Free No. 125 Spring 2020 INTS WES P Multi-award-winning magazine of the Bristol & District T and Bath & Borders branches of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale The pub that time forgot Contents Introducing Basement Brewery Page 23 BAD Ladies Bristol’s brewing industry Page 32 BADRAG (rare ales group) Page 18 Bath & Borders pub news continues to flourish! Page 22 Bath Winter Ales Festival Page 7 Bristol Beer Festival ur city’s ever expanding roster of breweries continues to grow INTS WES Page 28 Bristol Pubs Group with the addition of Basement Brewery. Founded by Ben, P T Page 43 CAMRA diaries & contacts Othe popular landlord of the Robin Hood pub on St Michael’s Page 12 Champion Beer of Britain South West results Hill, Kingsdown, Basement Brewery is a new venture stemming from The multi-award-winning magazine of the Bristol & District Page 8 Cider home-brew beginnings in Ben’s basement (hence the name!). The new branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, plus the Bath Page 22 Cryptic crossword brewing equipment moved into St Phillips in October 2019, and Ben & Borders branch Page 41 Going for a beer ... in Wrocław (pictured)- aims to have the brewery commercially producing beer at Brought to you entirely by unpaid volunteers Page 39 Good Beer Guide and beer scoring full capacity by the middle of this year. Ten thousand copies of Pints West are distributed free to Page 17 Luppitt Inn – the pub that time forgot (cover picture) Ben began home-brewing a number of years ago and wanted to hundreds of pubs in and around the cities of Bristol and Bath Page 20 Midsomer Norton pubs progress, and take the opportunity to go commercial. As a landlord ... and beyond Page 34 National Pubs of the Year he’s spent many days with some of the fantastic brewers who supply Also available on-line at www.camrabristol.org.uk Page 14 Shine on Thornbury the Robin Hood and it became his ambition to be able to have his own Page 24 Weston-super-Mare news beer on the bar, across Bristol and beyond. Published by the Bristol & District Branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, February 2020 © In February the brewery was about to start packaging a hazy pale ale Editor: Steve Plumridge ([email protected]) Brewery news: for distribution, a crowd-pleaser of a fruit-driven hop-flavourful cask tea pale ale with tropical, fruit-based tea leaves, and an alternative ale ale that will be very popular once available. In addition, the brewery Design & Layout by: Steve Plumridge Page 36 Arbor Ales Page 16 Left Handed Giant using smokier and sweet bonfire toffee tea. is producing a core range of cask beers that will include a session IPA, Next edition: end of May 2020 (probably) Page 5 Bath Ales Page 38 Little Giant a couple of darks (Ben’s preferred style of beer) and a “beefy IPA”. Ben will be expanding distribution throughout pubs in the city but Page 21 Bath Brew House Page 31 Moor Beer Printed by: JamPrint The brewery’s headliner ale, Oblique Strategy is a hop-dominant 4.1% Oblique Strategy has recently been on tap at the Good Measure on Page 3 Basement (new) Page 10 New Bristol Subscriptions: to be put on a mailing list to receive Pints Wests (for session IPA named after Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s card-based Chandos Road in Redland, and of course can be found at the Robin Page 13 Bristol Beer Factory Page 19 Plain Ales UK addresses) send ten standard (not large) 1st class stamps to the method for promoting creativity. Ben said he felt the Eno approach at Hood on St Michael’s Hill where beer enthusiasts can get lucky and Page 19 Brotherhood Page 19 Twisted challenging constraint fitted Basement Brewery’s ethos for creative editor discover some of the smaller batch experimental brews Ben has been Page 3 Cheddar Ales Page 9 Twisted Oak and unrestricted brewing techniques. producing. CAMRA Good Beer Guide: suggestions for future entries, and Page 10 Croft Ales Page 37 Wiper & True comments on existing ones, can be made to our GBG coordinator, Page 26 Epic Beers Page 10 Zerodegrees In addition to their core range of cask beers, the brewery will also The brewery will be supplying beer for the CAMRA Bristol Beer Festival Martin Gray: [email protected] Page 31 Good Chemistry produce seasonal specials and some interesting brews. Due to the in March and other events including personalised brews for weddings, If you have any pub updates: please enter them via whatpub.com or Page 27 Incredible scale of Basement Brewery, Ben is able to be