August 2015 issue 116 InnSpire THE MAGAZINE OF CHESTERFIELD AND DISTRICT CAMRA Market Beer Festival 2015 @ Market Hall Assembly Rooms 30th & 31st October 35 REAL ALES & 6 CIDERS Featuring Battle of the Beers Opening times 11am-4pm 6.30pm - 11pm Entry Price: £1 lunchtime sessions £3 evening sessions
Page 1 FREE COPY InnSpire Editorial & Production Chesterfield & District CAMRA Tim Stone & Debbie Jackson Tel: 07773 141433 Chairman [email protected] Mick Portman Advertisements 88 Walton Road, Chesterfield S40 3BY Tim Stone Tel: 01246 277757 Tel: 07773 141433 [email protected] Branch Contact Further Information Jane Lefley www.innspire.org.uk [email protected] [email protected] Article Deadline for October 07790 863432 Issue 117 Wobble Organisers Friday 18th September 2015 Ray Easter [email protected] InnSpire has a circulation of 4,250 Colin Clark copies and is produced by and [email protected] copyright of the Chesterfield & District Matlock & Dales Branch Branch of CAMRA. Contact No parts may be used without per- Peter Boitoult 07791 159 526 mission. Articles & letters are always welcome and may be submitted by Do you have trouble email to the InnSpire Editor, address above. finding a copy of InnSpire?
Please note that the views expressed Why not guarantee yourself a copy by herein are those of individual contrib- utors and not necessarily those of the subscribing to our Postal List? national Campaign for Real Ale or the local Branch. As each issue is published, you will be one of the first to receive a copy of Chesterfield & District CAMRA is a InnSpire, directly to your door. Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale To receive a whole year’s worth of InnSpire, please send six second class LARGE letter stamps to: InnSpire Postal List, 88 Walton Road, Chesterfield S40 3BY Please remember to include your full name and address.
Page 2 Chairman’s Report I’m very pleased to see that Chesterfield CAMRA’s Pub of the Year, the Old Poets’ Corner at Ashover, has been selected as Derbyshire Pub of the Year. This means that it will be considered for the East Midland Pub of the Year and, if successful, national Pub of the Year. We congratulate Kim and Jackie Beresford and their staff on achieving this great accolade.
Less happy news is the expected destruction of one of our best pub buildings, the Walton on St Augustines’ Road. Although an exceptional building externally, it didn’t attract enough customers inside – a sad loss. Not far away, the Trumpeter on Grangewood estate is to be converted to a ‘retail outlet’ + pub, which is better than nothing.
Another sad loss is the retirement of Maureen Tropman from the Red Lion on Whittington Moor. A wonderful landlady who will be sadly missed – see article in this issue.
I’m glad to report that our walking programme has recommenced with walks from Ashover to Clay Cross and Clay Cross to Ashover – beautiful country, fine weather and excellent beer. I’d also like to thank the latest hosts of our branch meetings – the Neptune Beer Emporium on St Helen’s Street and the Pebley near Barlborough. All members and potential members are welcome at our meetings.
Happy Drinking! Mick Portman Derbyshire Pub of the Year Celebration! @ The Old Poets’ Corner Sunday 16th August 4pm Everyone Welcome Page 3 Page 4 Brewery News Ashover
Ashover Brewery is expanding. They have purchased the brewery equipment and taken on the lease from the now closed Brown Ales brewery in Clay Cross. Currently the new brewery is closed, while Ashover put in new floors and new drainage to bring the building up to spec. However, Ashover will continue to brew in their existing brewery, so you won’t miss out on Ashover beers if you’re a fan!
The new brewery site will have a modified mash tun and new copper, and will be completely repiped before going into production. This will give Ashover more than double their existing capacity, however both sites will remain open, with the original plant being used for the stronger ales and seasonal specials.
Kim Beresford of Ashover Brewery said, “We’re really excited about the prospect of expansion. We’ve been looking for a way to expand for a good while, but it’s taken until now to find something suitable. We’ve only been able to brew enough beer to supply our own pubs, the Old Poets’ and the Poet and Castle, and a few local outlets, but now we hope to supply much further afield.”
Instant Karma
The phoenix has finally risen from the ashes, as the Clay Cross brewery is brewing again following the fire which closed them down last summer. Brewing began at the end of May, and the first beers were on the Rykneld Turnpyke bar on 14th June. Six ales are on Glyn and Tom..much happier offer: Brew 1 and Brew 2 at 3.95 and 4.5 respectively, Saffron Kasaya at 4%, Sutra at 5.5%, and Shambhala and Bramling Porter both at 5%.
Page 5 Brewery News
Owner Glyn and brewer Tom are both very happy to see the brewery in production again. Tom had moved house to be closer to the brewery and pub last year, and is glad to be back - especially as it only takes him 30 seconds to walk home! As well as supplying the Turnpyke and other local pubs, Instant Karma beers have reached as far as London - check out the Holborn Whippet and the Roebuck on Great Dover Street if you’re visiting.
Glyn is now sorting out a hop contract so he is able to produce some specials, and guarantee the right hops for the existing brews.
Matlock Wolds Farm Brewery
It was soon apparent that the 40 litre plant that brewer Robert Atkin started out brewing on needed upgrading and a new 250 litre kit has been installed and, after undergoing several test brews, it is now in full production. Cask MWF beers are regularly on the bar at the Twenty Ten Bar on Dale Road while selections of bottled ales are in several other outlets in the Matlock area, including Armitts Off Licence on Smedley Street and MoCa Bar. Robert has added a new beer to the portfolio - a 4.3% golden bitter, Riber Gold - whilst the 4.9% award winning Classic Porter has sold well at the Beer Parlour, Whittington Moor as well as recent beer festivals.
