath Ales on tap!), why not give Paul a ringand bring your records down to the Fayre at the Hare?

If you have a collection that you want to sell at theHare on the Hill, please phone Paul on 0117 9081982to book a space…and best of all, there’s no charge forentry or to sell!

Mark Jones

Record Fayre at the Hare (on the Hill)News fromBath AlesBATH ALES have a newpub – it’s the Live & LetLive in Frampton Cottrell.This takes the pub estate upto nine, if you include theBridge Inn and the EldonHouse.

It is expected that thepub will receive a make-overin the Bath Ales house stylelater in 2007.

Following it’s longestproduction run yet,Festivity will shortly bereplaced by the 5% WildHare. For those not familiarwith it, Wild Hare is anorganic pale ale with a citrusflavour and a powerful dry,hoppy bite. Look out toofor Rare Hare, which willbe brewed soon and thisyear may be rarer than ever!

It is hoped that the newbottling line will arrive soon.This will allow the breweryto consider exporting itsbeers, as well as bottling forthe UK market.

Phil Cummings

You can always enjoy our three permanent ales:REV. AWDRY’S ALE, BLIND HOUSEand award-winning TUNNEL VISION

in the delightful setting of either

The Cross Guns at AvoncliffNr. Bradford on Avon. Tel: 01225 862335

The Inn at FreshfordNr Bath. Tel: 01225 722250

or

in the comfort of your own homewhen you purchase Beer-in-a-Box from Box Steam Brewery

PRICES START AT JUST £28!Contact us on 01225 858383www.boxsteambrewery.com

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Supreme Champion:Gold: Green Jack: RipperSilver: Fuller’s: London PorterBronze: Orkney: Skullsplitter

Category winnersOld Ales & Strong Mild CategoryGold – B&T: Black Dragon MildSilver –Orkney: Dark IslandBronze – Rudgate: Ruby MildStouts & PortersGold – Fuller’s: London PorterSilver – Cairngorm: Black GoldBronze – St Peter’s: Old Style PorterBarley WinesGold – Orkney: SkullsplitterSilver – Green Jack: RipperBronze – Durham: Benedictus

Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2007“Ripper” from Green JackBrewery in Suffolk voted bestwinter beer in the land!

Green Jack Brewery’s Ripper wasrecently named as the supreme ChampionWinter Beer of Britain 2007 by a panel ofjudges at CAMRA’s National Winter AlesFestival in Manchester.

The 8.5% ABV barley wine was describedas: “A light coloured beer brewed as a homageto Belgian trappist ales, with sweet notes anda strong hoppy flavour.”

At the announcement, Steve Prescott,organiser of the National Winter Ales Festival,congratulated Green Jack on its victory. Hesaid, “It’s great to see a barley wine win the

Category definitionsStout: One of the classic types of ale, a successorin fashion to ‘porter’. Usually a very dark,heavy, well-hopped bitter ale, with a dry palate,thick creamy head, and a good grainy taste.Porter: A dark, slightly sweetish but hoppy alemade with roasted barley; the successor of

competition yet again. I sincerely hope peoplewill be inspired to try this fantastic beer styleon the back of Green Jack’s victory.”

On hearing the news, Green Jack HeadBrewer Tim Dunford said: “This is absolutelyincredible. All my life it has been my ambitionto win a national award for my beers and Ican’t believe it has happened.”

The Silver award went to Fuller’s LondonPorter and the Bronze to Orkney Skullsplitter.

A panel of CAMRA experts and beerwriters at the National Winter Ales Festival(New Century Hall, Manchester) judged thecompetition. Drinkers at the festival, whichtook place in January, were able to sample thewinners as well as try over 200 old ales, milds,stouts, porters, barley wines and bitters.

‘entire’ and predecessor of stout. Porteroriginated in London around 1730, and by theend of the 18th century was probably the mostpopular beer in England.Old Ale: Now virtually synonymous with ‘winterale’. Most ‘old ales’ are produced and sold for alimited time of the year, usually between

November and the end of February. Usually arich, dark, high-gravity draught ale of consider-able body.Barley Wine: A strong, rich and sweetish ale,usually over 1060 OG, dark in colour, with highcondition and a high hop rate.

A hat-trick of awards for Wye ValleyA HAT-TRICK of gold medals was aperfect ending for Wye Valley Brewery’s21st anniversary year, giving the seal ofapproval to years of work perfecting thetaste of their traditionally brewed beers.

Three of Wye Valley’s beers wereawarded first place in West MidlandsCAMRA’s 2006 Beer of the Year competi-tion. Judges named Butty Bach the

number one best bitter, with HPA takingthe title in the category for bitter, whilstDorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stoutcollected gold for the best bottled beer.

Said Vernon Amor, managing directorat the Stoke Lacy-based brewery, “To betold that not just one, but three of yourbeers are amongst the very best is a trulyawesome feeling, and is a great credit to

all the team at Wye Valley Brewery, andalso to our loyal customers whosesupport over 21 years has helped usachieve this success.”

To cap it all, HPA won the silver awardin West Midlands CAMRA’s champion ofchampions contest involving all goldmedal category winners in a grand finalround of tastings of all styles.

Head brewer Jimmy Swan (left) and managingdirector Vernon Amor in jubilant mood

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Alcoholic Rats from Oz“Potential cure for alcoholics is hailed”: so

ran the headline in the Independent on 26December. Australian scientists claim to havecome up with a drug that eliminates the cravingfor alcohol.

According to the scientists, the euphoriaproduced by alcohol is linked to the release oforexins or hypocretins in the hypothalamusregion of the brain. Laboratory rats in Mel-bourne’s Howard Florey Institute were firstturned into alcoholics, put on a detox pro-gramme and then given orexin blockers. When“reintroduced to an environment which theyhad been conditioned to associate with alcoholuse,” they showed no interest in resuming theirformer addiction.

Leaving aside the question of what sort ofenvironment an Australian rat would associatewith alcohol use (although it almost certainlywouldn’t be the sort of place the likes of youor me would choose for a good night out), thisdiscovery has disturbing implications.

While the prospect of a cure for alcoholismis to be welcomed, it is salutary to rememberthat, under government health guidelines, alarge proportion of social drinkers fall into thecategory of binge drinkers. Governmentguidelines, which some medical experts arenow trying to reduce even further for certainage groups, restrict consumption to no morethan two pints of ordinary strength beer a dayand one and a half pints for women.

While not wishing to tangle with govern-ment experts, there is a world of differencebetween the social drinker who sometimesexceeds these limits and the sort of bingedrinkers whose intake is the stuff of urbanlegend and who can be seen staggering aroundany town centre on a Friday or Saturday night.

While the guidelines remain guidelines, itcould be argued that having such a threshold isuseful as a yardstick against which consump-tion can be measured. There are signs, how-ever, that the government is thinking of gettingtough on alcohol abuse – and, by definition,that could include anyone who exceedsrecommended guidelines. In the same issue ofthe Independent, it was revealed that theCabinet is discussing proposals to denypriority medical treatment to smokers, theobese ... and people with alcohol problems.

With the war on smokers now enteringwhat looks like its final phase, there seemslittle doubt that alcohol is next on the healthpolice’s hit list. Aversion drugs to treat thosewho don’t stick to government guidelines –possibly even, at some stage, orexin blockersadded to alcoholic drinks like fluoride to water– may seem an impossibility today, but sowould have the prospect of a smoking ban inthe 1950s. And what the Australian scientistsdon’t tell you is that orexins are not just linkedto alcoholic highs but other types of euphoriaas well. Alcohol may not be the only thing thatorexin blockers will cause a loss of interest in.But then, an apathetic electorate is just what

some of our lords and masters would like.

Calls of NatureTalking of lords and masters, councillors in

Bath are getting excited about late nightrevellers relieving themselves al fresco.

We have, of course, been here before – acentury or so ago, in fact. In the late nine-teenth century, when alcohol consumptionwas much higher than it is now and manypubs had rudimentary or non-existentlavatorial facilities, it was a big problem – sucha big problem that the local council decided toestablish a network of public conveniences allover the city. And for a time, all was well.

Then, as the 21st century dawned, a newgeneration of councillors, faced with spirallingcosts of construction work on the new spa,decided to close most of the public loos downand sell them off. So now we’re back wherewe were a century ago – and, surprise,surprise, with the same old problem. To whichthe said councillors react with righteousindignation and the threat of draconianpenalties.

While not in any way wishing to condoneal fresco evacuation, I will quote some wordsof wisdom from Arthur C Clarke: “Humanjudges may show mercy, but against the lawsof nature there is no appeal.” And go one stepfurther, pointing out that, of all the laws ofnature, the call of nature, after a night on thetown, is one of the most compelling.

Three years ago, Chief Inspector Mogg(who, in a memorable phrase, described thestreets of Bath as “awash with urine”)suggested installing modern loos that rose fromthe ground around the city – a great idea, butone that seems tohave fallen by thewayside.

Perhaps a littlemore joined-upthinking would be agood idea, and arecognition thatclosing the loos downwasn’t such a greatidea. But then, if theproblem were to besolved by makingfacilities available,there would be oneless stick to beat thelicensed trade with,and one less reason tocall for tightercontrols on drinking.

Raise your pasticsA news snippet you might have missed –

two MPs have submitted Early Day Motions(a particularly unfortunate turn of phrase Ialways think) calling for plastic glasses to beused in all licensed premises after 11pm.

Almost a hundred MPs have pledged theirsupport for this ludicrous proposal, whichwould affect most of Britain’s pubs.

Plastic is a poor substitute for glass, and,while its use may be advisable in venues with ahistory of violence, or in beer tents at outdoorevents, a blanket ban of this sort is a whollydisproportionate reaction. Nobody couldreasonably object to a ban targeted on specificpremises to combat specific problems; thistype of nanny-state intervention is tantamountto labelling all drinkers, should they choose tostay out after eleven o’clock, as potentialcriminals.

Development BonanzaAmid all the discussions surrounding the

smoking ban, it is becoming apparent that itwill be used as an excuse for certain pubcompanies (pubcos) to carry out a cull ofpubs, enabling them to realise the assets tiedup in their real estate. Pubcos have been tryingfor years to close pubs in the face of opposi-tion not just from those who use them but alsofrom local and county councils. While there isnothing to stop them closing the pubs down,they have to apply for change of use if theywant to sell them off as private homes, shopsor offices, and it is this that many councilshave refused to grant.

Pubs in Bath once earmarked for closurebut saved by councillors responding to localpressure include the Coeur de Lion, nowowned by Abbey Ales, and the Beehive onLansdown, Bath’s last cider house and nowconverted to the Grappa Bar (one thingcouncillors can’t do is stop pubs being turnedinto wine bars because that doesn’t count aschange of use).

Just over the border in Wiltshire, theChequers Inn in Box Market Place has beenclosed for over five years, awaiting a change ofheart by North Wiltshire Council to grant

change of use which hopefully will nevercome.

Yet the tide may be turning. Officialdisapproval of anti-social (and social) drinkingis on the increase, as is pressure from propertydevelopers. Many pubs would be worth farmore as private houses or business premises

A Few Swift Rambles

Change of use has been refused for the Chequers at Box

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than they are as pubs. The smoking ban is agolden opportunity for the pubcos to comeout of their corner fighting. And this time localcouncillors may not be in a mood to be resistthem.

A report in the business section of theBath Chronicle in January made the threat topublic houses clear. “Eyes of land-hungryhousing developers are being turned on thefreehold pubs of Bath,” was the article’sopening salvo.

Simon Gait, from Linden Homes, told theChronicle’s reporter that “freehouses repre-sent a great area of opportunity ... Withbrown-field land such a finite commodity weare redoubling our efforts to find suitablefreehold pubs in prime locations for ourbespoke homes.” Philip Marshall, managingdirector of Bath property firm Crisp Cowley,added that “we are seeing this kind of pubapproach by a number of developers nowbecause all the easy development sites aregone. Because of that, developers need to be abit clever.” Even though he advised caution,pointing out that “sometimes it might not beappropriate to lose such a local facility,” thelikelihood is that an increasing number of pubswill be snapped up by property developers.After referring to an unnamed Bath pubcurrently on the market and in the process ofbeing sold to housing developers, the articleconcluded by inviting readers to contactLinden with details of available property.

One Bath pub whose fate had already beensealed by the time the article appeared was theBurnt House on Wellsway. As lost opportu-

nities go, theBurnt Houseranks pretty high.It stood in anexpandingresidential area,with extensive carparking, on one ofthe major routesinto the city.

Nobodyknows how oldthe Burnt Housewas. It appearson a map of 1787,and, from the lookof it, dated fromthe early eight-eenth century.Whether an olderbuilding lurked inside, nobody knows, andnow nobody ever will, for last December theBurnt House was demolished.

