WWW.CHEERSNORTHEAST.CO.UK // APRIL 2014 // ISSUE 39 cheersIT’S ABOUT PUBS, PEOPLE, BEER – AND YOU! GET THE PICTURE FREE PLEASE TAKE GATESHEAD’S A COPY VAN GOGH CHOO-CHOOSE YOUR PUB TAKE THE RAIL TRAIL WHAT DRIVES DAVE CARR? Scan this code IT’S TERRIFIC PUBS RATHER THAN with your smart phone to access the latest news A NIGHT IN WITH SUSAN BOYLE on our website CHE39 Cover.indd 1 01/04/2014 10:13 CAMRA 2013 Easter Scottish Overall Northumberland Winner Beer Festival Thursday 17th April - Monday 21st April 40+ of the fi nest Scottish cask ales plus a selection of ciders Live music - Saturday night with the Mudskippers - starts 7.30 pm Buskers Nights - Thursday 8th & 22nd April Saturday 26th April - Live Band Pretty Weeds starts 8.30 pm Freshly baked steak/mince pies & mushy peas, toasties & sandwiches available every day. Enjoy your pint while sitting round our real fi re. CAMRA 2014 South West Northumberland Pub & Cider Hadrian Border Pub of the Year Winner Brewery Tap Station Road, Wylam, NE41 8HR • Telephone: 01661 853431 Follow us @Boathouse Wylam • Like us on CHE393902 The P2.indd Boathouse.indd 2 1 01/04/201420/03/2014 10:1312:54 WELCOME We’ve sprung forward into the lighter nights at last. All we need now is some balmy weather to enjoy our al fresco drinks after work. Doesn’t it make a CONTENTS di erence being full of the joys of… pub-going. is is the time of year that YOUNG MAN da odils nod their approval to all the beer and food festivals going 18 ON THE MOVE on, from Whitley Bay to Hedley on e inside of Dave Carr’s head must be a tangle of the Hill and all points in between. ideas, ambition and dreams. His ideas for getting It’s important that we support bums on seats in pubs are to be admired – because them when and where we can. most of them work. No sooner has he gured out We’ve got a packed issue for how to construct a cider room in an empty space you this month and the breadth than he’s o inventing a new style of sandwich (or of subject matter simply “sammidge” as he endearingly labels them). Dave has demonstrates the huge variety of recently taken control of e Tannery in Hexham activities taking place around the and his and his team’s e orts are already paying North East’s pubs. dividends with customers making tracks there, eager It’s terri c to witness the to be part of the pub’s innovative approach. But it’s con dence of entrepreneurs who and Dave Carr Robinson, Frnak Skelton. Right: Lou cover photo by Peter Front not all easy; there is no magic formula. just know something’s going to work – and it’s not through luck COVER: DAVE CARR AT THE TANNERY IN HEXHAM or gut instinct either, it’s sheer hard work. Dave Carr’s pub experience is a AFTER A FEW case in point. He’s a young man DRINKS WE CAME who puts the graft in and works LATEST TAKE THE at a project until it comes good. If UP WITH THE only some of us had half the fertility 04 NEWS 22 RAIL TRAIL of imagination that he has. SCENARIO THAT IF We continue our look at what pubs FAMOUS PAINTERS can o er on a plate and talk to a A PENNY THE PUB man who paints like Picasso. And HAD COME TO Van Gogh. And Monet. en we OFF A PINT 2610 PAINTER take a train ride along the Tyne NEWCASTLE WHAT Valley – stopping o at lovely pubs, WOULD THEY of course. CUT INTO ENJOY THE Join us in our North East pub HAVE PAINTED? round-up. It’s great to have you 11 A STEAK 30 FUN PART on board. A TOAST THE A-Z OF Alastair Gilmour JIM HARKER Editor, Cheers North East ILLUSTRATOR 16 TO BUDVAR 32 GREAT PUBS EDITORIAL ADVERTISING PUBLISHED BY: 01661 844115 01661 844115 Whilst every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, 07930 144 846 Gillian Corney the publisher cannot accept responsibility for omissions Alastair Gilmour [email protected] Publishers: Jane Pikett & Gary Ramsay and errors. All material in this publication is strictly [email protected] Emma Howe Unit One, Bearl Farm Stocksfi eld copyright and all rights reserved. @CheersPal [email protected] Northumberland NE43 7AJ www.cheersnortheast.co.uk [email protected] twitter: @offstonepublish When you have fi nished with We are tweeting. Photography: Peter Skelton www.offstonepublishing.co.uk this magazine please recycle it Follow us @cheers_ne OUR SPONSORS Wylam Brewery CHE39 Intro P3.indd 3 01/04/2014 11:10 NEWS READ THE BOOK, SUP THE BEER Jarrow Brewery has created a dark, complex beer with a bitter aftertaste after being inspired by a conspiracy