Pigeon Fishers
The Pigeon Fishers brewery fired up its burners in July and brewed for the first time in 18 months. The brewery has been closed for a full refit, up-cycling Barlow Breweries old but trusted 2.5 barrel plant. Ade Cole, MD and brewer says it’s been an uphill battle juggling finance and time but he is confident the new plant will deliver some seriously tasty ale!
Page 6 Brunswick A5 Landscape Advert_Layout 1 08/05/2014 11:17 Page 1
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The Brunswick will offer RAILWAY PORTER THE USUAL • Full range of six Brunswick Ales, Everards Tiger, Everards Beacon, Timothy Taylor Landlord Award Winning Ale Award Winning Ale • AND 8 regular changing cask ales
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O.G. ABV O.G. ABV O.G. ABV • Regular CAMRA discount - 20p off a pint 1040 4% 1058 6% 10381038 33.6%.6% Alan & Philippe have accolades as winners of CAMRA Pub of TRIPLE HOP BLACKBLACK SABBATHSABBATH WHITEWHITE FFEATHEREATHER the Year 2010, 2011 and 2014 while at The Crown, Uppingham & Brewer James has been brewing award winning ale at The Award Winning Ale Award Winning Ale Award Winning Ale Brunswick now for 11 years.
[email protected] or [email protected] • www.brunswickbrewingcompany.co.uk & www.brunswickderby.com The Brunswick, 1 Railway Terrace, Derby, DE1 2RU • For all enquiries please call: 01332 290677 Page 7 Cask Ales Keg Ales Traditional Ciders Fine Wines Premium Spirits Sunday Lunch Weekly Quiz Resident Jazz Band
The Rose & Crown, 104 Old Road, Brampton, Chesterfield, S40 1DW Tel: 01246 563750 www.roseandcrownbrampton.co.uk
1 King Street North,Whittington Moor, Chesterfield S41 9BA Open 4 -11pm Mon.- Fri. Dawn 12pm -12pm Sat. 1pm -10pm Sunday
CAMRA PUB of the SEASON Autumn 2014
Draught beers changing on the bar every week EP E I T
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Real ales and craft ciders in bottles and on draught R
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Phone 07870 693411 A Page 8 Brewery News
The first brew, Test Brew A, is a pale and hoppy 4.2% ale, with plenty of bite from extensive dry hopping using Amarillo hops. The ale is currently conditioning in the cellar of Ade’s pub, The Derby Tup, and should be on the bar in early August. If reception is good the brew will be ‘imaginatively’ named, launched and will then be available in other pubs. Ade also hopes to be bottling and canning his ales by Christmas. Exciting times for one of Derbyshire’s smallest and newest brewers. Pigeon Fishers brewing again
Spire Brewing Co.
The Spire Brewing Co website, including online shop, is now up and running at www.spirebrewing.co.uk. The brewery was also planning delivery of a semi- automatic bottling plant for the end of July.
Thornbridge
Paul Leeyen has been stocking Thornbridge beers for three years at his bar in Den Bosch in the Netherlands and has been delighted with the response from his customers: “High quality and a great variety of beer styles sets Thornbridge amongst the top breweries we deal with.”
Paul has been so delighted with his Thornbridge partnership that he approached the brewery about the idea of opening a Thornbridge Bar in Den Bosch. “After visiting the brewery in late 2014 I was blown away by the passion for their beers that everyone at Thornbridge demonstrated. I knew that if I could find the correct site in ‘s-Hertogenbosch then a Thornbridge bar would be a great success”. A suitable site was duly found and the aim is to open the Thornbridge@’s-Hertogenbosch on the 4th September.
Page 9 Brewery News Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey Brewery is elated to announce that our first pub the Portland House is currently being planned, prepped and polished ready for opening in August. Situated on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield, our little boozer will be entirely dedicated to ethically sourced food and drink with provenance; a fine balance between the heritage that comes with being part of the Welbeck Estate and the contemporary, industrial style that is synonymous with Sheffield.
Brewery Tours are still running on the second Monday of each month and the final tour will commence on Monday 14th September. Head brewer Claire takes you on a sensory journey and explains the brewing process from grain to pint. Tours start at 7:30pm and finish around 9pm costing just £7.50 per person.
In other news we’re sponsoring the Roman Southwell Community Archaeology project. The community group have researched the style of beer which would have been brewed back then, and we have formulated a recipe for a 3.8% British barley focused pale ale using the aptly named British Boadicea hops. These hops are named after the famous Queen of the Iceni tribe, who led a rebellion against the Romans in the 1st century AD. They have a distinctively fresh British meadow aroma of herb and fresh grass - a truly Romano-British beer! The beer is called Roman Southwell Gladiator and was launched at the Hearty Goodfellow in Southwell on 25th June. As well as being available in most Southwell pubs, the Project will be retailing bottles of the beer at their summer events. To find out more about the project and Roman activity in Southwell visit http://www.mbarchaeology.co.uk
Page 10 BREWERS OF AWARD-WINNING HAND CRAFTED ENGLISH ALES
HENRIETTA HARLEY CAVENDISH RED FEATHER
PORTLAND BLACK
Welbeck Abbey Brewery T 01909 512 539 Latest News Brewery Yard E [email protected] Welbeck, Worksop W welbeckabbeybrewery.co.uk Nottinghamshire S80 3LT
Page 11 Coach & Horses BEER MUSIC ARTS COMMUNITY
A friendly pub on Sheffield Road in Dronfield, next to the home of Sheffield FC, the world’s first football club. The handpulls on the bar serve locally brewed Thornbridge beers plus a rotating guest beer. Complemented by a selection of locally brewed, foreign and mainstream lagers and a range of bottled beers from around the world.
The Coach & Horses has been voted CAMRA “Pub of the Season” The presentation ceremony will be held at 8pm (for 8:30) at the Coach and Horses on Saturday 29th August. A free buffet will be provided courtesy of Chariots Kitchen. Chariot’s new menu will be available from August 4th.