The reason it was called the Burnt Houseisn’t known, although there are plenty oftheories. Some say it was used as a turnpikehouse, burned down by colliers protestingagainst the tolls they had to pay to carry theircoal to Bath. Others say it was burnt down bygypsies, offended by their treatment at thehands of the owner of the house. Whateverhappened, it survived the fire and was rebuilt,only to succumb to property developers in2006.

It was originally a farm, and in its earlydays, stood alone. While it is tempting to think

of waggoners andcoachmen stoppingoff there for a mug ofbeer or cider, there isno record of it being apub before ThomasStride opened it as abeerhouse in the1870s. The chancesare, though, that itoperated as anunofficial refuellingstop for many yearsbefore that.

As Bath expandedout towards the BurntHouse, and ascountry walking andcycling became morepopular, the pub grewrapidly. By 1898, itsaccommodation waslavish: three bars, ahalf-acre garden, a tearoom for ladycyclists, a stable forseven horses, a coachhouse, a brewery, acattle stand (fordrovers to park cattlewhile nipping in for adrink), and a skittlealley. From cowmento lady cyclists, theBurnt House catered

The Burnt House Inn as it appeared before demolition

for them all.So much for its history. The building was

not only one of oldest, but also one of themost interesting in Bath.

Before Wellsway was built, the only wayinto town was down the Old Fosse Road,which now runs at the back of the BurntHouse site. What became the back of thebuilding was originally the front, facing the OldFosse. Around 1830, when the new road wasbuilt on the other side of the Burnt House, anew building was slapped onto the back of theold. The difference in style between the oldand new parts of the building was marked.Look in the picture, for example, at thedifference between the old and new chimneystacks. And, tracing the lineaments of the oldstone building, cluttered by later accretions,try to imagine what the Burnt House was oncelike, when it stood in proud isolation, lookingout over the green hills of Somerset.

Over the years there were several changes.The ground-floor bay windows were added inthe late nineteenth century, the veranda in theearly twentieth. Much of the building wasgutted in the 1970s, but the exterior remainedlargely untouched. On the outbuilding on theright, part of the original farm, there was evena ring to tether your horse to if you felt soinclined.

But, despite its history, and despite itbeing within a World Heritage Site, in 2006 itwas signed into oblivion by an official inBath’s planning department. And, in thecurrent climate, if it can happen to the BurntHouse, it can happen just about anywhere.

Andrew Swift

The Burnt House a century ago: a pub at theheart of its community

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Island in the sea By your Nailsea correspondentLaurie Gibney

NAILSEA & BACKWELL RUGBY CLUBhave announced plans for this year’s beer andcider festival.

The event will take place from Friday 13July to Sunday 15 July at the club in thewestern fringe of Nailsea. As before, the clubwill have a roster of live entertainmentthroughout the weekend and will be raisingmoney for local charities. More details willemerge on the club’s festival website atwww.applefest.co.uk.

Following last year’s fantastic attendance,the club donated £3,000 to wheelchair charityGet Kids Going! This year the club expects toreturn its attention to the Babe Appeal charityand their hospice at Charlton Farm in Wraxall.

This will be the club’s fourth year ofrunning the festival, which over the years hasgrown to host some fifty beers plus aroundthirty ciders from Orchards, Thatcher’s,Wilkins and others. Last year’s festivalfavourites (and the first to be drunk dry) wereOrchard’s Dabinett cider (8.3%), and theMaris Otter pale malt bitter, Titanic Iceberg(4.1%)

Meanwhile, the new year has seen achange of club manager for the rugby club inthe (front-row) shape of Mark Hooper. Now afirst team prop at local rivals Clevedon, Markwill continue to serve one of the best-keptpints of Courage Best around, and for theduration of all forthcoming six-nationsinternational games is stocking ButcombeBitter as a guest beer.

The Ring o’Bells at St Mary Grove isknown locally as “The Ringers”, no doubtbecause it has provided a pleasant, communitypub where all the hard work of pulling on bellropes at the nearby Holy Trinity Church maybe rewarded – in addition to blessing fromabove of course! Kevin and Diane Mildon findtime not only to run a busy pub but also totake an active part in pub teams and fund-raising activities.

Last year a team from the pub raised astaggering £11,000 for cancer research bynavigating a dragon boat from London, up theThames, along the Kennet & Avon Canal anddown the River Avon to Bristol’s historicharbour. In the previous year they walkedHadrian’s Wall raising funds for charity, andthis year they will be dragon boating againfrom Stourport on the River Severn toSharpness on the Gloucester Sharpness ShipCanal, and then will take to the Severn andAvon estuaries (escorted by experts in thesedifficult waters) and end in Bristol’s historicharbour.

The Ring o’Bells is home to a table skittlesteam, two ddarts teams, two crib teams, threepetanque teams and five skittles teams. Alsothe Nailsea Folk Club meets there on certainFridays when local, national and international

artists perform. On the first, third and fifth(when there is one) Sunday of the month, fromabout 8pm, Irish music may be enjoyed whena local jam session gets going. There are anumber of not too intrusive TV screens aroundwhich provide Sky Sports and PremiershipPlus programmes, and an extensive outsidechildren’s play area and patio.

Food is served at lunchtimes seven days aweek from 12 noon until 2 pm, and on Fridayand Saturday evenings from 6 pm until 9 pm.Most importantly, there is always a goodselection of excellent real ales, with Bass (ongravity from a cask in the cellar) and CourageBest as regulars plus two guest ales from a listwhich usually includes Bath Ales Gem,Brain’s SA, Caledonian Deuchars IPA, JohnSmith’s Cask, Sharp’s Doom Bar and Wych-wood Hobgoblin. On Mondays to Fridaysbetween 4 and 5 pm pints are available with ahappy-hour 30p off.

At the New Battle Axe in Wraxall, Hadi,who has been in charge since 1st November,tells me that some redecorating is going aheadduring the Winter and Spring. A “free”function room with a bar is now available forweddings, anniversaries and other parties. Thecarvery, à la carte, bar, two-for-one and Indianmenus prove ever popular, as are the real alesprovided by local brewers from Yatton,Newman’s, their Red Stag and anotherchanging brew usually being on tap – but at theNew Battle Axe lines are cleaned betweenevery cask so there may occasionally only beone real ale available. Newman’s HoppyChristmas proved so popular that it was stillon sale on the 20th January.

Bragg’s Restaurant and Wine Bar arenow opening the restaurant in the evenings.Your correspondent and his family enjoyed anexcellent meal there at the end of December.Cream of vegetable soup or pate were ourstarters, followed by fillet steak; steak, ale andmushroom pudding; three-cheese pasta andbroccoli bake; country-style vegetable Kiev;and breaded scampi. With drinks all round aswe chose from the menu, wine with the meal,and coffee to follow, the price of £14 per headwas quite reasonable.

The three days between Christmas andNew Year were quiet in the licensed trade andat Bragg’s Richard and Lucy had wiselydecided to field one real ale, Abbot Ale, insteadof the usual two, thus ensuring that good realale quality is maintained.

Trying to cover almost twenty bars as avolunteer for Pints West is quite a challenge. Inaddition I have recently been leading theformation of a new “Rare Ales Group” in theBristol and District area of CAMRA, to beknown as “BADRAG” – of which detailselsewhere in this edition. Unfortunately I havenot been able to visit all of the bars “on mypatch”. I am grateful to Phil Brooks foragreeing to look after the Angel, Miners andBird in Hand in Long Ashton which I havebeen “caretaking” for some time. Offers tohelp me with research, particularly in Nailseaand on the subject of facilities for smokerswhen the ban comes in from July, would bemuch appreciated, contact initially through theeditor of Pints West.

And Finally ...Attention Home Brewers

The monthly Nailsea Newspaper reportedin January 2007 details of interest to homebrewers in the Nailsea area. The Nailsea Wineand Beermakers’ Circle meets on the firstFriday of each month from 8 to 11 pm atChurch House on Silver Street in Nailsea andwelcomes anyone who is known to brew ale ormake wine at home, or would like to give it ago. Activities include talks and tastings,competitions and demonstrations. Call KeithRoberts on 01275 858996 for further details.

The article said that their members brew ormake the odd “barrel” of beer or wine. I amsure that was a slip of the “pen” because homebrewers or wine makers, or even the hundredsof micro-brewers would be very unlikely tobrew beer or wine by the “barrel”! For thosewho don’t know, beer and wine is stored in“casks” of various sizes, of which a barrel is a36-gallon or 288-pint cask weighing about 200kilos, or the weight of three adults.

Home brewers are most likely to use the“pin” size cask which contains four and a halfgallons or 36 pints, or even smaller casks. Themajority of casks used commercially now arenne-gallon “firkins” which weigh 50 kilos orabout 8 stone, or 18-gallon kilderkins. A smallnumber of breweries including Bathams atBlack Delph in the West Midlands use 36-gallon barrels and 54-gallon hogsheads. Thelarger sizes of casks, which I have never comeacross, are 72-gallon puncheons, 108-gallonbutts and 216-gallon tuns, but they might beused now for static storage in the wine trade.Braggs licensees Richard Beaton and Lucy

King (photocourtesy of Clevedon Mercury)

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Chimera India Pale AleVoted Beer of the Festival Bristol 2005

Silver medal winner at theBeauty of Hop Competition June 2004

Brewed by the Downton Brewery Co. Ltd.(tel 01 722 322890)

who also brew Chimera Gold, Chimera Red,Chimera Quadhop and Chimera Raspberry Wheat

READERS’ LETTERSReaders are welcome to sendletters to Pints West Editor,

Steve Plumridge,Garden Flat, 6 Royal York Villas,

Clifton, Bristol BS8 4JRsteve.plumridge@bristol.ac.uk

Where have all the dart boards gone?Dear Steve,

More and more pubs are taking down theirdart boards. Half a dozen of us like the odd game,but where?

Could someone make a list of pubs with goodbeer and which have dart boards, and publish it inPints West? And perhaps state if there are anyrestrictions like no darts after 9pm?

Yours,John Marshall,Kingsdown Parade,Bristol.

Here are some to be getting on with:Masons Arms, Stapleton;Star, Pucklechurch;Fleur de Lys, Pucklechurch;Hare on the Hill, Kingsdown (I think board isstill there);Portwall Tavern, Redcliffe;Ring O’Bells, Coalpit Heath (in back room);Downend Tavern, Fishponds;Cross Hands, Winterbourne Down;Blue Flame, West End, Nailsea;

Prince’s Motto, Barrow Gurney;White Hart, Palmer Row, Weston-super-Mare.Any more suggestions? Ed.

Clifton pubsSteve,

Whilst down in Bristol in December Idecided to have a wander around Clifton and visitsome of the local pubs. I thought Pints Westreaders might be interested in my findings.

The Clifton – no smoking room at thefront; Fuller’s London Pride (£2.50) – verygood; Taylor’s Landlord also available.

Albion – clearly a foodie pub with most ofthe tables set out for meals. Sharp’s CornishCoaster (a pricey £2.70) was very average,nearing the end of its life. Bath Ales Festivityalso available.

Hophouse – reasonably busy with a youngishclientele; Vale Grumpling Premium (£2.70) wasvery average – also available was Vale BestBitter, Butcombe Gold, Wadworth IPA and 6X.

Quadrant – more like a wine bar than a puband busy with a number of smartly dressed officeworkers. Bath SPA (£2.60) was fine butunexceptional. Butcombe Bitter also available.

Somerset House – very smokey but busylocal. Courage Best (£2.30) – average; alsoavailable was Greene King Old Speckled Hen andCharles Wells Eagle IPA (wrongly marked as a4.5% beer – it’s 3.6%!).

Royal Oak – excellent pub worthy of itsGood Beer Guide status. The Sharp’s Doom Bar(£2.40) was in fine form. Also available wasButcombe Bitter, Courage Best and Fuller’sLondon Pride, with Otter Ale due to appear thatFriday.

The Mall – no-smoking pub with verygood Fuller’s LondonPride (£2.50) – alsoavailable was Taylor’sLandlord and GreeneKing Old Speckled Hen.It also had Addlestone’sCloudy and WestonsOrganic Vintage cidersand a good range ofdraft foreign beers:Hoegaarden, LeffeBlonde, FranziskanerWheat Beer and DeKoninck.

Clifton Sausage Barand Restaurant – verybusy with diners – moreof a restaurant than apub – Butcombe Bitter(£2.60) was onlyaverage.

Coronation Tap –busiest pub of theevening with lots ofstudents, most of themdrinking the TauntonExhibition cider(apparently 8.5%) –served only by the halfpint plastic glass at £2!I stuck to the beer –Brakspear’s Best

(£2.30); Bass was also available along with fourother ciders – Addlestone’s, Thatcher’s, CheddarValley and Taunton Traditional.

Grapes Tavern – very quiet locals’ pub withjust Wadworth 6X available (£2.40) at the time– the Wadworth IPA was unavailable and thepump clip was turned round.

Avon Gorge Hotel (White Lion Bar) – smarthotel bar with excellent Butcombe Brunel IPAalbeit at £3.00 a pint!

