The Campaign for Real Ale FREE Issue No. 69
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FREE Magazine issued by the Medway Branch of CAMRA - The Campaign for Real Ale FREE Issue No. 69 - NEW YEAR 2013 FREE CAMPAIGN FOR REAL www.medwaycamra.org.uk ALE 2 MEDWAY BEER BELLY NO 69 In this Issue Page NEW YEAR 2013 Published Quarterly by the Medway Branch Diary…………………......................... 4 Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale Ltd. Editorial............................……….................... 5 (CAMRA). Circulation - 2,000 7 © 2013 Medway CAMRA. Poem / Advert Prices........................................ Editor: John Brice When Your Belly Was Thinner........................ 9 Email : [email protected] 12 Production-Editor: Karl Martin Scrap the Escalator............................................. Advertising Manager: Vacant Kent Brewery News.......................................... 16 Being Branch Chief............................................ 22 26 All Correspondence to: Medway Christmas Social................................. Medway Beer Belly North Downs Walk............................................. 29 King George V Kent Ales - My Story......................................... 31 1 Prospect Row, Brompton 35 Kent ME7 5AL The Story of Kent Cider..................................... Medway Pub News........................................... 37 Any opinions expressed within these Where to Obtain Your Beer Belly...................... 38 pages are those of the individual authors only and do not represent those of Good Beer Guide 2013..................................... 38 CAMRA or any of its officials. Mini Quiz........................................................... 39 Branch Details: Advertisers Chairman: Geoff Negus Secretary: Mike Thomas The Angel........................................................... 19 Treasurer: Simon Ellwood Bexley Beer Festival.......................................... 32 Membership Sec: Simon Ellwood 40 Branch Contact: Colin Maskell Britannia Bar Cafe, Rochester.......................... Tel: 01634 851827 CAMRA............................................................ 6 Eagle Tavern, Rochester................................... 25 Trading Standards Office If you want to contact the Trading Elephant, Faversham......................................... 19 Standards Office, perhaps to report a short Frog & Toad, Gillingham………..................... 14 measure, or a pub not displaying a price list etc., they can be reached at:- Gardeners Arms.................................................. 20 Compass Centre, Chatham Maritime, GBBF................................................................. 19 Chatham, Kent, ME4 4YH Good Intent, Rochester..........…….….............. 21 Telephone: 01634 333555 [email protected] Horseshoe & Castle, Cooling …….................. 28 Kent Ales............................................................ 15 CAMRA, 230 Hatfield Road, Kent Brewery.................................................... 15 St. Albans AL1 4LW Telephone: 01727 867201 Fax: Kent Gateway Block Management.................. 34 01727 867670 King’s Arms, Upper Upnor.............................. 24 Website: www.camra.org.uk King George V, Brompton.............................. 14 Kinlochs & Son.................................................. 2 Rockaroake......................................................... 11 Nelson Brewery, Chatham................................ 4 Three Tuns, Lower Halstow.............................. 13 Who’d Ha Thought It, Rochester...................... 33 3 Medway CAMRA - Branch Diary Anyone is welcome to join us at any of our varied Socials & Trips. Any changes will be shown in “What’s Brewing” or on our website: www.medwaycamra.org.uk Committee Meeting on Wednesday 6th March at the Gillingham Conservative Club, Gillingham High Street, 2000 - All welcome Planet Thanet Branch Social, Winter Gardens, Friday 29th March Branch social – Planet Thanet Beer Festival, Margate. - Meet at 1200 - make your own way there. Rochester Ramble, Wednesday 17th April. Branch social – Golden Lion at 2000 and Man of Kent Rochester 2115. Others may be decided on the night. Outback Outing, Saturday 18th May. A mini bus trip to the edges of our area, visiting the likes of the Gardners Arms, Stonehorse and Horseshoe and Castle to name but a few. Definite venues and details announced on the website www.medwaycamra.org.uk nearer the time. 4 editorial Another year, another Beer Belly and another beer! What more can you want? First of all, a Happy New Year to you all. Let’s hope it’s a good one for ale. So what are the prospects for 2013. There has never been a better choice of ales from within the county. With a few recent wob- bles, we still have almost 30 breweries in Kent which gives us a rich and varied collection of ales to try. Some of them are producing really excellent drinks and long may that continue. There is always talk of more newcomers to the market and that can only be encouraged. How- ever, there has to be some sort of limit to the amount of pubs which can take the ales, and drinkers who can consume them. It’s good to see breweries open and sad when