Monday 4pm-11:30pm Home cooked, locally Tuesday to Thursday 12pm-11pm sourced food is served www.mycoachandhorses.co.uk Friday & Saturday 12pm-12am Tuesday to Saturday Enquiries: 01246 413269 FOOD
OPEN Sunday 12pm-10.30pm 12pm-3pm and 5pm-8pm Page 12 Pub News
The Nag’s Head in Newbold has undergone an extensive three week refurbishment and now boasts six real ale pumps, and three real ciders, as well as a stylish and welcoming interior. Brampton Best and Doom Bar are permanent fixtures, and at only £2.70 a pint – with a further 15p discount on ales for CAMRA members – it’s definitely Phil and Sue gave us a lovely warm welcome worth a visit. Friendly and experienced hosts Phil and Sue are planning a Thursday night quiz, and there’s music or karaoke on Saturdays. There’s also a Charity Race Night on 28th August, in aid of the NSPCC. The pub has a car park at the rear, free Wi Fi, is dog friendly, and also has a room off the bar suitable for small meetings.
Chesterfield’s first Bavarian bierhaus, cocktail bar and kitchen opened in July, following an investment in excess of a quarter of a million pounds. Einstein’s boasts a retro interior design and outside terraced area, an 8 meter long copper bar and a beautifully restored German piano. Their range of draught German beers includes firm favourites Erdinger, Warstëiner, Lowenbraü and Bitbürger. Accompanying these are over 50 world and craft beers, including Duvel and Leffe Blonde, as well as a selection of local real ales and craft cider. All draught beer will be exclusively available in one and two-pint steins.
A new free live music event is set to burst on the scene in Dronfield this August. Coachstock will be hosted by the Coach and Horses pub on 15th August, running from 12 noon to midnight and promises to be a great family day out. There’s a line-up of live bands, craft stalls, face painting, kids’ activities and a wide variety of home-cooked, locally-sourced food and drink including cask and craft keg beers from Thornbridge Brewery plus an external festival bar. Elaine Dennison from the Derbyshire folk band, Blind Badger, is helping co- ordinate the music line-up which will be made up entirely of local bands. For more information visit www.mycoachandhorses.co.uk Page 13 Pub News All change at the County and Station! After successfully turning the Matlock Bath pub from its seemingly endless downward spiral into one of the area’s premier real ale outlets, plus hosting two successful beer festivals within six months, it wasn’t a particularly big surprise that hosts Lee and Sally Jackson were runaway winners of the Matlock and Dales Town Pub of the Season for 2015. Sadly Lee and Sally have decided to return to Lee’s roots (up north in Whitby, which is virtually Scotland in my book). We wish them all the best in their new life up there, and would also like to wish new licensees Matt Chambers and Emily Bowler well in taking over the reins at the County and Station. The pub will remain a Shiny Brewing Co outlet.
Friday 11th and Saturday 12th September sees the Lathkil Hotel host their first beer festival. They will have over 17 real ales plus real ciders to be tried while gazing over the best view in Derbyshire - and to top it off some great local bands. Join them for live music on the Friday evening from The Kerry Fernandez Band and on the Saturday an afternoon and evening of music culminating with The Black Hands.
With well over 30 beers from near and far, visitors to the Waterloo Inn at Biggin had plenty of choice at their recent Beer Festival - part of the pub’s Fun Weekend. To complement the locals’ favourites there were new brews from Intrepid and plenty of LocAle, Wincle, Peak and Thornbridge ales to name but a few. Meet the Brewers sessions also proved popular, as did the bucking rodeo bull and the bouncy castle, whilst the well organised outside pop, crisps and bar meals ordering stall worked very well.
The next Beer Festival run by the hardworking Bridget and Gary Dicken at the Waterloo will be in September which includes a charity Fire Walk in aid of the Air Ambulance - more details at www.thewaterlooinn.co.uk Page 14
Page 15 Breweriana 2015
CAMRA’s 30th Breweriana Auction
Ever fancied owning a slice of brewing history? Then this auction could be just the thing. The CAMRA National Breweriana Auction returns to Burton on Trent’s Town Hall to celebrate its 30th birthday on Saturday 17th October. It again promises over 150 interesting auction lots - everything from mirrors to trays, wall signs, bottles and books. Plus there are a number of stands selling memorabilia adding to the atmosphere in this wonderful Victorian venue.
Lots include soda syphons from Burton’s Allsopps and two closed breweries, Nottingham’s Shipstones and the lesser known Newark’s Hole’s Brewery, which was set up in 1870, taken over by Courage, Barclay and Simonds in 1967 and closed 15 years later. There is also a Charrington’s Toby Jug and a Tetley’s window. And if you fancy something to make you smile, the Worthington E figurine of two old chaps might catch your eye. There’s also a nice glass jug from Gilmour of Sheffield, which started in the 1860s and a bottle with a colourful fired on label from Stroud Brewery, demolished in 1970, and a number of items used by a Customs & Excise official in carrying out his duties.
And, of course, like any CAMRA event, there is some good beer on sale all day, from local Burton Old Cottage Beer Company. The Town Hall on King Edward Place is just a short walk from the railway station. The event starts at 11am with the opportunity to view the lots and stands with bidding starting at 12.30pm. Entrance is by catalogue (£2.50), available on the day, or £3.50 in advance from Bill Austin: 01923 211654 (answerphone) or [email protected]. If you can’t get there, postal bids are accepted, just contact Bill.
Page 16 Campaign Update
It is a long time since we have been able to read about successes in the field of pub preservation, but we have three to report this month. Not only that but we have another success to report at the national level.
Firstly, three popular pubs are no longer under threat - the Crispin on Ashgate Road, the Wellington in New Whittington, and the Cock and Magpie in Old Whittington. Tesco are reported as being open to bids to continue running the Crispin as a pub. Those expressions of interest are now coming forward. It would be wrong to go into too much detail at present, but they arise locally.