Portcullis – very nice locals’ pub, reason-ably busy for a Tuesday evening with CourageBest (£2.40) – also available was Bass. Thepump clip for the Portcullis Bitter (4.5%),presumably a house beer, was turned round.

Overall thoughts were that the area seemedto be able of supporting a high concentration ofpubs serving a wide variety of different groups.Beer quality was pretty good although there wasnothing outstanding other than the beer at theRoyal Oak and the half I had in the Avon GorgeHotel. Prices were high in comparison to thosehere in the North West, but perhaps typical forBristol? All in all an enjoyable evening and as afinal thought I have to praise the fish and chipsat the Clifton Fish Bar – first class (praise indeedfrom a northerner!).

Keep up the good work with Pints West.Regards,Gary Elflett,Marple, Cheshire.

What exactly does “very average” mean? Ed.

Hi Steve,Hope I’ve managed to catch the latest issue

of Pints West with some news for you from TheHillgrove. We unfortunately missed the previousissue with details of the whisky tasting that weheld back in late November. This was verysuccessful, with all tickets selling out. The tasterspaid £10 per ticket and enjoyed a taste of tendifferent whiskies from distilleries acrossScotland, whisky-compatible nibbles and aninformal talk. They then took full advantage ofthe discounted rate on The Hillgrove whiskyrange that their tickets gave them. A greatevening for all involved and we will definitely beholding more events like this in the future.

To keep up with all the latest news anddeals, customers can now join the Dawkins beerclub for free at any of the three pubs, TheHillgrove, The Miners Arms and The Victoria.By completing their details, they will thenreceive a voucher that entitles them to a freepint or drink to the value of £4 during commu-nity pubs week. All three pubs are true commu-nity pubs so we are pleased to be giving custom-ers something back for their support!

Keep an eye out for a very special celebra-tion at The Hillgrove this St Patrick’s Day.Historically a traditional Irish pub (hence thelesser-used ‘Porter Stores’ part of our name, outof use to prevent confusion with the CothamPorter Stores) and known formerly as TheDubliner many years ago we intend to celebrateSt Patrick’s in style!

Phew! That’s all for now Steve.Many thanks and kind regards,Marianne White, manager & licenseeThe Hillgrove Porter Stores,Kingsdown, Bristol.

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Every issue we ask Pints West readersto let us know if there is a part of Bristol(& District) that you would like to seefeatured in this column. Then, when no-one writes in, we decide for ourselves.This issue, we’re having a look at CliftonVillage.Full details of all the pubs mentioned can befound on the www.britishpubguide.comweb site. Landlords and regulars in thesepubs are welcome to update the informa-tion on the website whenever they like.

BRITAIN is struggling towards Spring. Ofcourse it is only weeks since the whole nationwas brought to a standstill by three flakes ofsnow and enough ice to make one “Mr Freeze”Ice-pop. But with the arrival of the firstcrocuses, with birds starting to look for nestingmaterials, and with another succession of not-quite-famous people filling prime time telly bydoing something very badly that isn’t even thething that they were good enough at to becomenot-quite-famous in the first place, you knowthat spring is in the air.

Well, we thought that it was time to revisitClifton, Bristol’s Jewel in the Crown, with itshistoric buildings, the Bridge and CameraObscura, it is surely one of the best places tovisit in Springtime. So off we went one springSaturday.

Since the Portcullis on Wellington Terraceis closed when you visit (the landlord who didso much for the place, even introducing hisown recipe Porcullis Bitter, has left) we startour visit at the White Lion bar of the AvonGorge hotel. This place is renowned for itsviews over the Avon Gorge and Brunel’sSuspension Bridge, best appreciated in fineweather from the large terrace out back. Onthis visit we spot a single handpump dispens-ing, aptly enough, a tasty pint of ButcombeBrunel IPA.

Next up on our visit is the Greyhound inPrincess Victoria Street. This pub has recentlybeen refurbished, with the front bar nowboasting a large screen television for watchingall the football and rugby matches. There’s amore airy feel to the place now. The beers areCourage Best Bitter, Fuller’s London Pride and

a crisp pint of Bath Gem that is hoppy andmalty at the same time. In years gone by, thispub was known to some as the Sally Gunnell,though the explanation of why is a littleunkind and best left to a future CAMRAsocial.

The shortest of walks from the Greyhoundis the Somerset House. The Somerset Houseis something of a throw back to a bygone era.You can see where the alley used to run downthe side of the building, as you enter throughdouble doors. There is much wood about theplace: furniture; floors; one or two of thecustomers. Actually, this is a friendly, simple

boozer, today offering Courage Best andGreene King Old Speckled Hen, and both arein perfectly good nick.

Next stop is the Clifton in Regent Street.Here is another pub just creaking under theweight of all that history. There is no doubtthat pubs like this, and many around the

region, are a fundamentally important part ofBritain’s history, and our heritage. AlthoughCAMRA campaigns for the preservation ofsuch buildings, there can be no doubt that themost powerful way of protecting them is tovote with your feet.

The truth is, if everyone who believed inour heritage made a point of visiting historicallocal pubs in preference to newly-built super-pubs built on brown-field sites, then the bignational developers would soon start to realisethat investing in our historic pubs makes morecommercial sense than selling them off forresidential use while building new ones with amillionth of the warmth and character.

The Clifton seems to be doing well at themoment. The corridor that leads down the leftof the pub has one door leading to the snugfront bar; but also opens out into the morespacious rear bar. There is a quiet dignity tothe place during the day time, with a muchlivelier ambience in the evenings. On our visit,there is Taylor Landlord, Fuller’s London

Pride, Caledonian Deuchar’s IPA andButcombe Brunel IPA on handpump, as wellas speciality beers such as Erdunger Weissbierand Fruli Fruit Beer. The Taylor Landlord hasa really citrusy smack to it.

From the Clifton, it’s back up RegentStreet to the Quadrant. The Quadrant is theperfect pub in Clifton for people-watchingand, with its picture window, drags thediscerning drinker in like a sailor to a siren. Onhandpump today are Butcombe Gold and BathSPA. Both are on top form, and one can’thelp thinking that Clifton Village is as well-served for a decent pint of beer as it has beenat any point in the last twenty years.

From the Quadrant, head over the pedes-trian crossing and on to Boyces Avenue, wherethe Albion pub and dining rooms nestles at thebottom of its own pedestrian cul-de-sac. It’sbeen said in these pages before, but how manypubs are there where you can have quail eggswashed down with a pint of Thatcher’sTraditional Cider? Well, you are slightlydisappointed that you can’t here today, butsuch delicacies have been enjoyed here in therecent past, and a barmaid assures that theyare due to make a reapperance soon. On yourvisit, they are actually offering Hot Thatcher’sCider. You haven’t had this before, and give ita go. It is a wonderfully therapeutic experi-ence, though hard to describe. If you can

Shine on Clifton Village

The Greyhound

The Quadrant

The CliftonThe White Lion

The Somerset House

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imagine the medicinal impact of a hot lemondrink, allied to the sensation of that first nip ofbrandy when you come in from a mountainexpedition, linked with the refreshing hit of asmooth dry cider on a summer’s day, then youprobably ought to stop being so pretentiousand just enjoy the drink. Also on offer heretoday are Wye Valley Bitter, Sharp’s DoomBar, Bath Barnstormer and Butcombe. Yetmore independent regional beers – terrific.

Next is the Hophouse in King’s Road.Converted from the old entrance into a coveredshopping arcade, the Hophouse has become afixture and popular night spot in the village.This buzzing boozer boasts a pretty mezza-nine, though not necessarily in use, and a

downstairs bar characterised by soft sofas, arelaxed atmosphere and the full range ofWadworth beers and/or guest beers. On ourvisit, the flagship brew 6X is complementedby Bishop’s Tipple, the former Gibbs Mewbeer from Salisbury. I confess both beersseemed a little tired on our visit.

From the Hophouse, it’s back acrossRegent Street and into the one-way system.Next stop is the Clifton Sausage in PortlandStreet. Now, clearly any establishment that

The Royal Oak

The Grapes Tavern

The Coronation Tap

The Hop House

The Clifton Sausage

The Mall

offers forty different types of sausagedeserves more than a little respect, but for thepurposes of Pints West, the key point here isthat the Clifton Sausage very sensiblyconcentrates on offering just one real ale, butkeeping it in tippety tip-top condition. It isno coincidence, therefore, that this is as good apint of Butcombe Bitter as you will get inBristol.

From the “Sausage”, it’s straight across theMall and into the Coronation Tap. Now, theCoronation could easily feature in the currentseries of Life On Mars. The truth is, it doesn’tseem to have changed much in character sincethe seventies, and possibly well before. Stillthe same style of décor – though the pub has

expanded in size since the early days – andstill beloved of generations of students, and theodd ciderhead. On my return, there was stillthe same mix of Thatcher’s and Tauntontraditional ciders, complemented by very goodpints of Bass and Pedigree.

If you carry on through the CoronationTap, and leave by the back (or should that befront?) entrance, you find yourself just yardsfrom the entrance to the Grapes Tavern.

Another Wadworth house that has undergone anumber of refurbs and changes-of-hands inrecent years, it is currently in the capablehands of Sherrie Newcombe. The seating isstill impossibly comfy, and the Wadworthbeers are on very good form.

Out of the Grapes and back towards theMall, you see the Royal Oak across the roadahead of you. Good Beer Guide-listed in2007, this is a no-nonsense but welcoming pubaimed at a wide range of clientele. From localprofessionals to sight-seeing tourists, fromstudents to long-term residents, the Royal Oakfeels like a comfy pair of slippers that havebeen moulded over the years to perfectlymatch your feet. The recent addition of aweekly guest ale has added variety, but theButcombe, Courage Best Bitter, Fuller’sLondon Pride and Sharp’s Doom Bar Bitter areas edifying as ever.

Finally, a stroll to the top of the Mall tovisit the former Lyon’s Cornerhouse that is,after a few years in other guises, glorying inthe name of The Mall. This is another pubthat has suffered in recent years from a mixedreputation, either as a den of student iniquityor as a jaded tourist trap. Delighted to saythat the current incumbents have successfullytransformed the place into a kicking bohemianwatering hole offering a superb range of beersand ciders. On our visit, the choice wasbetween (deep breath): Sleeman Honey BrownLager, Kuppers Kolsch, Schneider WeisseBier, Franziskaner Weissbier, Fruli Fruit Beer,Leffe Blond, Weston’s Draught Organic Cider,Addlestone’s Cloudy Cider, Fuller’s LondonPride, Timothy Taylor Landlord and WickwarOld Arnold.

The feeling as I poured myself into a taxihome from Clifton Village is that here are thebest part of a dozen pubs almost all offering agood choice of real ales and traditional ciders ina pleasant and empathetic environment. Ofcourse, there is much work for CAMRA to doto safeguard the future of the decent pint in adecent pub, but if Clifton is anything to go by,there is at least the chance of the battle beingwon.

Duncan Shine

Is there an area covered by the Bristol &District Branch of CAMRA that you wouldlike to see featured in this column in thenext issue? If so, send an email toDuncan.Shine@britishpubguide.com,and we’ll see what we can do.

The Albion

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A YEAR back I reviewed 2005 in relation tothe local real ale scene. The central theme ofthat article was the astonishing amount ofchange that had taken place in a mere 12months. So now to 2006 – and it is fair to saythat the pace of change has certainly notslowed at all, as I will attempt to illustrate.

At the start of the year two of our mostnotable free houses in Somerset changed hands.The Woolpack in St George near Weston-super-Mare was purchased by Butcombebrewery, whilst the family that sold theWoolpack bought the Plough in Congresbury,a long-standing and much loved Good BeerGuide regular. Around the same timeButcombe also bought two more free houses –the Queen Victoria at Priddy and the RingO’Bells at Hinton Blewitt. Butcombe havechanged little of the basic nature of theseexcellent pubs, but naturally have sought toconcentrate on their own range of very goodbeers, with a few (normally predictable andwidely available) guest beers. They have alsorecently bought two more pubs just outside ofour branch area. I can think of many ailingpubs that would be vastly improved by theButcombe treatment (including one in mystreet!) but find it a bit frustrating that they

tend to buy the better free houses – with theresult that they may sometimes actuallydecrease choice in that pub (although theQueen Vic was already majoring on Butcombebeers to be fair). I should point out that this ismy own point of view and not necessarily thatof CAMRA as a whole.

Elsewhere in Somerset, the long standinglicensees of the other Ring O’Bells atCompton Martin, owned by Butcombe,moved to the nearby New Inn at Blagdonwhich is a Wadworth house. The newly builtEbdon Arms near Worle was voted into theGood Beer Guide after impressing with itsrange and quality of beers, only for its owners(Celtic Inns) to sell out completely to Wolver-hampton and Dudley. The beer range wasimmediately changed – removing the much-loved RCH brews from just down road infavour of Marstons and Jennings brands fromfar away. Shortly afterwards the licenseesupped sticks to take over yet anotherButcombe pub – the Swan at Rowberrow.

