F R E E Vol 39 Apr/May No 2 2017 Swinging at the Sultan – see page 12 A F V B R A & EE O I R M L M S A U , O B C T U L H O R E U B O M R R N O S E L R W I E E N R E Y A S N H D O P A mu lti-a wa rd win ning class ic bi tter , Go od Old Bo y is br ew ed with a blen d of rich Ma ris Ot te r malt ed bar le y an d f ruity Br amling Cr oss an d No rt hd ow n ho ps to pr od uc e an ex ceptio nall y we ll-bal an ced an d fu ll-fla vo ur ed be er . West Be rk shir e Br ew ery & S ho p, Fl our Barn, Fr ilsham Ho me F arm, Ya ttend on, Be rk shire, RG18 0X T. Ope ning Ho ur s: Mo nd ay to Wednesd ay 9am – 5pm. Thurs da y to Frid ay 9am – 6pm. Saturd ay 10am – 4pm. Sund ay Closed. Editorial London Drinker is published on behalf of the members who are themselves Greater London branches of CAMRA, the subscribing members of their local Campaign for Real Ale, and is edited by Tony clubs. Hedger. It is printed by Cliffe Enterprise, Eastbourne, BN22 8TR. If you are a member of one or more licensed clubs and would like to get CAMRA is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and registered in England; company CAMRA involved – maybe the club No. 1270286. Registered office: would like to run a beer festival, for 230 Hatfield Road, St. Albans, example – then would you please e- Hertfordshire AL1 4LW. mail or ’phone your branch contact. Of Material for publication, including press the 13 branches covering Greater releases, should preferably be sent by London, only three have designated e-mail to [email protected]. clubs officers. At regional level we The deadline for the next edition, PUBS AND CLUBS June/July is Monday t CAMRA national meetings over have a convenor (Maurice Grehan) and 15 May the last year, we have come to two other regular judges when it All contributions to this magazine are made on a rAecognise that just as we should be comes to deciding our Greater London voluntary basis. campaigning not only for real ale but Club of the Year. Let us see if we can To advertise in London Drinker, contact also for (equally real!) cider and perry, interest more members – and more John Galpin on 020 3287 2966 so too we should be promoting and clubs! or mobile 07508 036835; seeking to protect not only our pubs Geoff Strawbridge – E-Mail: [email protected]. but also our clubs as places to visit in Regional Director for Greater London Prices: whole page £325 colour or £260 mono; half-page £195 colour or £145 order to enjoy drinking responsibly in mono; quarter-page £105 colour or £80 mono. convivial surroundings. OPINION – THE The views expressed in this magazine are those of For many years, our local branches their individual authors and are not necessarily have been supported remotely by a QUALITY OF BEER endorsed by the editor or CAMRA. national Clubs Working Group. As a n January of this year the prominent beer writer Pete Brown said that he © copyright the London Branches of the starting point for targeted I Campaign for Real Ale; all rights reserved. campaigning, the Group keeps in had almost given up drinking cask beer here in London because of its general Subscriptions: please send either £9 for the touch with various club chains, runs the mailing of six editions or £17 for 12 editions to national Club of the Year competition poor quality. I was surprised at this Stan Tompkins, 52 Rabbs Mill House, Chiltern in association with Club Mirror because at the time my CAMRA View Road, Uxbridge, Middx UB8 2PD. Please magazine, and has historically gathered branch, South West London, were make cheques payable to CAMRA London Area. information about those clubs serving starting to select our entries for the These prices apply to UK mail addresses only. To 2018 Good Beer Guide and we had a arrange for copies to be sent overseas, please real ale. contact us. With this data recently transferred to list of some 46 pubs, all of which could the databases contributing to the have filled one of our twenty-odd WhatPub online guide, the challenge is allotted slots. I have to say that I CONTENTS now more at branch level, through believe that we are very lucky with the Branch diaries 6 branch members, to include accessible quality of the pubs in our area and all I Forthcoming events 10 clubs in our campaigning and social thought was that conversely, where he CAMRA events 12 activities. Readers of this magazine will drinks, Mr Brown is not. That said, Looking forward to Bournemouth 16 be familiar