Tyneside & Northumberland Branch FREEFREE Issue 232 • Summer 2015 FESTIVAL SPECIAL BETFRED GOSFORTH PARK CUP NIGHT Joi� u� for our firs� ever Beer Festiva�! umberland orth red N tickets e Betf Th STIVAL on sale PLATE FE now! friday 26 June www.newcastle-racecourse.co.uk 0191 236 2020 | [email protected] *Terms & conditions apply. For full terms and conditions, race times and details of the event please visit our website. Booking restrictions and fees may apply. Newcastle Racecourse encourages responsible gambling. www.gambleaware.co.uk. Please drink responsibly. www.drinkaware.co.uk J5952 NCA Plate Friday Festival Ad 135x200.indd 1 28/04/2015 11:58 BRANCH CONTACTS TALKING ED Chairman: Ian Lee A lot has happened since the last issue. Firstly, in the Budget [email protected] Chancellor George Osborne reduced the tax on beer by a penny Secretary: Pauline Chaplain a pint. This makes it a hat-trick of beer duty cuts in as many [email protected] years. This was an unprecedented third consecutive cut in Treasurer: Jan Anderson beer tax, following on from the axing of the beer duty escalator. [email protected] Independent research by CEBR forecasts the price of a pub pint will now be more than 20p cheaper than it would have been had Membership Secretary & Social the duty escalator remained in place. Media Officer: Alan Chaplain [email protected] April saw the 39th Newcastle Beer & Cider Festival take place. [email protected] With over 140 beers and over 50 ciders, there was something for Editor, Advertising & Distribution: Adrian Gray everyone. From the Battle of the Beers, silly hats to Happy Cats, [email protected] what’s not to like. Next year’s Ruby Anniversary Festival on 6th-9th [email protected] April, should not be missed. Congratulations to the Hop & Cleaver [email protected] for winning the Battle of the Beers competition at the first attempt Social Secretary: Murray Owen (see page 18). [email protected] Also in April, at CAMRA’s National Conference in Nottingham, Pubs Officer & LocAle Officer: Colin Anderson the branch’s Motion 18, to campaign for the abolition of the Late [email protected] Night Levy nationally, was overwhelmingly carried (see page 22). [email protected] Congratulations to Hubert Gieschen, Public Affairs Officer, who Cider/Perry Officer: drafted the motion. [email protected] Finally, check out the dates of the beer festivals this Press & Publicity: Martin Ellis summer (see page 7). Enjoy yourselves and I hope [email protected] to see you there. Public Affairs Officer: Hubert Gieschen [email protected] Cheers Adrian Gray, Editor Young Members Contact: [email protected] Website: www.cannybevvy.co.uk ADVERTISING RATES Facebook: www.facebook.com/tyncamra Twitter account: @TYNCAMRA 6500 COPIES DISTRIBUTION 350+ © Copyright for Canny Bevvy is the property of the READERSHIP 14,000+ Campaign for Real Ale. All rights reserved REAL ALE DRINKERS & PUB GOERS Disclaimer: Any views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the Canny Full Back Cover £275+VAT Bevvy Editor, CAMRA or the Publishers. Seek out and Full Inside Front/ Back Cover £250+VAT enjoy real ale wherever you can, drink responsibly Full Page £180+VAT and please support the advertisers. Half Page £100+VAT Quarter Page £52+VAT Email [email protected] Artworking by Apostle Designs www.cannybevvy.co.uk Email: [email protected] Next Edition No. 233 Autumn 2015 Copy deadline date 10/8/2015 Advertising deadline date 14/8/2015 Printed by Print North East Publication date 7/9/2015 Email: [email protected] Issue 232 • Summer 2015 3 BRANCH DIARY THE FREE Monday 8th June 7.30pm Branch Meeting Junction, Newcastle TRADE INN CAMRA PUB & CIDER PUB 2013 Wednesday 17th June 7.00pm THE BEST MODERN BEERS Wednesday Wander FROM CASK, KEG & BOTTLE Starts at Quayside, Newcastle STOCKING NEWCASTLE'S BEST RANGE OF LAMBIC & SOUR BEERS Saturday 4th July INCLUDING CANTILLON, BOON, Northumberland Club of the Year presentation, 3 FONTEINEN, MIKKELLER, Comrades Club, Haltwhistle at 12.00pm, LINDEMANS & MORE followed by South East Northumberland PIES FROM THE AMBLE BUTCHER Cider POTY presentation, Tannery, Hexham at 4.30pm. Train departs at 10.22am, Central Station HOME OF PELOTON PALE ALE & CRAIG Monday 6th July 7.30pm DAVID PUBCAT Branch Meeting "TheFreeTradeInn" Quayside, Newcastle Wednesday 15th July 7.30pm ST.LAWRENCE ROAD, Wednesday Wander OUSEBURN, BYKER Starts at The Offi ce, Morpeth NE6 1AP X15 bus at 6.43pm, Haymarket 0191 265 5764 Saturday 25th July Visit to Regional POTY winners Bus departs from Newcastle at 10.30am Wednesday 12th August 7.30pm Wednesday Wander Starts at White Swan, Ovingham Train departs at 6.24pm, Central Station Wednesday 26th to Saturday 29th August 35th Durham CAMRA Branch Beer Festival Durham University Students Union Dunelm House, New Elvet, Durham Saturday 29th August 1.00pm Regional Meeting Durham CAMRA Branch Beer Festival Further details on times, itineraries and other local festivals can be found on the Canny Bevvy website www.cannybevvy.co.uk, the branch Facebook page, www.facebook.com/tyncamra or in What’s Brewing. All the above events are for CAMRA members and non members. Everyone is welcome. 