The big story of the year in Bristoloccurred when Smiles Traditional Inns (orwhatever name they had at the time) suddenlyclosed their only two pubs, the serial award-

winning Cornubia and the Smiles BreweryTap, without warning in July. Both pubswere thriving at the time and the whole affairwas shrouded in mystery. We were advisedthat the Brewery Tap would reopen in thefuture as a microbrewery – but nobody isholding their breath as the whole bar wasgutted and ripped out within days of it closing.Six months later – still no sign of that micro-brewery. The Cornubia just lay idle untilNovember, with none of us able to find outwhat was happening and most of us fearingthat it had also served its last pint. Almost assuddenly as it had closed, it opened again toour huge relief! An email came to us fromGary Lumber of the tiny Hidden Brewery indeepest Wiltshire. He had bought the leaseand was bringing probably the most-loved beerpub in Bristol back to life! It now serves threeor four of Gary’s brews and around threeguests from other small breweries. It seems tohave immediately regained all of its oldcustomers and more. A very happy ending foronce!

Last year I reported on the very importantrole played by two local entrepreneurs inimproving the availability of quality real ales inquality pubs. Glen Dawkins, of the Hillgrove

2006 - another year of change on thelocal beer scene Vince Murray takes a look back at 2006 and the

changes it brought to local pubs and breweries

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PINTS WEST......................................................................................................................................................

National CAMRA web site : www.camra.org.uk 27

Porter Stores in Kingsdown and MinersArms in St Werburghs fame, also took overand rejuvenated the Victoria in SouthleighRoad, Clifton in 2006. He now runs threesuperb pubs all offering excellent and variedreal ales, pleasant surroundings and goodcompany. Where will you buy next year Glen?It’s nice here in Kingswood you know! OllieBainbridge, who already had he Inn on theGreen in Horfield, the Robin Hood’s Retreatin Bishopston and the Adam and Eve inHotwells, took on his most ambitious projectyet this year. The Cross Hands in Fishpondsis a very large pub that had been totallyneglected and gained a less than brilliantreputation and had not served any real ale inrecent times. What a surprise then when Ollietook it over and introduced 12 (twelve!) realales – all of them changing guests from smallerbreweries. Many of us doubted his sanity but,after a short settling in period, this is now atruly wonderful example of what can beachieved in the right hands – in this case PhilLovemore who moved from the Adam and Eveto take over early in 2006. Sadly we haveheard that Ollie has recently sold the lease onthe Adam and Eve, but do not yet know whoto or what their intentions are. Who knows, itmay free up some cash for Ollie to buy a pubnear you? Its nice here in Kingswood youknow Ollie!

The Good Beer Guide, as always, cameout in September 2006 and, as always, wemade a fair few changes. Amongst the newentries were the Old Fish Market in BaldwinStreet, central Bristol, the Fuller’s pub that hasgone from strength to strength, the Royal Oakin Clifton Village, and several of the pubsalready mentioned above. In Somerset the OldInn at Congresbury (Young’s) and its name-sake the Old Inn in Clevedon were among thenew entries, along with the Ploughboy inGreen Ore, near Wells. In the latter case we

feel we may have previously missed a trick asit has been in the same hands for 19 years butwe simply weren’t aware of how good the beerwas. We have also discovered a few otherpubs that have impressed with their beerrecently. These include the Duke Of York inJubilee Road, St Werburghs (three changinginteresting beers), the Fox at Easter Comptonnear Cribbs Causeway (three local beers) andthe Ship at Redcliffe Bay in Portishead –apparently built by the landlord in 1974 andhe is still there! Also on the up are the RedLion in Staple Hill (Wadworths and guests),the Poachers in Portishead (four beers), andthe Windmill in Windmill Hill, close toBedminster Station (three beers from BristolBeer Factory). In central Bristol both theWhite Lion on the centre and the NavalVolunteer in King Street have impressedmany of us with improved beer choice andquality, as have the Ship in Park Row and theCommercial Rooms in Corn Street. Forreasons I cannot find space for here, we haveto select our pubs for the 2008 Good BeerGuide in late February and we will have ourwork cut out as we have far more nominationsthan available slots in the book. Somewhereelse that the beers have impressed (though hasshocked with some of the prices – £3.20 forBath Festivity indeed!) is the Albion inClifton.

For the cider lovers amongst you the newApple barge, moored along Welsh Back intown, is a new “must try” destination with itshuge range of ciders and perries.

On the brewery front, it is fair to say thatneither Courage (real ales moving again to bebrewed in Bedford!) nor Smiles (brewed inWalsall!) can claim to have any meaningfulactive connection with Bristol any more. Onthe positive side we have seen Butcombe,Bath Ales, Bristol Beer Factory, CotswoldSpring and Wickwar beers all more freely

available on bars around town. Keynshambrewery is also starting to appear frequentlyand is being joined by the new Cheddar Alesoutfit. Also expected to appear soon areArbor Ales based in the Old Tavern inFishponds. Add that to the much greateravailability of brews from other small brewersfrom the South West and further afield andthings are far from despondent round here.Combine this with the fact that we have justsold over 4,000 tickets in a few days for ourBristol Beer Festival (and could have soldmany, many more), and supply and demanddo seem to be coming together for once. Whatexcuse then for some pubs in Bristol still toserve no real ale claiming that there is nodemand?

Apologies if I haven’t mentioned yourfavourite real ale pub as there simply isn’tspace to cover the very many more I haven’tmentioned.

Incredibly, I can already report on somemore significant changes in the four weeks of2007 up to the date of writing this article. Inaddition to the Adam and Eve, we understandthat the long-standing licensees of the Or-chard Tavern (as famous for its cider as itsbeer) in Hanover Place near the SS GreatBritain have sold their lease and are retiring inFebruary or March. The Portcullis in Clifton,which was gaining a very strong following forits beers, recently closed and it is believed thelandlord has left (hopefully it will be openagain by the time you read this). The samefate has befallen the Raglan in Weston-super-Mare which offered the biggest choice of beersin town (although a note in the window says“reopening in February with the sameemphasis on real ales” apparently – let’s hopeso). At the time of writing nobody knowswho is taking on these pubs and whether theywill seek to build on the strong foundationsbuilt by the previous occupants. If changecontinues at this pace next year’s review couldbe an even longer article!

Vince MurrayDON’T FORGET TO INVITE ‘BOB’TO ALL YOUR PARTIES AND BARBECUES

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Local CAMRA web site : www.camrabristol.org.uk28

WE of the Clifton Rocks Railway Trust havebeen refurbishing Clifton Rocks Railway sinceEaster 2005. This started life as a cliff railwaylinking Hotwells to Clifton between 1893 andfinished operating in 1934. From 1940 it hadmultiple war-uses because it was divided intosections by the Ministry of Works for use byImperial Airways to mend barrage balloons,for use as a night time refuge shelter frombombs by the residents, and by the BBC.

Apart from clearing loads of rubble anddebris, we have been searching under the refugeledges to see what the residents left behindduring their wartime stay. There are threerefuge areas – two large and one small, the largeones each having ledges for about 90 people,the small for about 40 – so there is a big area tosearch. So far the bottles we have found are:

Type Quantity½ pint beer bottle 8½ pint cider bottle 1½ pint soft drinks bottle 12½ pint milk bottle 71 pint beer bottle 21 pint soft drinks bottle 61 pint milk bottle 51 pint sherry bottle 22 pint beer bottle 1disinfectant bottle 2

horlicks bottle 1medicine bottle 5spirit bottle 1coffee essence bottle 5

This shows that soft drinks were the mostpopular beverage, but beer was undoubtedlypopular. Bristol United was the mostcommon beer bottle found (at least one bottlestill has beer in it), and only one bottle wasfrom George’s Brewery. In the old tunnel wediscovered under Sion Hill from the railway,which had been bricked up in the wartime, wefound a green glass bottle of Sunrise Brandbeer from Ashton Gate Brewery probablyfrom the 1920’s. This is complete withstopper and again presumably contains beer.

Sunrise Brand beer was made at theAshton Grate Brewery between the very late1800’s and pre-1930 (and the name hasrecently been resurrected by the Bristol BeerFactory at the same site). Green bottles areearlier than brown ones.

Bristol United Beer was made between1889 and 1961, being merged with George’sBrewery in 1956 (which was later taken overby Courage).

Why don’t you come and see the bottlesfor yourself on the next open day at CliftonRocks, Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th May,10 till 4.

Have a look on the web atwww.cliftonrocksrailway.org.uk

Bristol United Beer Drunkin Clifton Rocks Railway

This Bristol United bottle still has a label saying“Home Brewed”

and www.b-i-a-s.org.uk/rocks_railway_refurbishment.htmlif you want to find out more about thisamazing project.

Maggie Shapland, Restoration Officer

News from the Beer FactoryTHE Bristol Beer Factory, based in one of theremaining buildings of the old Ashton Gatebrewery, reports that, after a fantasticChristmas, they are now thinking ahead andtowards the Bristol Beer Festival and recreat-ing one of Bristol’s old favourites.

“A part for Bristol’s ‘Heritage’ you couldsay!” is how Simon Bartlett, ProductionDirectory at the brewery, put it. “We arelooking to bring out a strong, dark ale verysimilar to the Smiles Exhibition that oncegraced our pubs.” Smile Exhibition, readersmay recall, was renamed Smiles Heritage manyyears back.

Simon says, “Surprisingly enough, it’sactually very, very close to the original recipe– it does of course help having Smiles’ oldhead brewer amongst the ranks!” The chap heis referring to is Chris Thurgeson who leftSmiles to take up his position with the BristolBeer Factory.

The new Heritage beer should be availableat the Bristol Beer Festival in March, andpresumably in the pubs thereafter. The award-winning Milk Stout will also be at the festival.

Two others of their beers, No. 7 and Gold,will very shortly be available in bottles,perhaps even by the time you read this. The

first bottling run of No. 7 was due to be at theend of February and so available to buy fromthe beginning of March.

For further information about goings-on atthe Beer Factory, check out their revampedwebsite at www.bristolbeerfactory.co.uk.This gives you, amongst other things, a historyof the brewery, details of the beers made, andwhere you might find them. According to thesite, Bristol Beer Factory beers may be found,on either a permanent or an occasional basis, atthe following Bristol venues (though I’m surethere must be more):# Tobacco Factory Cafe Bar and Theatre,Raleigh Road, Southville (served through whatlook like keg fonts, but the Beer Factory beershere are indeed real ales);# Pipe & Slippers, Stokes Croft;# Hope & Anchor, Jacob’s Wells Road,Hotwells;# Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Place, Hotwells;# Shakespeare, Henry Street, Totterdown;# Cottage Inn, Baltic Warf, Cumberland Road,Hotwells;# Windmill, Windmill Hill;# Greenbank, Bellevue Road, Easton;# Adam & Eve, Hope Chapel Hill, Hotwells.

SPThis Ashton Gate bottle is as it was when it

had just been dug out

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National CAMRA web site : www.camra.org.uk 29

Reputedly Bath’s oldest inn steeped intradition and renowned the world over.Described by The Campaign for Real Ale as a rareand unspoiled pub interior of outstanding historic

interest and listed on the National Inventory of Heritage Pubs.

Serving traditional English ales including:Bellringer brewed in Bath

and Burton’s favourite brew Bass.

23 THE VINEYARDS, PARAGON, BATH Tel 01225 425072

How much!?!THE next time someone gets excitedabout spotting a £3 pint in Bristol, youmight like to think of my recentexperience in Tunbridge Wells. We werein a Good Beer Guide listed pub andafter the draft foreign beers provedrather expensive, I took pity on theperson buying the next round. Therewas a Dark Star beer on hand pump andalthough it didn’t appear on the pricelist and the cramped bar area meant wecouldn’t see the detail on the pumpclip, we assumed it would be a morereasonable price.

Some expletives later my friendrealised that he had just been charged £5for my pint! It turned out to be DarkStar Imperial Stout and admittedly youwould expect to pay a premium forsuch a beer that weighs in at 10.5%alcohol. However, it was generally feltthat £5 was rather steep and that thejustification for it not appearing on theprice list “it’s a guest beer” wassomewhat poor.

One potentially serious aspect wasthat there was no hint of considerationof responsible drinking as the barmanmade no effort to check if we realisedthe strength of the pint we had ordered.Fortunately it did taste good and wasobviously not an ordinary strengthbeer. Still, it’s just as well I wasn’tdriving. Richard Brooks

In search of RCH beersFOR those of you who appreciate the fantasticreal ales produced by the RCH brewery at WestHewish near Weston-Super-Mare . . . but findthem difficult to track down other than at beerfestivals and occasionally as a guest beer in localpubs (albeit pubs like the Crown at Churchilland the Windmill at Portishead do keep a regularRCH beer) . . . then there may be some goodnews on the horizon.