they close, so let us hope that we can maintain the ones we have now. Most of them seem to be experiment- ing with different ingredients and styles so that we have a rich seam of tastes to try. So what about the pubs? The closures seem to be slowing down, but there again is that because there are fewer of them to face the axe. There has got to be a point where the number of pubs remaining satisfies the amount of drinkers out there. Too many people now drink at home for us ever to return to the days when there was always a pub just around the corner. And that brings us to minimum pricing! Will it happen and if it does what will the threshold be. Will it stop people buy- ing as much from the supermarkets and will they return to the pubs. There are many views on this subject - even within the industry where one might have thought there would be a united voice on this front - and only time will tell. There is no suggestion that the price of pint will fall. Quite the opposite, many of the big brewers have already put up their prices and that’s before we know the state of the cost of raw materials - particularly barley and hops - after a wet season. In defence of Kent’s small brewers, none have announced prices increases so far this year to my knowledge so that’s good news. Maybe that extra competition is concentrating the mind! It looks as if we will have a good raft of ale fes- tivals throughout 2013. There are now several pubs which regularly stage events which have become part of the calendar. It shows the strength in the market. And remember, real ale was the only sector in the drinks industry to show growth last year. That’s good for all of us. So let’s raise a glass of wholesome ale to 2013! BREWERY RHYMES ADVERTISERS Copy deadline for next edition is 14th April. An advertisement in Medway Beer Belly runs by Mandy Lifeboats for three months and reaches a minimum 2,000 readers. I had a little pint of beer Its froth was white as snow CURRENT RATES When I wanted another one, B/W Half Page £35 Back to the pub I’d go B/W Full Page £60 Colour Half Page £45 One, two, get me a brew Colour Full Page £75 Three, four, get me some more Colour Back Page £80 Five, six, how I get my kicks Please make cheques payable to Seven, eight, the beer tastes great Medway CAMRA Nine, ten, I will come here again Contact the Editor. Bar, bar, barman, have you any beer? Details on Page 3 Yes sir, yes sir, we have some over here. This one is a hoppy one MEDWAY CAMRA ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE With tastes of malt and grain FOR THE CONTENT OR ACCURACY OF ANY PUBLISHED ADVERTS OR ARTICLES. That one is a winter one Which you will want to drink again Having trouble getting hold of your Medway Beer Belly? It is available on Drink a round of Old Rosie subscription of 4 x 1st Class stamps to Pocket full of change A skinful, a skinful MBB Subscriptions c/o We all fall down 10 Barleycorn Drive Rainham, Gillingham, Kent ME8 9NA Medway CAMRA has 475 members THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS PUBLICATION ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE EDITORS OR THE CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE. Please remember to tell Landlords that you saw their advert in Medway Beer Belly 7 8 When your belly was thinner “A look back at Medway Beer Belly Issue 19 with grumpy writer Moaner” This issue of MBB hit the streets on time (after a 18 month gap between the previous two issues) in the Summer of 1999 in its by now, usual format of 24 pages, A5 size. As can be seen from the cover scan here, we continued with a cartoon front asking readers to send in witty captions (As issue 20 has already been covered by us in issue 52 of MBB, the winning caption was “Happy hour has bloody finished!). The editorial confirmed that J D Wetherspoon were coming to Medway in Rochester High Street, and pondered on possible other pub chains flooding the Towns in the future (Slug & Lettuce, Irish themed bars, Piano and Pitcher etc.). The branch socials included a number of pub festivals such as the Dog & Bone beer festival, Barge beer festival and the Roseneath, where landlady Helen was hosting a Charity Garden festival. We held a joint social with our CAMRA neighbours from Swale, which amounted to a crawl around pubs in Gillingham. Other events included a beer Belly pick up meeting in the Man of Kent, Rochester, a social gathering at the Kent beer festival in Canterbury, a walk from the King George V in Brompton through to the pubs in Chatham High Street and a wander from the White Horse, Borstal, back into Rochester. Our “out of Town” social was a day in Whitstable. It was Annual General Meeting time again and we asked for members to please attend and maybe think about volunteering to come onto the Committee. 9 When your belly was thinner A Pub Trivia contest was set giving prizes to five readers of a pair of tickets to the Saturday session of the upcoming Great British beer festival. Just for fun, we also set five posers on advertising slogans. See if you remember these:- 1/. Great Stuff this 2/. Get everyday 3/. Cream of Manchester 4/. Are you a type? 5/. Get your Lips round a The answers are at the end of this article.