4 Issue 232 • Summer 2015 BREWERY VISIT MORDUE BREWERY In April Mordue Brewery celebrated it’s 20th birthday, after being established in 1995. The owners of the brewery, brothers Garry and Matt Fawson, took the name from a previous brewery in Wallsend, founded by Joseph Mordue in 1879. They used to live in Joseph Mordue’s old house, across the road from the original brewery. Matt was the head brewer at the new brewery, which had a 5 barrel/180 gallon plant. Their fi rst commercial brew, Workie Ticket @ 4.5% ABV, won the Beer of the Festival at the Newcastle Beer & Cider Festival in 1995. Radgie Gadgie @ 4.8% ABV, then went on to win the title in 1996 and 1997, but this is only the beginning. In 1997 at CAMRA’s Great British New logo Beer Festival, Workie Ticket was crowned Supreme Champion Beer of Britain after winning gold in the Best Bitters category. In 1998 at the same festival, Radgie Gadgie won gold in the same category and was runner up Champion Beer of Britain. By 2005 due to their success, they found that they had out grown the brewery and moved to new premises on the Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate, North Shields. This meant that the brewing capacity was increased from a 5 barrel/180 gallon plant to a 20 barrel/720 gallon plant. The brewery has since installed 2 fermenting vessels, which now has the capacity to brew twice a day. In 2011 Robert Millichamp started as the new head brewer, allowing Matt more time to run the business. Garry, Robert and Matt In 2013 the Panda Frog Project was born. The brewery’s experimental arm created by “The Twisted Genius” (Robert Millichamp), under the watchful eyes of the Fawson brothers. The Panda Frog Project has been a great success. The seasonal beers for 2015 are May - “Dark Inception” @ 3.5% ABV, August - “Allelic Drift” @ 5% ABV, October - “Pandazilla” @ 7.1% ABV and December - “Rise of the Frogladon” @ 8.1% ABV. In 2013 the brewery installed a new bottling machine costing £40,000, which was fully operational by the end of the year. The machine has the capacity to fi ll 300-500 bottles an hour. The machine enables the brewery to export to China, Taiwan and Brazil, as well as New Zealand and Sweden. Since then the brewery has been contract bottling for other local and national breweries including Jarrow, Anarchy, Three Kings, Out There, Charnwood, Pinup Beer and Brakspear. Also in 2013 Workie Ticket won gold again in the Best Bitters category at CAMRA’s Supreme Champion Great British Beer Festival. 2014 was the best fi nancial year for the brewery since it opened in 1995. The brewery has gone from strength to strength and continues to win national and regional awards. The latest being “Killswitch 51” @ 5.1% ABV, which won gold in the Champion Bottled Speciality Beers category at the recent Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Beer X Festival (see page 13). Here’s to the next 20 years. Adrian Gray Mordue Brewery Liaison Offi cer The Brewery Issue 232 • Summer 2015 5 LEOPARD LEISURE PUB Co. HOP & CLEAVER, Sandhill, Quayside, Newcastle Managing Director Harry Costigan, 63, has sadly died. Under Harry Has won the Battle of the Beers competition at the 39th Newcastle Leopard Leisure built up an estate of real ale pubs including Beer & Cider Festival (see page 18). They won with Quayside Porter THE HOTSPUR and ROSIE’S BAR in Newcastle, THE QUEEN @ 5.7% ABV, this was the first time they have entered. The beer was VICTORIA in Gosforth, THE TRAVELLERS REST in Wideopen and brewed by Tony Killeen and Kay Masson, who own Temptation THE BLACKBIRD in Ponteland. THE HOTSPUR, THE QUEEN Brewery in Houghton le Spring. They have been brewing at the Hop VICTORIA and THE BLACKBIRD are all in CAMRA’s Good Beer & Cleaver brew pub since September 2014. It has a 2.5 barrel/90 Guide, due to Harry’s efforts. In a long career he had previously gallon brew kit. They brew once a week exclusively for the Ladhar worked for Camerons, Pubmaster Ltd. and Wessex Taverns, before Leisure owned pub. They set up Temptation Brewery five years forming Leopard Leisure. Harry was a gentleman who was also ago, which is run completely separately. Congratulations to Tony one of the lads. and Kay.