The Co-op are having a severe attack of cold feet in their quest to put a store on the site of the Wellington now that there is an ACV designation on the place. The Friends of the Wellie have wind of a battle behind the scenes between New River Retail and the Co-op. With the already good shops in the high street in New Whittington, the threat of a boycott of any new Co-op store in an area that has a high number of members would have a bad effect. Don’t forget that with Tesco just down the road in the old White Horse, (students of irony, please note) locals have plenty of choice.
The Cock and Magpie reopened the day before the Old Whittington Gala, and sold out of Jennings Cumberland Ale inside 24 hours. It is family run and if their enthusiasm is anything to go by, it will succeed. In your correspondent’s view it is well worth a visit.
On a bigger front, it is reported that our chancellor has ruled out the imposition of the EU inspired cider levy. Your correspondent knows that many of you signed the petition against it, so it really does have an effect. Many of us wrote to our Euro MPs about this, and positive responses came from all except the lunatic fringe, who remained supine in the face of threats to local small businesses from the ‘Brussels Bureaucrats’ against whom they are always railing. They did nothing to help small cider makers. For MEPs that are against the European Union in all its devilish glory, to pretend it has gone away, together with their constituents, is not good enough. We deserve better!
Alan Craw
Page 17 Holiday Beers
Beer on holiday, with honourable exceptions, can often be limited to fizzy lagers which are only really drinkable when ice cold. However, news has reached InnSpire of two places which are bucking the trend – Slovenia and the tiny Maltese island of Gozo.
Dave Scrivener recently stayed for a week at the Hotel Krn in Tomin, Slovenia - see http://www.krn-hotel. com/en/ for details. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the hotel brews its own beer! They produce two brews, one pale and one dark. Both are well hopped in the English style; the dark one is especially tasty. The hotel also boasts saunas and a Jacuzzi!
InnSpire editors Tim and Debbie visited Gozo in July and spotted ‘local craft beer’ for sale in some of the local bars. Lord Chambray is an Italian owned microbrewery and currently brews four great bottled beers. Golden Bay uses American hops and is fairly strong at 5%. Blue Lagoon is a wheat beer with coriander and orange peel flavours at 4.8%. San Blas is an amber ale with a blend of hops at 5.5% which won an honourable mention at the 2014 Brussels Beer Challenge. The most recent addition is Fungus Rock, a 5.5% stout.
And of course, Raw are already working closely with the new Trulla Brewery in Sardinia, and Thornbridge continue their mission to provide their bottled beers to every corner of the globe! It’s great to see that British beers have recovered from the lager invasion of the 70s, and are now reversing the trend.
So you never know what you might find on your holiday with a bit of research – or even just a large helping of good luck!
Page 18 Page 19 Helpers Trip to Titanic
The Winding Wheel Beer Festival was back in February and a good time was had by all. As a treat and thank you for those who helped in some way either by setting up/taking down equipment, serving behind the bars, membership, tombola stalls or whatever, a coach is hired for a trip to pubs or a visit to a brewery. In this case on a lovely sunny day in May it was both. (Now this...plug plug…is another good reason for joining CAMRA and getting involved).
The coach picked most of us up at Poundland in town at 11.15 and headed towards Stoke via the outskirts of Derby and Ashbourne where a few more came on board. The Titanic brewery is in Burslem, one of the pottery towns of Stoke on Trent. We have visited the site before and probably so had our driver, as he negotiated the narrow streets to the brewery very skillfully. It was early afternoon when we arrived and we made our way into the visitors bar where two real ales and various craft/keg beers were available.
We were given two pints each and I chose the ales (don’t get me on the craft beers debate/argument, it’s not the time or place in this article). The beers were Steerage 3.5% and Anchor Bitter 4.1% - both very good and they went down well (groan…it’s an old joke but sometimes they’re the best). The refreshments were served by a very nice young lady (apologies as I don’t know her name), who then gave us a brief history of the brewery. For those who don’t know it was founded in 1985 and named after Captain Smith, a potteries man and the Captain of the Titanic. The brewery has grown quite a bit since my last visit and I would now consider it a regional brewery not a micro these days. The brewery supplies more than 600 free trade outlets and a growing tied house estate. Page 20 There are pictures of Titanic’s pubs on the walls (can’t remember how many but one is in Leek, more of which later). The lady then became our guide and showed us round the brewing plant. We tasted different malt grains and sniffed hop pellets (lovely lemon aroma), and climbed up some steps to look in a fermenting copper/bin/vessel (whatever the correct term is) to see the beer in its ‘porridge’ form. We saw the huge new gleaming huge containers where the beer is kept before being transferred to the barrels. There were questions now and I posed one regarding the beer being kept for quite a few days - did this become craft beer? I wasn’t sure if I got an answer to this but never mind.
We went back to the bar and were given a third pint - this was a seasonal ale called Cherry Dark 4.4%. This was absolutely brilliant, wonderful, marvellous. As you can see I quite liked it, in fact one of the best beers I have had this year! After this some visitors went into the shop where the same lady served them again. (Was she the only person working at Titanic? She certainly deserves her wages. We saw no-one else - where was everyone? Had they deserted a sinking ship? groan.. again). Anyhow it was time for a quick leak and then on to Leek.
The coach journey to the town didn’t take long and we parked in the market square and split off into various groups to visit as many of the excellent pubs we could in the time allowed. I and others called in the Cock Inn (sorry about name) which is a Joule’s pub and new to me. I had Joule’s Blonde 3.8% - not new to me but pleasant enough. Onto the Roebuck, a 17th century coaching inn owned by Titanic Brewery. This is a corker of a pub with six Titanic beers and four guests. I had rare (for me) ales from Kite (Wales) and Signature (London) - Thunderbird 4.5% and Backstage IPA 5.6% respectively, both excellent.