Last summer, Ray Sparks took over theRoyal Artillery at Highbridge in Somerset as afreehouse and, as Graham Dunbavan, HeadBrewer at RCH, lives virtually next door, thetwo got together. This resulted in RCHsupplying new handpumps and two or three oftheir beers becoming a permanent fixture(Double Header plus other regular and seasonalbrews).

The pub was re-launched over the Augustbank holiday weekend with a mini beer, ciderand wine festival; with all of the regular RCHbeers being available, either on draught at the baror on stillage in the marquee in the garden.There was also entertainment for children, livemusic and a barbecue. Ray has introduced a newfood menu and Sunday lunches are also pro-vided. There is a real fire and a skittle alley.Subsequent to the re-launch, refurbishment workhas continued to further improve the facilities.

From the beginning of December, RCH’sstupendous winter beer Santa Fé (7.3% ABV)was a regular feature. For those of you whofondly remember the Coopers Arms next to the

train station in Highbridge as a regular outlet forRCH beers prior to it being taken over by Scottish& Newcastle, you will not be too surprised to hearthat several of its former regulars have transferredtheir allegiance to the Royal Artillery.

Getting there is slightly more difficult than theCoopers, but relatively straight forward: proceedfrom the train station past the Coopers uptowards the mini-roundabout in the centre ofHighbridge, turn left and follow the A38 towardsBridgwater; the Artillery can be found set backfrom the road on the right on the border ofHighbridge and West Huntspill (look out for theflag of St. George). Walking briskly should seeyou there in under half an hour. Alternatively, the21/21A bus stops right outside the pub or youcould get a taxi from the station. If you insist ondriving, there is a small car park in front of thepub. They are open from lunchtime until finalclosing every day and can be contacted on 01278783553.

Ray has been in the trade for several years and,in addition to the Royal Artillery, he also has theOak House on the outskirts of Weston-super-Mare (formerly the Ancaster), where he hasdraught RCH beers, and Ice Bar (in the centre ofWeston-super-Mare), where he has bottled RCHbeers.

The potential good news on the horizon forbeer drinkers in Bristol is that Ray is looking totake on a pub in our area where RCH beers wouldfeature prominently.

So, watch this space for further developments!Dave Graham

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Brewing excellence from the Heart of Somerset since 1979It has been 27 years since Cotleigh Brewery started trading from its first home, the Cotleigh Farmhouse in Washfield near Tiverton in Devon.

Immediate success forced the brewer to move to larger premises, and in 1980 the company relocated to Wiveliscombe, 11 miles west of Taunton.Last year the business celebrated its Jubilee 25th Anniversary. Cotleigh Brewery supplies 300 freehouses in the South West and is available in therest of the UK through selected wholesalers. Cotleigh beers in cask and bottle are now available in the Bristol area. Phone the brewery for details.

Tawny Bitter3.8% abv

A West Country classic, a subtle hop palatewhich blends with the sweetness of the malt,

to give a beautiful and balanced flavour.

Barn Owl Premium Ale4.5% abv

Copper coloured with hints of toffee and nutwith a smooth malty bitter sweet finish.

Champion Beer of the Maltings Festival 1995.

Buzzard Dark Ale4.8% abv

Traditional old ale, deep copper red in colour. Thechocolate malt gives a dry nutty flavour with

hints of amarone biscuit.

Cotleigh 254.0% abv

An explosion of flavours originating from theAmerican Cascade hops gives this brilliant pale

golden beer a fresh aroma and a fruit filled finish.

Golden Eagle Best Bitter4.2% abv

Smooth and malty with a background ofhoney flavours offering a refreshing and

citrus finish.

Harrier Lite3.5% abv

A light golden low alcohol beer withadelicate floral and fruuity aroma leading to

a smooth, almost sweet finish.

Cotleigh Brewery, Ford Road, Wiveliscombe, Somerset TA4 2RETel: 01984 624086 Fax: 01984 624365 Email: sales@cotleighbrewery.com www.cotleighbrewery.com

Cotleigh Brewery continueswinning ways with national awardSOMERSET brewers Cotleigh have been awarded‘category winner’ at the Excellence in Food and DrinkAwards 2006 for their bottled Cotleigh 25.

The event was hosted by Caterer and HotelkeeperMagazine in association with 3663 First for Foodservice,and held at the prestigious Dorchester Hotel in London onFriday December 1st.

According to comments from the judges, Cotleigh 25“Tastes like summer and has a fresh aroma and a fruityfinish.” Other comments included: “It is a superior beerand just the sort of beer I love!”; “Hoppy and sweet!”; “Iwould buy it – I could have a couple and be happy!”; “Asummer drink!”.

Said Stephen Heptinstall, who runs Cotleigh with FredDomellof: “We were delighted to win this award which isthe result of almost three years design and developmentwhich we did together with Professor Geoff Palmer OBE,one of the most pre-eminent brewers at Herriot-WattUniversity. Packaging design is from local design studioQuantock Design in Taunton.”

Fred Domellof added: “This is the second major awardCotleigh 25 has won in three months after its GOLD at the‘Taste of the West Food and Drink Awards 2006’. Itreflects our passion for excellence and our commitment touse the best quality ingredients!”

Cotleigh 25 was first released in June 2004 to celebratethe company’s 25th anniversary. It was pilot tested in themarket prior to this date, under the code name Cuckoo!

Partners Fred Domellof (left) and Stephen Heptinstallreceiving the award at the Dorchester Hotel in London

Cotleigh Brewery was named Somerset Life Magazine’s Drinks Producer of theYear in 2005 and was runner-up in 2006.

PINTS WEST......................................................................................................................................................

National CAMRA web site : www.camra.org.uk

IT was a dark stormy night and the clockswere chiming 13.

Winston Swift, chapter leader of theparamilitary wing of the Campaign toBring Back Real Ale looked at his watch,an old-fashioned wind-up contraption, thesort made illegal by the multinationaldirective on the standardisation of time.Wearing it, he knew, would render himliable to a hefty fine and a spell in theinterrogation cells if he was caught, but hereckoned the chances of being stoppedwere slim. Curfew was a couple of hoursaway and the number of people on thestreet gave him a feeling of security. A farmore serious offence was wearing theofficially proscribed T-shirt hidden awayunder his shirt. Get caught wearing thatand his name would almost certainly beadded to the list of undesirables postedoutside city hall.

He stopped before a door with thewords Red Lion Club above it, blinkedinto the lens of an iris recognition cameraand pushed the door open. Walking downa corridor, he turned into a small roomwhere subdued groups of men sat roundtables. They turned as he walked in andthe room fell silent. Then, recognising him,a few of them mumbled curt greetings. Ashe joined three men at a table, nursingplastic glasses of beer, the club stewardstrode over. Winston handed him hisidentity card. A few minutes later, hereturned with a half-pint plastic glass ofbeer.

“The card says you’ve had threehalves already,” the steward said apolo-getically.

“I stopped in at the Chequers and theKing’s Head on the way,” Winstonreplied.

“That’s it for tonight then,” one of themen said.

Winston gave a tight-lipped smile. Heenjoyed the Red Lion. It was one of thebest drinking clubs in town. At one time, ithad been a pub, until, along with all otherpubs, it had been closed down in 2026. Afew had been allowed to reapply forlicences as private clubs, serving regu-lated amounts of alcohol to registeredusers. The Red Lion was one of them.

Few people doubted that drinking -even drinking weak government-approvedbeer in clubs like the Chequers - was anendangered activity. Slowly but surely theweight of public opinion was being turnedagainst it. Winston, and those like him,was becoming a pariah. The warnings onbeer bottles were enough to convince himof that: “Drinking is an Anti-SocialActivity”, “Drinking Hurts You and ThoseAround You,” and the blunt “DrinkingKills”.

Even though he tried to sip his halfpint as slowly as possible, it wasn’t longbefore it was gone. Rising to his feet, hebade farewell to the group of drinkers at

the table and headed off into the night.His route took him away from brightly

lit streets into unfamiliar territory. Withcurfew only just over an hour away, suchareas could, he knew, be risky. Soon,gangs of semi-feral youths would be onthe rampage, their activities curbed onlyby occasional raids by the militia inbulletproof combat vehicles.

For the moment, everything seemedquiet, but it was with relief that he foundthe street he was looking for. Findingnumber 11, he knocked at the door andwaited some time before an old-fashionedletterbox snapped open.

“Who’s there?,” a gruff voice bel-lowed through it.

“Winston Swift.”“Password.”“Maris Otter.”The letterbox snapped shut and

Winston heard the sound of bolts beingdrawn back. The door swung open,Winston was beckoned in, and his hosttook a quick look around before shuttingand bolting the door. He was usheredthrough the kitchen into a room like awalk-in fridge. Three men stood around atable at one end holding pint glasses ofdark beer. Winston was introduced andone by one they shook his hand in silencebefore his host filled a glass and handed itto him.

“Cheers,” said Winston.“Cheers,” said the others, using the

internationally recognised but now illegalsalutation of those about to down adraught of ale.

Winston took a deep swig from hisglass before launching into an encomiumon its various merits, all of which met withgrave nods and grunts of approval fromhis companions.

“He knows his ale,” said one.“And he knows a good drop when he

tastes it,” said another.“One of the best pints I’ve had for

ages,” said Winston.“It reminds me a bit of Courage’s,”

said one of the men, a good deal olderthan the others.

“Here he goes,” one of them groaned.“It was a bloody good pint, I’m telling

you. I can remember the time when you godown the pub of an evening and downfour or five pints and nobody thoughtanything of it.”

“And still have change from fifty quid- I know, we’ve heard it all before.”

Winston said nothing. Although hecouldn’t remember the old days, he likedto listen to tales from old timers - ofpeople going into pubs, buying beer overthe counter and standing there drinking itwithout fear of the consequences.

“I can remember when you could apint of beer for less than a fiver. When itwent up to a fiver there was uproar - thefive pound pint - I can remember the

headlines.”“Come on, Phil, give it a rest.

Winston’s only just walked in and alreadyyou’ve started boring him with your oldstories.”

“Actually,” said Winston, “I find allthat stuff about old pubs and old brewer-ies quite interesting.”

“I knew it,” said Phil, “I could tell assoon as he walked in, he wasn’t like youlot, just interested in guzzling pints andwittering on about specific gravity.”

“What’s wrong with specific gravity,”said a dour-faced man, making his firstcontribution to the conversation.

“Nothing - it’s just that beer has along and honourable pedigree - there wasa beer called Pedigree once upon a time, Iseem to remember - anyway, that’s by theby - all I’m trying to get through to you isthat beer wasn’t always about blokesstanding cooped up in a sealed unit at theback of somebody’s house. There werepubs - brilliant pubs, some of them, notlike the poxy little club-pubs you’ve gottoday, where you’ve got to sit down anddrink government-approved ditch-water -there were even beer festivals.”

He was becoming excited, andWinston raised a hand to silence himbefore taking a sip from his glass.

“I have something to show you -something you may be interested in. Ipicked it up the other day from a friend ofmine who does the flea markets.”

He put down his pint, removed hisjacket and started unbuttoning his shirt.The others fell silent, watching in aston-ishment as he pulled his shirt open toreveal a torn and beer-stained T-shirt.Although faded, the logo could still beclearly seen, as could the words below it:“Bristol Beer Festival 2007.”

Suddenly, Winston felt someoneshaking him firmly by the shoulder. Heheard voices: “I thought you’d checkedover here”, “I thought you did.”, “Comeon, Rip Van Winkle”, “Looks like he’s hada good session.”

Winston opened his eyes. A group ofpeople was standing over him. He turnedhis head and saw racks of beer barrels,fading into infinity.

“W ... w ... where am I?” he groaned,thinking heaven a distinct possibility.

“The Bristol Beer Festival - as it sayson your T-shirt - or at least you were. Wechucked everybody else out a couple ofhours ago. God knows how we missedyou lying there. We’ve just come back toset up for the evening session.”

“I ... I just had a terrible dream ... Idreamt I was ...”

The author would like to point outthat the preceding story is pure fantasyand could not possibly come true. Theidea that somebody could be overlookedafter closing time at the Bristol BeerFestival is simply inconceivable.

Andrew Swift

2051: A Beer Odyssey

31

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Christmas in Wild WalesLLANDEILO is a great little town. A marketand centre for rural industries since at leastMediaeval times, it boasts many lovely oldbuildings dating mainly from the Georgian andRegency period, as well as an impressive bridgeover the River Towy that was once the Wonderof Wales. And – if one includes the trans-pontine hamlet of Ffairfach – sports no lessthan nine licensed premises. Just off the mainA40 road the town is one of few in rural Walesto maintain a rail connection – it is on theSwansea-Shrewsbury Central Wales line.

