MMeerrssee yyAAllee CAMRA Liverpool & Districts Magazine Spring 20 11 FREE Women and Real Ale the Liverpool Way CAMRA 40th Top 4 Pubs Isle of Man News MerseyRAle Page 37 Back copies: merseyale.com www.merseycamra.org.uk Circulation 11,000 email [email protected] Photography Neil Lloyd Nikon D2X www.liontavern.com Welcome to MerseyAle The MerseyAle CAMRA Liverpool and Districts Branch MerseyAle Editor Lion Tavern John Armstrong 67 Moorfields Liverpool L2 2BP Telephone 0151 236 1734 MerseyAle Contacts The Lion Tavern (Grade II Listed) is Liverpool’s FOOD Comments/news/letters/photos See the board for [email protected] finest Edwardian Pub. It is an extravaganza of selection of good etched glass, carved wood and beautiful tiling. value food from our new MerseyAle Advertising It has a wonderful ornate wood carved bar plus menu two cosy side rooms one with a fantastic Cost - Full page £200 stained glass dome. The Lion Tavern is an QUIZ NIGHT Half page £100 Contact award winning pub serving excellent cask every Tuesday at 9.30pm [email protected] Life begins at Forty. Well that’s Capital of Britain draws visitors conditioned ales, cider and a large selection of what they say and CAMRA is and leaves them in no doubt about the finest malt whiskies. You can also enjoy a BOARD GAME MerseyAle about to put it to the test. the national quality of our pubs. fine selection of tasty food from our new menu. CLUB (back copies on line) CAMRA celebrated 40 years of Second - Bringing new people to Meet every Monday at www.merseyale.com successful campaigning on 16th real ale. 6.00pm March (page 4 and 19). CAMRA needs to introduce the new Liverpool and Districts CAMRA Thanks to the efforts of CAMRA it generations of people to real ale and ACOUSTIC Main Branch Contact can be said that real ale has been to real pubs so as to secure the future HAsuppNly a vDariedP seleUctionM of pPrize S NIGHT Jean Pownceby saved from the threat it faced in the of both. [email protected] 1960s and 70s of imminent Liverpool CAMRA has developed a winning Real Ales (including at least one Second Thursday of the Month 8pm extinction. People Power stopped Bringing New People to Real Ale locally brewed ale) plus hand pulled Cider Contact for Socials and the Big Six Brewers in their tracks. campaign. 8 Coach Trips only CAMRA has since gone on to be Events are being organised to BOB DYLAN SOCIETY Ian MacAdam 07521 741 586 acclaimed as the most successful introduce Women and Real Ale consumer organisation in Europe. (page 11 and 12). It may not be Meets first Thursday of Over 80 Malt CAMRA Branch Chair appreciated that national figures the Month 8.30pm However Forty is a time to look show that it is women who are Geoff Edwards forward not just back Whiskies MEET THE BREWER [email protected] driving real ale growth (page 10). The Lion Tavern has one of the largest Third Thursday of the Whilst the battle for real ale may Running in parallel is a programme Month 8pm Web Sites have been largely won, two new to Introduce Young People to Real selections of malt whisky on Merseyside battlegrounds now loom large, and POETRY GET Liverpool and Districts Ale. CAMRA needs to build the CAMRA Branch Liverpool CAMRA is rising to the next generation of real ale drinkers. TOGETHER www.merseycamra.org.uk challenge; Liverpool CAMRA has a new Young Fourth Thursday of the First – the Battle for the very Persons officer Chris Flynn who Month 8pm survival of the British pub. is organising the programme Isle of Man CAMRA Branch Around 29 pubs are closing every and can be contacted on V6 Adventure www.isleofmancamra.org.uk week with pubs facing a perfect [email protected] Club storm of economic recession and Meet every Wednesday CAMRA national site The lesson of the last 40 years is clear cheap supermarket alcohol. Yet Real at 8.00pm www.camra.org.uk and applies equally to the next 40 Ale is the unique selling point of the British Pub. Only in the pub can you Don’t Agonise – Organise !! enjoy real ale from the cask. Equally So let’s make a difference. no pubs means no where to drink Don’t delay – Join CAMRA today – real ale. Real Ale is an important page 53. economic advantage for the pub. Cover: CAMRA Womens tasting Liverpool CAMRA has worked hard evening, The Dispensary to promote our pubs. WEEKLY LOCALE Picture by Neil Lloyd • The annual Liverpool Real Ale See Board for future Pubs Festival and Pubs Passport, Real Ales “One of the Hundred The opinions expressed in MerseyAle are not which runs through September and Best Pubs in the