Onto the Earl Grey next. Fortified by some chips to soak up the beer we walked to this micro pub a few minutes from the town centre. Others from this trip were already there but I managed to get a seat with a Red Willow Seamless 3.6% in hand. This excellent little pub has something of extra interest for me with a small display of matchbox labels framed on the wall - an unusual selection (although nothing new to my collection).
Page 21 Helpers Trip to Titanic The last pub for me on the way back to the market square was the Wilkes Head, one of the oldest hostelries in the town and a regular outlet for Whim ales. I however had Stock Porter 4.8% by the Stockport Brewery, this confused me at the time thinking it was a Robinson beer under another name but I later checked it out and Stockport Brewery is a new brewery established last year in that town.
Time ran out all too soon and we made our way back to the coach and a pleasant drive home. An enjoyable day and thanks especially to Jane for not only organising the Winding Wheel Beer Festival but also for arranging and sorting this trip, and to our driver and Titanic Brewery for their tour, hospitality and beer. Ray Easter Farewell to Mo After over 12 years of Maureen Tropman running the Red Lion on Whittington Moor, it’s sad to report that she has retired. I have fond memories of just Mo and myself behind the bar on Millennium Eve. After this warm up she was ready for anything and in March 2003 her reign of terror - oops sorry, I mean the halcyon times - began.
It’s hard to cover how much Mo did for the pub - there’s so much and my memory is hazy as the pub is so welcoming! The first thing that comes to mind is Mo’s amazing generosity. Not many days passed without some sort of free food being available in the pub, and lovely home cooked meals for pensioners, contractors, sports teams and regulars. She also put on many charity events, including for Help for Heroes, RSPCA and of course the Edale Mountain Rescue annual funday. The fun and games never ended, with a four hour happy hour on Friday’s, quizzes, crazy card bingo, race nights, brewery trips and live music making it an integral part of a Whitt Moor wander.
With the patience of a saint, Mo went the extra mile and created a true community pub. It’s testament to this that so many dropped in over the last few weeks to wish her well. Now it’s time for Mo to rest her crocked self (her words) and we wish Phill and staff all the best in taking over this hard act to follow. Dominic Hodgson Page 22 Page 23 MAD diary Thu 20th August MAD Monthly Meeting at the Duke of York Elton. From 8pm A wonderfully preserved rural public house, complete with its own pigsty. (But no pigs).
Thu 10 September Matlock Wolds Farm Brewery tasting event - Twenty Ten Dale Road , Matlock A chance to meet Matlock Wolds Farm Brewery’s head brewer, and sample some of their real ales. The event will be held at the Twenty Ten public house on Dale Road. Refer to website for times.
Thu 17th September MAD Monthly Meeting at the Boat Inn, Scarthin, Cromford. From 8pm The area’s most abundant outlet for Derby’s Dancing Duck Ales. With lovely views of rustic Cromford and the extensive mill pond to boot.
Thu 24th to Sun 27th September Amber Valley Beer Festival, Strutts, Belper
Sat 17th October MAD Monthly Meeting at The Red Lion, inside Crich Tramway Museum. Please assemble in museum car park from 2:45. From there we will be given free group access into the museum at 3pm. Please note there will be no access onto trams, (unless you are willing to pay the normal admission charge). The meeting will be followed by a social visit to the Cliff Inn, Crich (next door to the museum), before heading back towards Matlock.
Fri 23rd – Sat 24th October. Matlock Third Beer Festival. County Offices, Smedley Street Matlock. More news in next issue.
Page 24 MAD about festivals
Matlock is a good place to live in. While being a rather picturesque town on the banks of the Derwent at the edge of the Peak District National Park, the town also has the good fortune to be positioned rather close to the major urban areas of Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield, and is also within easy reach of the large centres of (in no particular order) Burton-on-Trent, Chesterfield and Elton (where?) The reason for this snippet of geographic information is to emphasise how close we are to a vast number of potential beer festivals. Matlock Bath’s newest real ale emporium, the County and Station at the top end of North Parade, set the ball rolling for 2015, when on 29th January - 1st February they held their first ever Beer Festival. Hot on the heels of the County’s festival, and upping the stakes in the real ale count (to 120), came Chesterfield’s annual Winding Wheel Beer Festival in February. The Winding Wheel is a Tardis-like structure, looking small on the outside, but extending backwards into town hall dimensions, covering three storeys with a ballroom to boot. Matlock and Dales CAMRA Branch (MAD for short) always provide a good battalion of volunteers for this event, to complement Chesterfield’s own volunteer army. The weekend after the Winding Wheel just down the road, the National Winter Ales Beer Festival 2015 at The Roundhouse opened for business in Derby, where the beer count was upped yet again, with at least four hundred real ales available. The Roundhouse is an iconic building built originally for railway locomotive maintenance in 1839, and now includes its own theatre. Matlock CAMRA normally organise an annual jolly to this event, not only to attend the festival itself, but also to take the opportunity to visit some pubs in Derby, a city the Lonely Planet guide describes as ‘one of the best places to drink real ale in the world’. March saw Sheffield SIBA BeerX at ICE Sheffield, with a beer-count of 250+, and one weekend later saw the Burton Beer Festival at the Town Hall , an event famed for its astonishingly high beer count and notorious (and fully operational) Wurlitzer organ. This sojourn normally ends with Matlock CAMRA’s annual pilgrimage to Cooper’s Tavern in Burton, a must-see unique pub featuring a wall of gravity dispensed ales from the cask, and an unspoiled interior that ale-quaffing Victorian gentlemen would feel suitably at home in even today. April gave us ‘probably Britain’s most atmospheric’ beer festival at Barrow Hill Chesterfield, another railway themed extravaganza of real ale, while June Page 25 hosted the Three Valleys Festival which features a series of free buses travelling round a dozen or so pubs in North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. Into July now, and I’ve just returned from helping out at the Derby City Charter Beer Festival in the marquee outside the Assembly Rooms. A great festival once again, although the future is uncertain, as there does not appear to be any desire to replace the badly damaged Assembly Rooms any time soon. The largest ‘local’ event for Matlock’s members is probably October’s Nottingham Robin Hood Festival at the castle, where last year a staggering (literally) 1,205 different casks of real ale were available. The quaintest festival I hope to attend this year will most likely be the Elton Beer Festival at the Jubilee Field at Elton in Derbyshire on 22nd August. I haven’t even mentioned our own Matlock Autumn beer festival on 23rd and 24th October yet, further details of which will be saved for a future issue. And now back to geography: excluding Burton, none of these ten beer festivals is more than 25 miles out of town! So you see, if you’re MAD about beer festivals, Matlock really is the place to live!