innovative and take and group events throughout 2020. email details to [email protected] more risks with brewing. Ben’s currently using his old home-brew kit For further information on all aspects of CAMRA contact the Bristol and so much more... as a test kit creating small batch brews that are more experimental To get in touch, contact Ben at Basement Brewery on 07702430808. & District branch secretary, Michael Bertagne: m.bertagne@ by nature. In February he was testing pale ale recipes for a loose-leaf Laura Coombs camrabristol.org.uk Trading Standards: for problems such as consistent short measures, no price lists, call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline – they will assess your problem and pass it to Trading Standards if considered appropriate: 03454 040506 (Mon-Fri 9-5). See New tap room for www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/ report-to-trading-standards Cheddar Ales LETTERS: please email correspondence to the editor at [email protected] or post it to Pints West Editor, Steve Plumridge, ajor news from Cheddar Ales is the opening of their new tap room at the brewery just outside Cheddar. The tap room is set Garden Flat, 6 Royal York Villas, Clifton, Bristol BS8 4JR great reasons Mwithin the brewery itself with beers running straight from the to join CAMRA cold store and will serve their six permanent beers plus seasonal brews ADVERTISE: to find out about advertising in Pints West, please email 10 and guest beers (all cask, although two keg lines are also available). [email protected] Become a A variety of events are being planned to take place here in the future, CAMPAIGN with music and food provided. for great beer, cider and perry 2 BEER EXPERT CONTACTS: for further contact details and diaries see inside back page 1 Enjoy CAMRA First of all though will be the ‘Grand Opening’, which is from 5pm on Views expressed in Pints West are those of the individual GET INVOLVED BEER FESTIVALS a n d m a k e n e w f r i e n d s 4th April, when there will be 11 cask beers available alongside one keg authors and not necessarily supported by CAMRA 3 i n f r o n t o f o r b e h i n d t h e b a r 4 beer and a couple of local ciders. There will be a range of gins from Inclusion of an advertisement does not imply endorsement by CAMRA Find the local company Gin Jar, plus wine and soft drinks and food options, Save BEST PUBS YOUR LOCAL as well as live music from local covers band One for the Road. Tickets Thanks to this issue’s contributors: 5 6 IN BRITAIN for this special event will be available on the door at £5, to include a Andy Coston Mark Munday Robin E Wild Get great DISCOVER branded glass, your first pint, and entry into a ‘beery’ prize draw (10% Anisha Chandar Martin Ansell Roy Sanders VALUE FOR pub heritage and the discount for CAMRA members). Bianca Ambrose Martin Campling Stephen Edmonds 7 MONEY 8 great outdoors Dave Graham Martin Gray Steve Hunt Enjoy great For those unfamiliar with the location, it has on-site parking, camping Dave Thomas Marty Cummins Steve Plumridge HEALTH BENEFITS HAVE YOUR SAY less than five minutes’ stagger away (www.petruthpaddocks.co.uk) Dave Weir Michael Bertagne Tim Nickolls 9 (really!) 10 Duncan Shine Paul Gregory Tim Webb and the 126 Wells to Weston-super-Mare bus passes regularly. Eddie Taberner Pete Bridle Trevor Cromie Henry Davies Pete Dommett Vince Murray As for Cheddar Ales’ beers, following on from their South West region Ian Beckey Pete Taberner What’s yours? Champion Beer of Britain award for Totty Pot, the next seasonal Laura Coombs Phil Cummings beers will be Bedstraw (a 4.4% Kolsch) and Seismic Shift (a 4.2% New Discover your reason Laurie Gibney Richard Aldridge Zealand pale ale), joined by a new brew, Piney Sleight (a 4% session Mal Fuller Richard Brooks and join the campaign today: IPA). www.camra.org.uk/10reasons Dave Thomas 2 PINTS WEST PINTS WEST 3 News from Bath Ales’ Hare Brewery Beers This and That Popping out of the rabbit hole (see the previous issue of our multi- The two brewing apprentices taken on late last year (introduced in award-winning magazine) and bounding along in time for spring is the last issue) have been spending time in the labs, understanding and March Hare. This 3.9% pale ale, using Nelson Sauvin and Motueka hops learning how to implement the strict quality processes that are now from New Zealand, will be found on the LocAle bar at this year’s Bristol mandatory in the brewing industry. They have already completed their Beer Festival, as well as the usual outlets.