necessarily those of the Editor, the CAMRA October, features over 80 real ale Sean and Michael would like to welcome customers country” Liverpool Branch or CAMRA Ltd. pubs. old and new to the Lion Tavern Daily Telegraph • The title Liverpool Real Ale Pubs John Armstrong Editor PUB OF EXCELLENCE 2009 BEST QUALITY ALE 2006 CASK MARQUE CAMRA NATIONAL INVENTORY PUB 3 Michael Hardman records in his Indian restaurant, we developed a said with wrinkled brow and CAMRA Celebrates 40 book Called to the Bar that; consensus of complaint of the screwed up eyes 'we should get this lousy quality of much of the beer CAMRA business going as a proper Years of Real Ale Success “The first time the four of us came we had drunk. "Too fizzy" said consumer campaign instead of just together was in March 1971, when Mellor. "No character" said buggering about singing We're Now the Battleground Shifts to Saving the British Pub we gathered in Chester on the Makin. "Too dear" said Lees. Only Here for the Ale' " evening before we were due to fly "Tastes sickly" said I." be forced down the throats of the The Battle for Real Ale may off to Ireland on a seven-day Enter the Campaign for the The Campaign for Real Ale is nation’s drinkers. have been won but now a boozing holiday organised by Lees. "Almost a year later, our Irish Revitalisation of Ale, soon to be celebrating 40 years of success in All of us were under 25 and fond of holiday now a fond memory, Lees Then four friends from the North new battle looms. The memorably renamed the campaigning for real ale, during a few pints. and I were doing the rounds of West of England Michael Battle for the British Pub. Campaign for Real Ale. The rest is which time it has become pubs in Chester again when Lees Hardman, Graham Lees, Bill history. recognised as Europe’s leading As we traipsed from pub to pub became uncharacteristically Mellor and Jim Makin resolved to Geoff Edwards comments, consumer organisation with over and finally to the compulsory serious. 'You know, Hardman',' he 120,000 members. challenge the loss of Britain’s “The very survival of a great traditional cask beers. The result British institution, the British Pub Now forty years on the battle for was the establishment of the is at stake. Currently pubs are Greg Mulholland congratulates CAMRA real ale may be largely won but the Campaign for the Revitalisation of closing at the rate of 29 per week. new battle ground has shifted to Ale which was soon renamed as Pubs are facing a perfect storm of on 40 years of campaigning the very survival of the British Pub. the more catchy Campaign for Real economic recession and greedy Currently nationwide 29 pubs are Ale. The title Real Ale was born. PubCos who are demanding including guest beer rights and a “We are immensely proud of closing every week and this iconic unrealistically high rents and genuine free of tie option. reaching the grand old age of By 1973 membership had leapt to a forty and not only to have British institution is under threat as charging well over the odds for • Thirdly proper recognition, remarkable 5,000 and the next year survived but to be going from never before. beer. through taxation, of the 1974 it had nearly doubled to 9,000 strength to strength as we battle There is a need for government importance of beer and of pubs. Geoff Edwards Chair of the with the first local Branches action to curb the powers of the to preserve a beer style virtually Liverpool and Districts Branch established. Merseyside CAMRA unique to the United Kingdom. PubCos and to back community Greg commented: which was launched in 1974 branch was set up in January 1974 locals. The Prime Minister claims commented; at a meeting in the Globe pub to be leading a pub friendly “The campaigning work done by “They say that life begins at 40. “It is fair to say that without Cases Street. government. CAMRA says let him Liberal Democrat MP, Chair of the CAMRA has been remarkable We intend to stick to that and to CAMRA real ale, Britain’s The organisation rapidly became prove it.” All-Party Save the Pub Group and and they are rightly regarded as keep on campaigning for what we national drink, would have known for its vigorous long time campaigner for the one of the most successful believe in. disappeared under a tide of fizzy campaigning at both national and A national survey by CAMRA British pub, Greg Mulholland, has consumer campaigns ever in this keg beers which the big brewers local levels. shows that 84% of people believe a congratulated CAMRA, on the country.