My own connection with Llandeilo isthrough the home there of my nephew and hispartner, with whom I have spent the last twoChristmases. On Christmas Day just gone, afterthe usual great feed and surfeit of TV, we decidedto go in search of ale. We knew that the onlyplace open was the Castle so we decided to giveit a try. The Castle Hotel in the main street,Rhosmaen Street, was arguably the best pub intown in the days when Simon Buckley estab-lished the Tomos Watkin brewery there; GoodBeer Guide (GBG) listed from 1998-2005 it wasvoted CAMRA’s Carmarthenshire pub of theyear in 1999. After the brewery moved to largerpremises in Swansea the pub changed hands butremained an outlet for Watkin beers until it wassold to Enterprise Inns. Beers on offer were HopBack Summer Lightning, Shepherd NeameSpitfire, Fuller’s London Pride and the regularHancock’s HB, which was nice and fresh. Somuch for Christmas Day.

Boxing Day was sunny and crisply cool. Weventured out after an early lunch to visit thefirst of the Good Beer Guide-listed pubs. This wasthe splendid White Horse, GBG-listed everyyear from the year dot (except, strangely 2000and 2006 just before the present regime revivedit). Set back through an archway fromRhosmaen Street, this pub is a Grade II-listedformer coaching inn with courtyard. Long ownedby Bass Charrington and successors, it is nowowned by Evan Evans Brewery (situated on theeastern edge of town) and carries their BB andCwrw as regular ales. It was packed to thegunnels with people of all ages on the occasionof our visit and those two beers were supple-mented by the seasonal Santa’s Tipple fromEvan Evans and Adnams Broadside as guest. Allfour were excellent. The landlord is very proudof the fact that he has recently been awardedCask Marque accreditation.

Our next port of call was the SalutationInn on New Road which reappeared in the GoodBeer Guide last year for the first time since the’eighties. Landlord Dave bought the freehold afew years ago and his prices are a little aboveaverage for the area – and you may have to askfor a top up! Beers on sale were Tomos WatkinBrewery Bitter, Adnams Broadside and St AustellTribute, all in excellent condition. This livelytwo-roomed pub has a real piano in the loungewhere live music sessions are held and, as long asDave’s in charge, seems set to be a GBG regular.

Opposite the Salutation a little further up

New Road is the recently reopened Yr Hen Vic(the Old Vic) a large, square, double-frontedbuilding previously the private Athletic andFootball club headquarters. Built as a pub in the19th century it was named after Queen Victoria.Although my nephew had mentioned that it was“a kid’s pub” and unlikely to sell real ale, wewere pleasantly surprised. On entering throughthe central front door the main open bar facesyou with modern lighting and a bare stone backwall; the bar is on the right. On the left is aseparate ‘snug’ and just inside the door on theright up a short flight of stairs was the skittlealley, housed in a later addition to the mainbuilding. This has been tastefully converted intoa restaurant cum function suite. Although theclientele was predominantly young, they wereinterspersed with some mature drinkers. Tworeal ales were on hand pump: the 3.7% ABVCwrw Braf from Tomos Watkin and seasonalWinter Warmer from local Jacobi Brewery. Bothwere delicious and we realised why; the young-sters were drinking them, probably because, apartfrom two lagers there were no other keg beersavailable except for the rather rare TomosWatkin Dark Mild. This is very seldom seen incask form but, as we discovered, is surprisinglytasty for a keg beer. The fact that the young barmanager paused, while collecting glasses, to passthe time of day and talk about his and otherlocal pubs’ ales was an encouraging sign.

Time for a walk down Carmarthen Streetpast the late-lamented Three Tuns, regular GBGentry until its demise in 1998. It is now aboutique but also contains a shop sellingsecondhand books and records. Turning right atthe main road we passed the white-painted,double-fronted house high above the retainingwall that had been a great pub until it closed inthe ’nineties. Now a private house, it is stillcalled “The Kings Head”. Walking on down thehill we crossed the impressive granite structurethat is Llandeilo Bridge. Erected in 1848following the washout of an earlier low-level,two-arched affair which crossed at right angles tothe River Towy at the end of a steep narrow hill,it features a single broad arch at a much higherlevel above stream. The arch is approached oneither side by masonry embankments with abroad highway sweeping round in a gentle curvejust like a modern motor road. Little wonder itcost £20,000 to build and was considered one ofthe engineering marvels of its day. Entering thehamlet of Ffairfach, the Tregyb Arms is on theright-hand side of the Swansea road just beforethe junction with the Llanelli road. A Felinfoelhouse, it was closed for a long time. However,the brewery refurbished it and it reopened in thesummer of 2005. When we visited it lastChristmas it was already on its second manager.He did us proud with very moreish FelinfoelStout on special offer at £1 a pint. This year itwas closed when we arrived at about 6.30pmdespite having had a sign outside which read“open all day” when my nephew had driven pastat lunchtime. A sign hanging on the wall overthe door read “under new management” – thismust be the fourth incumbent since reopening.

More of that anon.We moved on along the Swansea road a few

yards to the attractive little Torbay Inn setback from the road with its prominentlyilluminated red road-side inn sign visible a longway off. This traditional Welsh boozer was aBuckley house and a regular GBG entry until theearly ’nineties. Under the enthusiastic manage-ment of Steve and Haulwen Laidler it has madethe 2007 edition – I guessed it would when wevisited last year. Three hand-pumped ales wereon sale: Skinner’s Christmas Fairy, PurpleMoose X-Mws Llawen/Merry X-Moose andRobinson’s Old Tom! Quality was excellent.After a chat with Steve, during which some ofhis forthcoming attractions were listed, weretraced our steps home for some dinner.

Before closing time we ventured out alongRhosmaen Street as far as the Farmer’s Armson the eastern edge of the town. Bearing thelegend “A Crown-Buckley House” on the door,this basic, local pub was a sometime Good BeerGuide entry. We sampled the one hand-pumpedreal ale on offer, Brains Buckley Best Bitter –very drinkable if a little sweet on account ofbeing forced through a sparkler. Although keg,the Brains Dark was rather pleasant too.Walking back along New Road we called in at theSalutation for a final pint of the moreishTribute and I regaled the clientele with a fewtunes on the piano. All in all a very pleasantday.

Wednesday 27th was a little more typicalfor this part of the world – a fine drizzly rain fellon and off all day. Undeterred we resolved, afterthoroughly digesting our lunchtime turkey curry,upon further surveying. We drove to the GBG-listed Brunant Arms at Caio just off the A482Tregaron road. On approaching the mini-roundabout at the eastern edge of Llandeilo,where the new A40 (by pass) joins the old A40,we saw the industrial units housing the EvanEvans Brewery. Owner Simon Buckley, neverone to shy away from a grand scheme, hadapplied for, and been refused, planning permis-sion for a new development on this site includinga hotel as well as a much larger brewery. So itlooks as though the irrepressible Mr Buckley willbe moving on yet again.

Once at the Brunant we enjoyed an earlydinner; the new managers Dave and Mike aremaintaining the reputation this house has forgood food. The pub is owned by Justin Jacobi andacts as a brewery tap for his Jacobi Brewery ofCaio ales. These are brewed a few miles awayalong the main road at Pumpsaint. On thepumps were Light Ale (3.8% ABV), OriginalBitter (4.4%) and Winter Warmer (5.0%). Allwere in fine fettle as was the beautiful littleBroadwood upright piano!

My folks wanted me to see the NationalTrust-owned Cwmdu Inn at Cwmdu just southwest of Talley. We drove there in the hope thatit would be open even though it was extremelydoubtful whether any draught beer would beavailable. We found it open and the barmanabout to clean the lines for Stella lager and John

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Smith’s Smooth! Fortunately he had a range ofShepherd Neame bottled beers in stock and thissufficed for a quick one while examining thisinteresting place. “We put a cask on for theFolk Evenings and it usually sells out on thenight,” said the barman. In the summer when theadjoining holiday cottages are let out and thevillage store is open – the whole terrace isNational Trust property – there is normally onecask ale on tap. A display of pump clips behindthe bar bore witness to this. The pub is basicallya ‘restoration’ of a typical two-roomed ruralWelsh pub; a central lobby to the left of which isa small tap room with bar; to the right is a largerseparate room with huge open fireplace. It is inthe condition it was in during the 1930-1960period (apart from the keg fonts) and owes itscontinued existence entirely to the efforts of theNational Trust members who staff it on avoluntary rotating shift basis.

Before returning to Llandeilo we called in atthe GBG-listed Telegraph Inn in Station Road,Llangadog, adjacent to the level-crossing nearthe railway station on the scenic Central Walesline. The owner, Keith, has recently startedbrewing at the rear of the premises in the BlackMountain Brewery. I had just missed his trialbrew at the CAMRA Welsh Beer Festival inCardiff (sold out) and was keen for a secondchance. As luck would have it, he had sold outof his latest batch the day before (at £2 a pintI’m not surprised) and ahead of the next lot inthe cellar were some ‘guest’ casks which neededselling first. Bear in mind this is rural Wales inthe middle of winter and there are four otherpubs in Llangadog and one understands why it isonly possible to tap and serve one ale at a timeat the Telegraph. Today’s ale was WinterBeacon (5.3%) from Breconshire Brewery withwhom Keith has a reciprocal sales arrangement.It was delicious, especially at £2 a pint. Further-more, Keith plans to hold a winter beer festivalfeaturing nothing but ales from his nativeManchester during a weekend to be arranged inlate February. I intend to visit Llandeilo thenand travel to and from Llangadog on the train.

For anyone of like mind wanting to learn morethe ’phone number of the Telegraph is 01550777727.

Back in Llandeilo we walked down to theAngel Hotel opposite the Castle in RhosmaenStreet. The Angel, owned by the couple who alsoown what had been the Three Tuns, had brieflyappeared in the Good Beer Guide in 2006 inplace of the White Horse. Already operating ano-smoking policy, this mainly food pub hadbeen absolutely heaving on Boxing Day. Nowfairly quiet, there was nonetheless an optimisticselection of four real ales on sale. Both the localones, Evan Evans Cwrw and Santa’s Tipple, werein good nick which is more than could be said ofthe “foreigners”. The Black Sheep Bitter wasbarely drinkable and the Greene King OldSpeckled Hen a little ‘long in the tooth’. Thisshould tell the management something.

We had to call in at the up-market CawdorHotel a few doors down from the Angel if onlyto check up. This nicely refurbished hotel isowned by Morgan’s Hotel of Swansea whoclearly operate a local policy. While it may havebeen unrealistic to expect cask ale here inwinter, the keg bitter on sale was Tomos WatkinCwrw Braf so at least they are making a tokeneffort.

Over the bridge again for another look atthe Tregyb. Admittedly it was 10pm by this timeand, in spite of a notice placed in the windowclearly stating the intended Christmas Holidayopening times (Wednesday-Friday 12-11pm),was once again closed. (At the Torbay laterSteve sympathised, “If there’s no custom theyaren’t going to stay open.” Fair enough Isuppose but they wereon the premises andcould easily havecatered for any passingtrade by leaving a noteon the door to theeffect, “Knock us up ifyou’re thirsty”. Howwould it be if otherservices closed earlier

than advertised in holiday periods just becausethey were quiet? Perhaps the sign outside shouldread “under new, un-enterprising, management”?Enough of that.)

Once safely ensconced in the Torbay againwe noticed that the Purple Moose had beenreplaced by Jennings Redbreast which was ingreat form. The Skinner’s Christmas Fairy hadsuffered a slight haze the day before from toocool a cellar. This problem had been sorted andit too was now sparkling in top form.

On my return to Bristol on the Thursdaylunchtime I passed the Tregyb Arms on the wayout of town at 12.45pm. It was closed again ofcourse – I am beginning to fear for the existenceof this pub. Although this is their only localoutlet, it looks as though Felinfoel are goingdown the route being followed by so many‘pubcos’, that is the all too familiar run-downprior to the change of use as housing. Withalternative outlets available, sadly this pub looksset to join the other two lost to the town inrecent years.

On the positive side, of the 22 real ales onsale in the 12 outlets visited, no less than 12were from Welsh breweries, only one of which(Brains) could be termed a regional. Surprisingly,only one beer each came from the two Englishnationals (W&D and Greene King). Six camefrom English regionals (Adnams, Black Sheep,Fuller’s, Robinson’s, St Austell and ShepherdNeame) and one each from two English localbreweries, Hop Back and Skinner’s. While onelong-established large Welsh brewer, Brains ofCardiff, was represented the other one, Felinfoelof Llanelli, was a ‘no show’.

Henry Davies

The Bag O’Nails141 St. George’s Road, Hotwells,

Bristol BS1 5UW Tel: (0117) 9406776

A Real Ale Pub

At least 12 different real ales a weekImported German wheat beersEnglish bottle-conditioned beers

Unpasteurised imported bottled lagersEmail : pub@bagonails.org.uk

Bristol & District CAMRAPub Of The Year 2000

Host to two beer festivals a yearin April and November

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Diary

##### Views expressed in Pints West arethose of the individual authors andnot necessarily supported by CAMRA##### Inclusion of an advertisement doesnot imply endorsement by CAMRA

Eight thousand copies of Pints West aredistributed free to pubs in and around thecities of Bristol and Bath ... and beyond.LETTERS: please email any correspondence to:

steve.plumridge@bristol.ac.ukor post it to:

Pints West Editor, Steve Plumridge,Garden Flat, 6 Royal York Villas,Clifton, Bristol BS8 4JR.