with the Leyton Orient unfortunately, for the last year or so I National pub and club winners 18 Supporters Club, the Orpington Liberal have not been able to get out and Champion Winter Beer of Britain 20 Club and a handful of others across about enough to see if I shared his Alcohol guidelines 20 or just outside London that have experience. I’m lucky that my local London Drinker Beer Festival 22 established themselves as real ale and rarely lets me down. A short stroll around Soho 24 cider destinations. But what has been Mr Brown returned to the subject in News round-up most apparent from the data trans- the Morning Advertiser of 6 March. – General 28 ferred is the number of clubs that have Firstly, he said that he had not been bashing CAMRA – Pub and brewery trade news 35 closed over the years: it is as great if not “ ”. Now I’m sensitive Keeping it in the family 31 a greater proportion than that of pubs. almost to the point of paranoia about such matters and I didn’t Micropubs in West Middlesex 36 So the exhortation to use it or lose it think that he was either. Indeed, Mr Brewery news 38 applies to clubs at least as much as to Brown was actually promoting an Pub campaigning 42 pubs. However, while a pub’s success will depend on its appeal to the essential CAMRA policy – the quality of Is golden the new black? 50 general public, clubs by definition tend beer. To this end I think that he WhatPub? update 19 51 to be run for their members and it is has come up with a very interesting Norwich City of Beer 57 those members who will make all the idea. Letters 58 difference to the choice and quality of Cask beer, as we all know, has an LocAle update 59 drinks available and the overall optimum life of three to four days. Idle Moments 60 prospects of the club. For CAMRA to Many publicans keep beers on for Crossword 62 have any influence, branches need longer than that because of financial 3 Editorial pressures, which we can all understand, or, sadly, in a few cases, because they do not understand or worse, care. Mr Brown’s solution is to do what supermarkets do with fresh produce that is going out of date: sell it off cheap and advertise it as such. He calls this a win-win situation. The publican is seen to be honest, he gets to put some money into the till for it, the customer gets a cheap if not perfect pint which some may appreciate and the pub does not get a reputation for selling bad beer. It also keeps those drinkers with ‘fluid’ (no pun intended) tastes interested in cask beer. Given that many of the ‘new wave’ brewery conditoned beers are perfectly acceptable and far removed 8 constantly changing real ales from the dreadful ‘kegs’ of my youth, it is important that we and 7 rotating keg beers encourage them to keep the faith. It also helps with turnover which in itself helps. An extensive range of bottled craft beer As an aside, even modern cans are an alternative to poor Food served daily cask beer. Just for research purposes, I have tried a few recently and if I hadn’t known that the beer was from a can, 1 minute from Old St. Tube – Exit 4 I would happily have believed that it was bottle-conditioned. 3 Baldwin Street, EC1V 9NU Again, far removed from the days of Watney’s Pale. This is of course just an opinion, even if it is echoing 020 7253 2970 someone else’s. I haven’t asked Mr Brown for his permission to repeat this argument and I hope that he has no objection. @oldfountainales Has anyone any thoughts? [email protected] www.oldfountain.co.uk Tony Hedger Now open at weekends At 22 February 2017, CAMRA had 186,090 with Sunday Roasts available members, of whom 18,463 live in the Greater London area. ELAC CAMRA City Pub of the Year Award for 2016 We stock an extensive range of craft beer from London, Scotland and beyond. Not to mention a great selection of excellent whisk y, gin, rum and other f ine spirits. Open 10-6 Monday to Saturday , 10-8 on Thursday and 12-5 on Sunday , so come in and check out our full range at your leisure or see us online at www .royalmilewhiskies.com 3 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3QE Phone: 02074364763 4 Twitter: @RMW_London Branch diaries elcome to our regular details of London CAMRA BROMLEY contacts and events, where branches say what is Barry Phillips , [email protected] hWappening in their areas that might be of interest to drinkers April – Tue 11 Cider Festival publicity crawl: (7pm) Jolly across London.