Tony Farrington MoCa Bar
Serving a selection of real ales from.... Abbeydale, Oakham, Blue Monkey, Dancing Duck, Kelham Island & Brampton Matlock CAMRA Pub of the Year 2013 & 2014 Mon-Wed real ales £2.80 per pint Open 11am until late Lunchtime light bites menu available Try a Real Ale Rack - 4 x 1/3 pint with cheese! 77 Dale Road, Matlock Tel. 01629 583973
Page 26 TIGER BEST BITTER
www.everards.co.uk @EverardsTiger facebook.com/everards Page 27
Southwell Folk Fest A5 ad Portrait.indd 1 16/05/2014 16:25 Page 28 Turning the Corner to Derbyshire’s Pub of the Year In 2015 we are fortunate to have a tremendously lively and vibrant real ale scene in Derbyshire, but this hasn’t always been the case and although the Campaign for Real Ale has been steadily working towards this goal for many years, it is probably in just the last six to eight years that things have really snowballed.
From my earliest memories of drinking beer I can say that I have always loved real ale. I would also put myself firmly into the ‘really fussy tw*t’ box…well it came with the territory when you joined CAMRA in the 70s. I remember struggling in those days to find more than a handful of places that I was happy to drink in and even then it was always a good trek out.
Then 15 years ago I dropped into my dream job. I got the chance to learn about proper cellarmanship and pub management and it was in a place which I considered at that time to be one of the best Cask Ale pubs around for miles. I was working at The Dead Poets’ Inn at Holbrook…… it was in the glory days when Dave Brown was at the helm (at least he was when he didn’t have a golf club in his hand) and James his son was managing the place. My responsibilities were running the cellar and working the bar.
After a while I started to do a bit of basic food on Friday nights in the conservatory, along with an open mic acoustic session. It became legendary and was totally rammed every week. We even had Van Morrison call in to say hello to his old mate Dave one night while my blues band was playing. He got up and sang one with us, but that’s another story. So aged 41, I had found my true vocation in life - I was all fired up to fly the Real Ale flag and I wanted to make a difference.
Fortunately, Jackie my wonderful real ale loving wife was completely with me on this one and we decided that we really wanted to get our own pub. We’d decided that we could not be tied to a brewery or PubCo if we were to stand any chance of success, but freehold pubs were very few and far between at that
Page 29 time and it also meant that we would have to borrow a shed load of cash. To make things even worse, Punch and Enterprise were buying up anything that was half decent as soon as it came onto the market.
There was an up-side to this delay however. It gave us plenty of time to develop a clear vision of what we were going to do to make our pub perfect when we eventually found it. Top of our list had to be excellent beer and then the place also needed to feel homely and welcoming. Oak beams would be dressed with hops and there would be lovely inviting open fires. Really important to us was the location - a quiet and friendly community - and finally because I am a trained chef and amateur musician, there would have to be live music and some good home cooked food with of course….real chips, another rarity for pubs of that period.
There wasn’t going to be any smooth or keg beer and definitely no gambling machines or television screens. As I re-visit the criteria we set ourselves, I think it’s a miracle that we ever actually found a pub at all!
Eventually we got a tip off from our mate Edward at Leatherbritches brewery who was delivering beer to a pub in Ashover called Old Red (formerly the Red Lion) and the guy who owned it said that he was selling up and asked Ed if he knew anyone who might be interested?
We went straight away to have a look and thought that it was absolutely the perfect location for us. We found out that the locals had nicknamed it the morgue due to its recent lack of appeal, but we just figured that if it was at rock bottom, there was only way to go and that was up. So we re-mortgaged the house, scraped together every last penny we had, threw our shirts in, sold our souls to the bank, took the plunge and chucked in both our jobs..scary!
If you had looked in the 2003 Good Beer Guide’s map of Derbyshire at that time, Ashover was as barren as a desert. There could only be two reasons for this; either the area just wasn’t ready for cask ales yet or it was just that no one had been brave enough to fly the flag.
We put our money on the latter and on June the 4th 2004 we opened the doors to the newly named Old Poets’ Corner. On the first day of opening, two old boys came in who had drunk in the pub forever. They passionately told me that “folk round here don’t want this bloody real ale rubbish. What they want is proper beer like John Smith’s Smooth or Stones keg.”
Page 30 Well I’d just ripped out all the keg fonts the week before and replaced them with six new hand pumps, so I told the two gentlemen that they were going to be unlucky and that they’d probably do well to go up the road to one of the other pubs in the village (or words to that effect). “We’ll give you six months” was their parting shot. “That long?” I whispered. I’m so happy that they were wrong but it was a confidence shaker on the first day.
During those early days we would commute from our home at Denby village, clean the pub, do the cellar work, cook and serve the food, open and run the bar, then shut for two hours in the afternoon and have a kip. We’d open again at five offering food and drink till knock off at about midnight, then drive home and cash up over a glass of wine and get to bed about 2am. This was seven days a week and apart from a week in 2005 when some friends stepped in, we didn’t get a day off for three years.