Published by the Bristol & District Branch ofthe Campaign for Real Ale, February 2007 ©Next edition: May 2007 (probably).Reproduction: any written article in thispublication may be reproduced provided thesource (Pints West), including the contributor’sname where applicable, is stated. (No usinglogos or pictures without prior permission.)Subscriptions: to be put on a mailing list (forUK addresses) send a cheque for £2.50 only tothe editor, made payable to “Steve Plumridge”(or some 2nd class stamps up to that value).CAMRA Good Beer Guide: suggestions forfuture entries, and comments on existing ones,can be made to our GBG co-ordinator, VinceMurray, care of the editor (above).Further information on all aspects ofCAMRA can be had from Ray Holmes on0117 - 9605357 (home).Trading Standards Officers: contactnumbers for problems such as consistent shortmeasures, no price lists...Bristol: 0117 9223444S. Glos: 01454 624000Glos: 01452 426201N. Somerset: 01934 632026B.A.N.E.S: 01225 396755

Diary of the Bristol & District branch ofCAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.(For more information on local eventseither attend our branch meetings orcheck the diary section on our web site atwww.camrabristol.org.uk.)##### Wednesday 7th March - Hotwells pubcrawl. Start Merchants Arms, 8pm.##### Wednesday 14th March - Committeemeeting, Cornubia. Start 8pm.##### Wednesday 21st March - WhiteladiesRoad pub crawl. Start Port of Call, 8pm.##### Wednesday 28th March - Branch meeting,Naval Volunteer. Start 8pm.##### Saturday 31st March - Trip to HiddenBrewery. Depart from Cornubia 6.45pm.##### Wednesday 11th March - Committeemeeting, Fishmarket. Start 8pm.##### Thursday 12th April - BADRAG meetingat the Robin Hood, St Michael’s Hill, Bristol.April.m Wednesday 25th April - Branchmeeting, Commercial Rooms. Start 8pm.##### Wednesday 9th March - Committeemeeting, Cornubia. Start 8pm.##### Wednesday 23rd May - Branch meeting,Naval Volunteer. Start 8pm.##### Wednesday 13th June - Committeemeeting, Fishmarket. Start 8pm.

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Weston diary##### Wednesday 21 March – The Oak House,Drove Road (RCH beers). 8.30 onwards.##### Saturday/Sunday, 24/25 March –Weston-super-Mare Cricket Club BeerFestival – see separate article in “WestonWispers” for full details.##### Wednesday 18 April – The Red Admiral,Alexandra Parade. 8.30 onwards.##### Wednesday 16 May – Kingsdown Crawl,Bristol. Travel arrangements from TimNickolls.Non-members welcome at all of theabove events.

Weston contactTim Nickolls – 01934 644925 (evenings)or email tim.nickolls@virgin.net

THANKS TO THIS ISSUE’SCONTRIBUTORSPete BridleRichard BrooksPhil CummingsHenry DaviesPete DommettMargaret EvettLaurie GibneyDave GrahamLesly HuxleyDave JaneMark JonesDave McVittieVince Murray

Guy NewellTim NickollsPhill the PintColin PostlethwaitePennie PostlethwaiteNeil RavenscroftMaggie ShaplandDuncan ShineNorman SpaldingAndrew SwiftPete TannerRobin E WildEditor: Steve Plumridge

A Soak atthe Oak

ABOUT two years ago John and Becky wererunning the Hobgoblin in Bath. They decided totry running a winter beer festival and somehowcontrived to arrange for the date of the festivalto coincide with the birth of their first child. Abit of a struggle to juggle child production and tolaunch their new baby beer festival I should havethought. But not a bit of it!

John and Becky are now heading up thesplendid Royal Oak on the Lower Bristol Roadnear the Oldfield Park Railway Station and theyhave just hosted their second winter beer festivalthere. And what happened? Yes, John got histimings wrong again effectively side-lining anyhelp from his wife.

The Royal Oak promised in its promotionalliterature that there would be 30 to 40 rarewinter ales to try. The tick sheet that wasprovided for customers had a list of 41. Not abad guess John, and so the 1st February saw thestart of a frenetic four days of ale sales.

For my part I was champing at the bit andnot a little distressed that, rather than decampdirectly to the Oak from work on the first night,I was obliged to join colleagues for an officebash. Thankfully that was at the Raven other-wise I would have been most unhappy. Conse-quently I arrived at the Royal Oak just as theband was setting up. The band was the BourbonStreet Blues Club whom I thoroughly enjoyed,especially when I found that other colleagueswere members of the band. Saturday’s entertain-ment was provided by a lass called Nicky Fermiewho sang and played with a passion rarely seen.

John had organised the festival so that therewould be twenty beers ‘on’ at any one time. Thepub has ten beer engines so to achieve his goalJohn elicited the help of Bristol Beer Factory,who kindly provided a ten-firkin free-standingstillage, and Wye Valley Brewery who providedjackets and coolers. The beer list was indeedvaried and country-wide as far as Cornwall (BlueAnchor) to Scotland (Islay) to Wales (PurpleMoose). And folk came nearly as far to samplethem. CAMRA groups were observed fromWeston-super-Mare, Gloucester, Dudley andeven as far as Kent. Gazza the Scoopergenhoncho from Worcester tuned up and wasastounded to find that there were ten new ales toadd to his list of 15,000 plus. My own favouriteof the festival was the Thatcher’s Ale producedby Mayfields Brewery though many rated theDownton Chocolate Orange Stout.

I heard of one snuffling chap who turned upon Sunday, miserably read the list and declaredthat he had missed 33 ticks for his list but hadbeen too ill to come and try them. He was ingood company: John the landlord also missed themajority of the fun being similarly confinedupstairs with lurgi or bird flu or whatever virulentstrain that is doing the rounds right now. But oh,I do hope that babies and illnesses do not putJohn and Becky off trying more such festivals.

They just get better and better. The festivalsthat is!

Phill the Pint

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Pints West (Bristol & District) – edition 73

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May I start by wishing all Pints Westreaders a belated Happy New Year fromeveryone at Butcombe Brewery.

We are just approaching the secondanniversary of moving into the newbrewery at Wrington, and the fourthanniversary of taking over the breweryfrom Simon Whitmore. The last four yearshave absolutely flown by, so I thought itwould be worth documenting just what wehave been up to during that time:

! 2003 - complete re-branding of allproducts; launched Butcombe bottledrange;

! 2004 - launched Butcombe Blond;! 2005 - moved into custom-built new

brewery in Wrington … the largestnew-build brewery in the UK for overtwenty years; launched Ashton PressCider.

! 2006 - brewed the “Official Beer forBrunel 200”, Butcombe Brunel IPA;launched Cold Filtered Blond;

! Achieved 40% increase in beervolumes to 21,000 barrels in four years.

The building of the new brewery hasrepresented (especially against a back-drop of declining beer volumes) a hugeleap of faith in the Butcombe brand …

idiotic or inspired – only time with tell!Everything we do at Butcombe

Brewery is focussed on producing thehighest possible quality of cask beeravailable in the marketplace …. Neverunderestimate the Value of a Brand.Butcombe Bitter is our main brand,accounting for some 75% of all produc-tion, for as well as being the predominantWest Country brand in the free trade, it isnow the lead local bitter brand in nationalchains such as Beefeater, Brewers Fayreand Vintage Inns. A brewery without aconsumer-led brand will always bevulnerable … ask King & Barnes, Ridleys,Morrells, Gales, or Hardy & Hansons, toname but a few regional brewers takenover and closed over the past few years.

I am really worried about the demise ofthe independent regional brewers … in thelast couple of years W & D and GreeneKing have gobbled up Burtonwood,Jennings, Marstons and Belhaven. Whois protecting Britain’s beer heritage?Centuries-old family brewers are disap-pearing, replaced by 100 new micros ayear – the main reason … “ProgressiveBeer Duty” (PBD).

Now the concept of PBD is terrific:give the smaller producers duty relief tocounter the economies of scale of the

bigger producers.The only problem isthat the politicianshave got the sumswrong … the dutyrelief at the bottomend is too large,creating an unfairplaying field anddestabilising themarket place. I amin favour ofchanges to PBD atboth the bottomand top ends of thescale … it cannotbe right that abrewery such asButcombe, with atrack record ofinvestment ininfrastructure,people, and brands,should be penalisedto the tune of 50%extra duty payable,against a one-man-band micro-brewer.

Talking of duty,we should all beputting pressure onthe Chancellor notto raise it at theforthcoming budget

Guest Beer WriterGuy Newell, Managing Director of Butcombe Brewery

GREAT BEER / GREAT FOOD / GREAT WINE / GREAT COMPANYBUTCOMBE BREWERY 01934 863963 www.butcombe.com

PRIDE IN EVERYTHING WE BREW

To sample perfectly kept Butcombe Bitter, Gold and Blond,plus numerous guest beers, why not visit a Butcombe pub…

THE RED TILECossington, near Bridgwater

01278 722333

RING O’BELLSCompton Martin (A368 between Blagdon

& West Harptree) 01761 221284

THE PRINCE OF WALESStoke Lane, Westbury-on-Trym

0117 9623715

THE QUEEN’S ARMSCeltic Way, Bleadon, near

Weston-super-Mare 01934 812080

THE WOOLPACK INNSt George’s, near Weston-super-Mare 01934 521670

THE ROSE AND CROWNHigh Street, Hinton Charterhouse

01225 722153

THE OLD CROWNKelston, near Bath

01225 423032

THE SWANRowberrow (off A38 south of

Churchill) 01934 852371

THE BELLHillgrove Street, Bristol

0117 9096612

THE LAMBThe Square, Axbridge

01934 732253

RING O’BELLSUpper Road, Hinton Blewitt

01761 452239

THE CROSS KEYSHigh Street, Rode, Frome

01373 830900

THE QUEEN VICTORIA INNPelting Drove, Priddy 01749 676385

on March 22nd … with the smoking banimplementation of July 1st the licensedtrade will face a big enough challengewithout increased duty as well …. theduty element on your pint of beer isalready almost 30% of the price!

Talking smoking ban for a moment, Iam reminded that it is only 12 years agothat I flew to South Africa for the WoldCup Rugby Final flanked on either side bythe Chairman and Managing Director ofMarston’s Brewery, who both chain-smoked for the entire trip … not verypleasant and therefore I endorse theban… people still fly!

Changing times often mean a moremodernistic strategic approach. It is welldocumented that younger drinkers growup on “Super Chilled” / ”Extra Cold”brands. Our “Bridgehead to Cask”campaign with Cold Filtered Blond (servedcirca 5% cooler than cask) seems to beworking. JD Wetherspoon has decided totrial Cold Filtered Blond (along with ourAshton Press Cider) in the four largestBristol outlets so we will watch withinterest. I know Pints West readers arefascinated by the Bristol Airport saga of“will the Bitter be on or not?” … I amflying out to Gran Canaria in late February,so I will let you know!

The beer industry has not been as pro-active as the wine industry over the lastten years or so in clearly showing, withtasting notes, pump clips, bottled labels,etc, what the characteristics of thatparticular beer are. Watch out for aninitiative (CAMRA backed) called Cy-clops, where promotional material (pumpclip backs, beer mats, etc, etc) will begiving clear and concise beer descrip-tions, as well as a bitterness and sweet-ness rating (from 1 to 5). Good stuff, andButcombe are well involved.

Can I ask you to drink local whereverpossible (my recommendation is of courseto drink Butcombe!), and be aware whatgreat value a perfectly crafted pint ofBitter is … 25% cheaper than premiumlarger!

Finally, I hope Bristol Beer Festival(starting Friday March 2nd) enjoys itsusual sell-out status (look out forButcombe Blond and Brunel IPA). Regret-tably I will not be there this year, as I haveagreed fairly last minute to replace thesadly absent Miles Templeman as thekeynote speaker at the SIBA AnnualGeneral Meeting in Leeds, on the sameday … lucky SIBA!

Have a great year … and keep drinkingthe Butcombe!

Guy Newell

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2006 was a busy, successful year forButcombe and included the purchase of fivenew houses, the latest two additions joiningthe estate in December. These two are bothsituated south of Bath, a little outside theirexisting homeground.

The Rose & Crown is situated in theHigh Street of Hinton Charterhouse. Occupy-ing a corner position, it is an imposing stonebuilding of some considerable age.

The front entrance leads directly into thelarge bar area, which is sub-divided into three.Wood panelling on the walls and the real fire atthe end of the bar create a warm period feel tothe room. Butcombe Bitter is currently ongravity feed but the proximity of the fireplacemakes temperature regulation difficult, soplans are under way to install handpumps andto relocate cask beers to the cellar.