thriller. Gladio: We Can Neither Confi rm Nor Deny by Steve Chambers, published JOIN US FOR A WIDE RANGE OF by Newcastle-based Zymurgy LOCALLY CRAFTED REAL ALES, GREAT Publishing, is set in two time WINES AND RELAXED SURROUNDINGS periods – the 1980s during the miners strike and peace camps, Choose from our delicious seasonal menu and 20 years later in 2004. with locally sourced, great tasting meals. Gladio was an undercover Gladio the beer will be as fast- Open from 10am. Lunch served from 12 noon onwards. operation set-up in post-war moving as Gladio the book.” western Europe sponsored by Gladio: We Can Neither Confi rm The Crown, Mickleton, Barnard Castle, DL12 0JZ the CIA. Nor Deny is available in paperback Call: 01833 640 381 Jarrow Brewery’s Jess (£7.99) from all good bookshops McConnell says: “Gladio is a page- and e-book formats online. For Email: [email protected] turner and the idea struck me that more information contact Martin www.thecrownatmickleton.co.uk it would be interesting to create Ellis at Zymurgy Publishing, a beer that would match its many tel 0191 276 2425, or Jarrow threads and themes. We hope Brewery, tel 0191 483 6792 REAL ALES, BEERS & FINE WINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD EGG-CELLENT EASTER DEALS PEDAL POWER DRAWS TWO COPPERS BREW GIANTS WHEELY CLOSE Excellent range of ales This summer’s Tour de France visitors are expected to line the with local stock on rotation is bringing together two route (pictured above) – as well as Latest ales introduced regularly of Yorkshire’s best known watch the race on big screens. from your favourite brewers brewing families in the spirit of In a joint statement, Theakston Come down to our tastings every Saturday 8-8 “entente cordiale”. executive director Simon Theakston £1 BARGAIN BIN EVERY MONTH Masham’s T&R Theakston and and Black Sheep Brewery Black Sheep Brewery have put managing director Rob Theakston A wide range of continental beers & fine wines rivalry fi rmly behind them as they said: “The Tour de France is the from around the world help the market town celebrate most signifi cant event ever for To keep upto date with all our latest Ales its inclusion in the opening stage Masham and for the town to make follow us on twitter and facebook of Le Tour in style. To mark the the most of this historic sporting 17A Princes Rd, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 5TT occasion, the town is throwing Le spectacle, we are combining forces 0191 217 0043 • Follow us @Coppers Grand Party on Saturday, July 5 as and for the fi rst time ever our staff more than 20,000 residents and will be working side-by-side.” 4 / CHEERS / www.cheersnortheast.co.uk CHE39 News 4-9.indd 4 01/04/2014 10:15 NEWS STARTER FOR TEN AT FOOTBALL QUIZ A Newcastle city-centre pub has scored TOP FERMENTERS: Brewing teams from Allendale, Wylam, Tyne Bank, Mordue and Anarchy with the introduction of a sponsored football quiz. The Hotspur on Percy Street has run the event for some time but THE WINNER IS. .THE NORTH EAST DRINKER manager Gareth Frazer decided a brewery tap take-over would fi t the format perfectly The region’s brewers came home from the with bronze awards for Jake Head IPA (6.3% – then it really took off. Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) abv) and Flannel Hammer (7.5%). “We had 17 teams with 65 players for BeerX festival with a magnifi cent haul Mordue’s Garry Fawson says: “This goes to the last one,” says Gareth. “We have involved of trophies. The event, held in Sheffi eld, show the strength and depth of brewing we have Sonnet 43 and Jarrow breweries and it has underlined what many of us have known for in the North East.” become a fantastically popular event. some time – that the North East produces Dawn Miles from Anarchy Brew Co says: “The format is multimedia and traditional some of the nation’s best beer. “We’re really proud of the North East for these quiz questions with football on screen Mordue Brewery won a gold award for its beer awards. The trouble is we can’t produce where you have to guess the score and also speciality beer Killswitch 51 (5.0% abv). It then enough to keep up with demand.” picture rounds. The good thing is a lot of the won bronze in the Supreme Champion fi nals, Julia Austin from Tyne Bank Brewery credits younger guys are lager drinkers but we sell making it currently the third-best beer in the UK. the region’s vibrant pub scene.