There were plenty of tears and moments when Jackie and I would look at each other and one of us would say “I don’t know if I can keep doing this”. But you pick each other up and the thought of losing the shirt off of your back is a wonderful motivator too.
Soon the hard work started to pay off and the pub began to get busier. The recognition and the awards that followed it really made us feel like all the pain and effort was worthwhile. So thank you CAMRA for giving us the lift that we needed when we were feeling out for the count.
The rest, as they say, is history. In the years that followed we have campaigned for real ale in Ashover relentlessly. It is no longer a barren desert and all of the pubs now sell Page 31 decent beer. CAMRA membership in the parish has reached new heights and the great unwashed are still condemned by the tolling of the bell and the “LAGER” chant if they dare to ask for a pint of Fosters during our Old Poets’ Corner Beer Festivals!
We now have a fantastic team running the pub. The passion lives on through Michelle and Heather with their great bar staff and kitchen brigade, and Jackie and I can afford to spend a bit of time on the other side of the bar. We are into our twelfth year now and although we have received loads of awards, many of them from CAMRA, the one award that has eluded us until now is the one that Jackie has always hankered after. But now it’s finally in the bag and we can say at last that the Old Poets’ Corner is Derbyshire’s CAMRA Pub of the Year 2015.
Thank you to Michelle, Heather and the Poets team and to everyone in CAMRA who this year thought we were the best and decided to vote for us .
Kim Beresford
Town Centre Pub of the Year 2015 Nominations Using the map below, nominate your top three pubs in the Town Centre. All nominations to be sent to [email protected] by the 30th August The top six will be put into the competition. Everyone who wants to vote will have to visit all six pubs and get a form stamped and send or hand in their voting forms by the 27th September. The winner will be announced at the October Branch Meeting. NB Nominated pubs have to serve Real Ale and be open for 6 months or more.
Page 32 Chesterfield & District CAMRA Market Beer Festival 2015 @ Market Hall Assembly Rooms 30th & 31st October 35 REAL ALES & 6 CIDERS Featuring Battle of the Beers Opening times 11am-4pm 6.30pm-11pm Entry Price: £1 lunchtime sessions £3 evening sessions Tickets on sale at Chester eld Tourist Information tele 01246 345777 Pay on door subject to availability
Tickets on sale now! Page 33 Meet The Brewer Bradfield Brewery’s Paul Ward
What did you do before you became a brewer? I started straight from university. I’d started a degree in law and psychology at Hull, then changed tack to tourism and regional planning. I’d moved back to my home town of Sheffield and was looking for jobs when something came up at Kelham Island brewery and I just thought it looked interesting. I was there nine years, and have now been at Bradfield for ten.
What made you become a brewer? I was a real ale fan – I went to the Fat Cat a lot! - and the job at Kelham Island just appealed. I was straight in to all aspects of work at the brewery from brewing to deliveries.
What inspires the sort of beer you produce? Lots of people were brewing with American hops at the time, but we wanted to produce a beer which lager drinkers might enjoy. We decided to try a traditional English hopped beer – it was a risk, but it worked! Our first brew was a standard bitter, then we went on to Farmers Blonde. We wanted a good session beer and Farmers Blonde is just that, and has hopefully got a few Carling drinkers into real ale!
What’s your favourite beer? My favourite Bradfield beer is Yorkshire Farmer. I liked the roasted barley taste and the hint of dryness. I have a pint after work at the Nag’s Head (our brewery tap) – I walk in and it’s waiting for me on the bar! Page 34 From other brewers I enjoy Abbeydale Moonshine, Kelham Bitter and beers from Chantry. I’m not fussy and I like to keep it local.
Where in the world is your favourite place to drink beer? I enjoy drinking locally – the Kelham Island Tavern is my old stamping ground - I’m Sheffield born and bred. I am interested in going to the US, maybe California, where they now have lots of breweries, to see what they do there.
What do you think is the most important thing we can do to protect real ale pubs? Pubs definitely need protecting, particularly from the big companies who make it difficult for landlords to make a living. And we need to protect them from being sold off – we’ve got enough supermarkets! Pubs are part of our heritage and part of the community, but too many are disappearing.
What’s your earliest memory of drinking real ale? I can remember drinking Stones with my dad, but when I was at university in Hull I started going to the Firkin pubs and got into real ale. And I always enjoyed a liquid lunch at the Fat Cat!
Page 35 Cider News
Is Perry and Cider really only celebrated in May and October?
CAMRA has traditionally celebrated cider and perry during October and from 2015 a second opportunity to celebrate this traditional drink was introduced in May. But of course we can choose to enjoy a celebration of cider and perry all year at our local pubs and festivals. The logic behind promoting cider and perry in May could appear a bit odd given apples and pears ripen in the autumn, but May is a time when the apple and pear trees in the orchards are in blossom and, without this we wouldn’t have the fruit!
Many traditional orchards have disappeared over the years but luckily for us producers have started to plant new trees in recent years, keeping the tradition of cider and perry production alive. May is also the time when the juice that was pressed the previous year has fermented through and is ready to drink. The depth of flavour often improves as a cider and perry matures across the year.
Real ciders and perries differ from fake fizzy industrial products with the natural flavours of the fruit used in the production of real cider and perry coming through in the final product. So why not take the opportunity to visit some of the many pubs in the Chesterfield area which offer real cider or perry, and give them a try ?
Page 36 Apple Motion or Commotion?
At the National CAMRA Members Weekend and AGM in Nottingham this year a good proportion of time was spent debating and voting on motions at the AGM conference. One motion this year concerned the definition of real cider and this split a fair proportion of membership views.