Located off the rear hall and car parkentrance is another smaller open-ended roomwith bar, used when the pub is busy. Steps atthe far end of this lead you down to animpressive dining room, which is ideal forparties and functions.

As with all good village pubs, it serves as acommunity meeting place for various groupsand associations. It is very popular for foodand also offers four superior B&B rooms forvisitors.

It should be noted that Nigel and Jane, thenew managers, have, in the past, been winnersof Gloucestershire CAMRA Pub of the Year.

The second of the recent acquisitions, theCross Keys in Rode, also occupies a HighStreet position, but has a more unusualappearance both inside and out. This relates to

Butcombe adds to its estate

its former life as the site and tap of the formerFussell’s brewery and following that as a Bassdepot. Not many public houses can boast ofhaving their own well, but this one can, it beingnow a decorative feature at the top of a widesloping passageway which links its two bars,in which Butcombe Bitter and Gold and aguest beer are currently available.

The bar at the rear of the pub leads into alarge, pleasant dining room, serving excellent

food, and also, via steps, to an outdoor seatingarea, then up again to the car park.

Butcombe plan to refurbish the front barand possibly extend the number of B&Brooms, which currently number three.

As with the Rose and Crown, the CrossKeys has become a meeting place for the localcommunity since reopening in 2004, after aclosure of ten years.

Currently both public houses are openinglunchtimes and evenings during the week andall day at weekends.

Margaret Evett

The Rose & Crown, Hinter Charterhouse

The Cross Keys, Rode The well in the Cross Keys

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Sadly, the Bunch of Grapes in St Phillips iscurrently closed, and the freehold is up forsale. Another case of hoping for the best.

Just up the road, there is major work goingon at the Swan in Midland Road. As has beenmentioned in these pages before, the upstairssection is being converted into flats, butdownstairs will reopen as a pub.

More bad news up on Old Market. ThePalace Hotel has been closed for a while, butthere is now a change of use applicationpending. This former hotel with its opulentfrontage and magnificent and unique interior islisted on CAMRA’s National Inventory ofPub Interiors. The round arched bar back withbrass columns and roundels, and the pub’ssloping floor, date from the hotel’s build in1869. Also of note is the fabulous cornice andthe deep arched windows. Listed as a Grade IIbuilding, it is of paramount importance to pub-goers and historians that this building remainsas a public house.

Elsewhere, at the top of St Michael’s Hill,we’ve had reports of a particularly good pintof London Pride currently on offer atBar@155.

In Bedminster, the Cumberland in St

The Star and Dove The Brunel

Lukes Road has reopened as the Star AndDove. Very much designed as a gastro-pub,this may be the only pub in Bristol which haslettering outside advertising ‘Charcuterie’. Noreal ales on sale when I popped in, butdrinkers remain very much welcome.

Not far away, in St John’s Lane, the pubwe used to call the Engineers Arms is nowthriving as the Brunel. Still aimed at a broadcross-section of the community, the Bruneloffers Greene King IPA and Abbot Ale, aswell as Old Speckled Hen.

The Plough on Bedminster Down Roadsadly remains closed with no sign of anyreprieve. A shame as it is a good example of1930s architecture.

The pub on St Nicholas Street formerlyknown as the Elephanthas reopened as TheIvory. Still a gay-friendlybar, there were no realales on offer when wechecked. Talking of namechanges, the bar at 7-9 StNicholas Street which hashad more name changesthan Zsa Zsa Gabor, andwas most recently calledFusion, has now reopenedas Old Nick’s. Again, notoffering real ale, but wehope they find a winningformula soon.

A famous old Bristolpub has been given a newlease of life with a greatnew range of beers. TheCottage on Baltic Wharfnow offers the full rangeof Bristol Beer Factorybeers as well a couple ofBath Ales brews.Remember, this pub isonly a few ferry stopsfrom the Centre.

Up in Redland, theShakespeare in LowerRedland Road is on fineform under the steward-ship of Hayley and MarcRuggles. Four or five real

ales on at a time, including two from Butcombewhen I popped in recently.

Duncan Shine

The reals ales at the Lansdown in Clifton areproving increasingly popular, now being thebest-selling product in the pub. The hand-pumps on the bar can currently accommodatefour real ales an a traditional cider (Thatch-er’s), with offerings such as Bath AlesBarnstormer, Otter Bitter, Sharp’s Doom BarBitter and St Austell Tribute. The Tribute isreported to be the top seller at the moment.

SP

The Princess of Wales in Bedminster wastaken over by Sue and Alan Davies a year agowhen the Wickwar Brewery sold it. CourageBest and Bath Ales Festivity and Gem were ingood condition when we visited end ofJanuary. Pennie Postlethwaite

The Shant pub in Crown Road, Kingswood(near Soundwell College) has been selling BathAles Gem in the last few weeks. This is thefirst real ale other than Courage Best to featurethere in more than ten years. The pub recentlyhad a major refit after being taken over byJohn, the landlord of the nearby Chequers pub.

Vince Murray

Additional Choice for MembersBristol Lawn Tennis & Squash Club has

started to serve Otter Bitter as well as theregular London Pride.

The Club, known locally as RedlandTennis Club on Redland Green, is also home toGreat Western Runners.

Pete Tanner

Nomadic Cider FestivalsIf you’re a cider lover, why not go along to

one (or all) of the “Cyder Sunday” events heldin and around Bristol on various comingSundays. (See the advert here.)

Support local cider producers!

Pub NewsDON'T

SPILL BEER

WARNINGHOPE & ANCHOR

Exceptional Public House

From the Management of the

PINTS WEST......................................................................................................................................................

National CAMRA web site : www.camra.org.uk 39

Although Vince Murray and I have visited and written several times aboutGlasgow and Edinburgh, there remain for us many pubs of interest unvisited.So it was with delight we each received a £25-off voucher from EasyJet asan apology for a cancelled flight on our previous trip, a visit to Krakow andBerlin which is recorded in a previous Pints West. (We had actually beendelighted by the cancellation at the time as it had given us an extra day inBerlin!) So, combined with a rare sighting of a £26 room in the Edinburghcentral Travel Lodge in St Mary’s Street, we journeyed north of the borderonce again, this time for the princely sum of £20.98 each for two flightsand one night’s accommodation!

Our flight to Glasgow was enlivened by an aborted landing but unde-terred we journeyed to Bridgeton station in West Glasgow. Our target tenminutes’ walk away was a new venture, West Brewing Company, locatedon the North Eastern edge of Glasgow Green. Possibly the only Britishbrewery to follow the German beer purity laws (Any other contenders?Ed.), West brews a range of authentic and tasty European style beers. Its

launch in March 2006 had attracted national news coverage for getting intotrouble for failing to serve beer in stamped pint glasses. Somehow theyhave got past this, and they will serve beer in a pint glass on request. Wearrived for opening time and enjoyed all four beers on offer, and theOktoberfest beer was served in stone mugs, a new experience in a Britishpub for your author! The food is also based on solid German fare, ideal forsoaking up beer! The drinking area is really a vast beer hall, simplyfurnished and decorated. The whole experience made a pleasant change andwas a definite success.

Any trip to Glasgow without visiting the superb Clockwork BeerCompany would be incomplete, so we headed over to Mount Florida, nearto Hampden Park, and found the usual range of six of their own beersincluding a classic Red Alt, eight guest beers and a wide array of foreignbeers, malt whisky and obscure foreign spirits, one of which was sampledfor novelty value to the apparent disdain of the landlord! So in high spiritswe went to get a train to Edinburgh and were dismayed to find it was notpossible to buy a return ticket for the next day’s journey. This meant wepaid more for a train to Edinburgh from Glasgow and back than to fly toGlasgow and back from Bristol!

So after stopping off at our hotel we headed to Cloisters bar wherethere was the welcome sight of nine real ales and a very good whisky list.We moved on to the CAMRA National Inventory-listed Bennett’s Bar,which sadly had a rather uncared-for feel. On our previous visit to Edin-burgh we had narrowly failed to get to the Prestoungrange Gothenburgin Prestonpans, a distant suberb of Edinburgh. We were determined to rightthis error, but were concerned about transport. We needn’t have worried.Edinburgh is blessed by a super bus service courtesy of Lothian buses. Therewas a bus to Prestonpans every 15 minutes until midnight, a serviceBristolians can only dream of, and at a good price to. The pub itself is a

large multi-roomed affair, with an island bar serving three of Fowlers beers,which are brewed in the pub. The 80/- was very fine and the Porter quitesuperb. After having local fish and chips (I was bemused to find I had to askfor a “fish supper”!) we headed back, taking in the Barony Bar (anotherNational Inventory pub) and finishing off at the classic Halfway House, atiny pub above Waverley station serving, amongst others, two tastyBelhaven beers, 60 /- and Fruity Partridge.

Next morning, after the obligatory wander down the Royal Mile, wehad a stiff but pleasant walk that took us to another National Inventorypub, Leslie’s Bar, where we had an excellent pint of Timothy Taylor’sLandlord. It was good to see a historic pub in pristine condition. For achange from pubs we visited the nearby Blonde restaurant and had anexcellent lunch of seafood, washed down with a complimentary glass ofRioja, before heading back to Waverley to catch a Glasgow train, althoughwe couldn’t resist a visit first to the splendid Bow Bar – a must do in theOld Town of Edinburgh. A wide range of real ale is dispensed by oldfashioned Scottish air pressure pumps, and there is an exceptional whiskylist.

In Pints West number 71 we had written about Glasgow pubs and copiesof Pints West were very well received in both the State Bar, surely one ofthe friendliest pubs in the city, and at the legendary Bon Accord, where wedrank Adnams Old Ale and ate what is surely the best value pub food ever.Our final stop before leaving for the airport was the incredible Pot Still onHope Street, home to over 500 malt whiskies besides real ale.

We were amazed upon handing over Pints West here when the barmanrevealed he had already read our article! It turned out he had picked up acopy at the Clockwork Beer Company where he had been working, helpingwith the brewing the previous afternoon!

The last flight of the day got us back to Bristol, and we could reflect ontwo days well spent!

Phil Cummings

North of the border again

The Bow Bar

Home of the West Brewing Company

PINTS WEST Award-winning newsletter of the Bristol & District Branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

ON Tuesday 13 February Bristol & DistrictCAMRA branch members enjoyed a verypleasant visit to the Cheddar Ales brewery,which is located at Winchester Farm, Cheddar.

Jem Ham showed us around his spaciousand modern site ably assisted by Toby. The

Cheddar Ales brewery visit

brewery looks well designed and appears tohave plenty of room to expand its capacity. Inaddition to playing “guess the hops” there wasof course some sampling of their beers. Unlikea lot of “bitters” the Cheddar Ales Best Bitter(4.0% ABV) really does live up to the name

with a pronounced bitter taste, and theCheddar Ales fruity, full flavoured Potholer(4.3%) proved particularly popular with thosepresent.

Cheddar Ales are currently looking tosupply pubs to the south side of Bristol, so ifyou think you may be interested give them acall on 01934 744193.

Richard Brooks (words and pictures)

Toby and Jem and the Cheddar Ales van

Peasants, pubs and postcardsSCOOPERS* had to be quick off the mark tocatch the latest offering from WickwarBrewery. Bottle-conditioned and weighing inat 4.8%, St Wulfstan was brewed to celebratethe 999th birthday of St Wulfstan, patronsaint of peasants and vegetarians, and one timevicar of Hawkesbury in South Gloucestershire,before being elevated to the see of Worcester.He also helped to end the white slave tradefrom Bristol to Ireland, which is why he isbeing commemorated in 2006, the 200thanniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

A celebratory service in Hawkesburychurch on 19 January, organised by MarkSteeds, landlord of the Beaufort Arms inHawkesbury Upton, included a talk on slaveryby Derek Robinson, author of A DarkerHistory of Bristol. As next year seesWulfstan’s 1000th birthday, further celebra-tions – and hopefully more St Wulfstan beer –can be expected.

The Beaufort Arms is also the venue for anew monthly postcard fair. For over 20 years,postcard fairs have been held on the secondWednesday of each month at CoriniumGalleries in Cirencester. Dealers from as farafield as Southampton, Exeter and Birminghamattend the fair on a regular basis, attractingcustomers from all over the country. Butalthough the building is being sold, with thelast fair being held in March, the fair will carryon, thanks to Mark Steeds, who has offeredthe function room at the Beaufort Arms as analternative venue.

The first fair at the Beaufort Arms will be11th April, with subsequent fairs on thesecond Wednesday of each month. The fairwill run from 10am to 4pm and admission isfree. The pub opens at noon, with food servedtill 2.30.

The Beaufort Arms can be contacted on01454 238217 (www.beaufortarms.com).

Andrew Swift*Those unfamiliar with scooping are invited tovisit www.scoopergen.co.uk for enlighten-ment.

The Beaufort Arms, Hawkesbury Upton