CAMRA maintains its definition of what real cider is as published on the main CAMRA website, but from this year a motion was passed to extend this ‘recognition of realness’ to include cider and perries produced with added flavourings such as fruits, herbs and vegetables as long as these are natural, fresh additives and the cider is still 90% fermented fresh apple juice. The success of the cider motion did however dismay a lot of passionate cider campaigners, so this position may well change again next year!
Petit Pois Perry, and Chard Cider just seem a bit OTT to me; unless in a pot with pig of course!
An Appley Well Done to Three Valleys Festival!!
I had an enjoyable day at Three Valleys festival on 6th June, and as both Chesterfield and Mansfield’s CAMRA Apple Representative I want to extend my thanks and a big well done to the contributors and organisers for their excellent promotion of cider and perry at this year’s event. Over 50 different ciders and perries across 17 venues was really impressive (maybe dispelling the myth the ‘real’ juicy stuff is difficult to find!) I just wish I could have sampled them all, but I fear I’d have never wobbled back to my tent at Barlow Brewery to cook dinner for Mansfield Branch Chairman and Doglet, nor fitted in my final pint of Anastasia Stout!
Bridget Harmsworth
Page 37 Join CAMRA The fact that you are quite possibly reading InnSpire while sampling a pint of real ale in your local pub is largely down to the efforts of CAMRA, founded in the 70s. CAMRA is an independent, voluntary organisation campaigning for real ale, community pubs and consumer rights. CAMRA was formed in March 1971 by four men from the north-west who were disillusioned by the domina- tion of the UK beer market by a handful of companies pushing products of low flavour and quality onto the consumer. In the present day, CAMRA has over 160,600 members across the world, and has been described as the most successful consumer campaign in Europe. So why not join today and be part of a highly successful organisation? But, you may say, in that case the battle must be over – there’s no need to join. Well, local pubs continue to disappear at an alarming rate, and the story of the Crispin Inn continues as we go to print. So, apart from helping to preserve our drinking traditions, what’s in it for you? For just £23 per year you receive a quarterly copy of the magazine BEER, and a monthly colour newspaper, What’s Brewing, informing you of beer and pub news. There are also discounts on books, entry to over 160 beer festivals and various holidays and attractions. Various pubs also offer discounts to CAMRA members, and each year you will receive £20 worth of Wetherspoons real ale vouchers. Most importantly of all, however, by joining CAMRA you are helping to ensure that you will still be enjoying a pint of real ale in years to come! You can join online at camra.org. uk, complete the form opposite or contact our membership secretary Jane at [email protected] or on 07790 863432 Page 38 F A Campaign of Two Halves air dea on beer Save l t Britain’s ax n Pubs! ow! Join CAMRA Today Complete the Direct Debit form and you will receive 15 months membership for the price of 12 and a fantastic discount on your membership subscription. Alternatively you can send a cheque payable to CAMRA Ltd with your completed form, visit www.camra.org.uk/joinus or call 01727 867201. All forms should be addressed to the: Membership Department, CAMRA, 230 Hatfield Road, St Albans, AL1 4LW. Your Details Direct Debit Non DD Title Surname Single Membership £24 £26 Forename(s) (UK & EU) Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy) Joint Membership £29.50 £31.50 (Partner at the same address) Address For Young Member and other concessionary rates please visit www.camra.org.uk or call Postcode 01727 867201. Email address I wish to join the Campaign for Real Ale, and agree to abide by the Memorandum and Tel No(s) Articles of Association Partner’s Details (if Joint Membership) I enclose a cheque for Title Surname Signed Date Forename(s) Applications will be processed within 21 days Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy) Email address (if different from main member) 01/15
Campaigning for Pub Goers Enjoying Real Ale & Beer Drinkers & Pubs Join CAMRA today – www.camra.org.uk/joinus
Instruction to your Bank or Building Society to pay by Direct Debit
Please fill in the whole form using a ball point pen and send to: This Guarantee should be detached Campaign for Real Ale Ltd. 230 Hatfield Road, St.Albans, Herts AL1 4LW and retained by the payer. Name and full postal address of your Bank or Building Society Service User Number The Direct Debit To the Manager Bank or Building Society 9261 2 9 Guarantee This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building Address societies that accept instructions to pay by Direct FOR CAMPAIGN FOR REAL ALE LTD OFFICIAL USE ONLY Debits. This is not part of the instruction to your Bank or Building Society If there are any changes to the amount, date or Membership Number frequency of your Direct Debit The Campaign for Postcode Real Ale Ltd will notify you 10 working days in advance Name of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request The Campaign for Real Ale Ltd to collect Name(s) of Account Holder Postcode a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request Instructions to your Bank or Building Society If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Bank or Building Society Account Number Please pay Campaign For Real Ale Limited Direct Debits from the account Debit by The Campaign for Real Ale Ltd or your bank detailed on this instruction subject to the safeguards assured by the Direct Debit or building society, you are entitled to a full and Guarantee. I understand that this instruction may remain with Campaign For Real immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank Ale Limited and, if so will be passed electronically to my Bank/Building Society. or building society Branch Sort Code - If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when The Campaign For Real Ale Ltd Signature(s) asks you to Reference You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply Date contacting your bank or building society.Written Page 39 confirmation may be required. Please also notify us. Banks and Building Societies may not accept Direct Debit Instructions for some types of account. Sunday 20th September 3.30pm – 7.30pm
Spanish Wine Tasting
Come along for our Spanish wine tasting event. The afternoon will consist of a blind tasting of 6 Spanish wines (prize for the winning team!), followed by a selection of Spanish themed dishes. There will be a mixture of fantastic Spanish food including; Spanish Deli Boards, Confit Paprika Chicken & Paella (vegetarian options available), Chocolate & Seville Orange Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream & Orange Syrup all freshly prepared by our kitchen team
£30.00 Please make your reservation at the bar
The Market Pub 95 New Square, Chesterfield 01246-273-641 – www.themarketpub.co.uk Page 40