Swiggin in Wiggin : September 2012 - Wigan

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The 40th edition of the UK’s best-selling beer & pub guide, the Good Beer Guide, is fully revised and updated each year and features pubs across the United Kingdom that serve the best real ale. This pub guide is completely independent, with listings based entirely on nominations from CAMRA members and no paid placements. This means you can be sure that every pub and pint deserves their place, plus they all come recommended by people who know a thing or two about good beer. The unique ‘Breweries Section’ lists all the breweries – micro, regional and national – that produce real ale in the UK, and the key beers that they brew. The Good Beer Guide 2013 is the complete book for beer lovers and a must have for anyone wanting to experience the UK’s finest pubs. Features include: • Britain’s best-selling and fully independent beer & pub guide is back with updated listings for 2013, this 40th edition features over 1000 pubs that did not appear in last year’s Good Beer Guide. • A beer lover’s best friend, featuring 4,500 pubs from around the UK all nominated and reviewed by CAMRA members. • The easy-to-use listings are grouped geographically so you can find a friendly watering hole wherever you are. • The ‘Breweries Section’ lists over hundreds of breweries of all over the nation of all shapes and sizes. • Tasting notes and a ‘Beer Index’ help you find and enjoy your own perfect pint. • Previous edition:- Good Beer Guide 2012, finalist in the Gourmand World Cook Book Awards 2012 (978-1-85249-286-1). • Available to CAMRA members for as little as £10 (online www.camra.org.uk/shop) or £11 mail order. This year to coincide with the publication of the 2013 edition of the GBG a new version of the highly successful Good Beer Guide Mobile app will be launched for Apple and Android compatible devices. This new evolution of the app will go live on 13th September 2012 and will incorporate a basic version which will be free to download and allow limited ‘near me’ searches and restrict available functionality without a paid subscription. Good Beer Guide 2013 26 Once the basic version is installed a 12 month subscription can be purchased for just £4.99 and will allow access to enhanced searches by pub name, postcode and street address and will provide a greater number of pubs for the user to browse full listings of when looking for a pint. Detailed information on all UK real-ale breweries and their key beers will also be made available. Subscribers will also be able to record the pubs they have visited and input their own review notes using their unique subscribers account. CAMRA will also be releasing an e-book edition of the Good Beer Guide 2013 that will be available on numerous platforms, including Kindle, i-Pad and numerous e-pub compatible devices. The e-book will be specially formatted to ensure that all the GBG’s unique features are fully represented in the digital edition. The e-book will also include a ‘jump-to’ places index and interactive web links (where supported by the e-reader device). Point of interest (POI) files for TomTom, Navman and Garmin satellite navigation systems will also available. You simply upload and get on the road. (Users should always remember to enjoy alcohol responsibly, especially when driving, and respect the legal limits!)
Chester has long been a favourite Wigan CAMRA branch members and, of course, is the birthplace of CAMRA! In September 2009 there were 39 pubs serving Cask in the City Centre alone, but by June 2012 that had grown to over 50, excluding several new outlets just over the river, near the weir at Handbridge. Arriving in Chester, our first port of call was the Old Harkers Arms which is on the bank of the Shropshire Union canal and part of the Brunning and Price chain. Here the permanent beers are Brunning and Price Original (brewed by Phoenix Brewery at Heywood) and Weetwood Cheshire Cat with six constantly changing beers. Bookcases adorn the walls and the ceiling is made of port wine boxes! Next door is another excellent venue called Canalside which stocks five changing real ales. It opened in November 2011 and is known locally as “Swiftys” after the owner Gary Swift, who also runs the Eaton Hotel above the pub. I tried two house beers “Swifty’s Golden Glow” and “Swifty’s Barley Mo” both of which were on fine form from the recently opened Swifty’s brewery. This 2.5 barrel plant is situated on the ground floor and can viewed from both inside or outside of the pub, whilst walking along the canal pathway. The pub also has a lovely glass-walled outside area giving great views of the canal life going by! Proceeding along the canal, about a 10 minute walk, is Telford’s Warehouse at the Canal Basin Tower Wharf. A lovely pub, particularly in the Summer if you are able to sit out. Inside this converted warehouse, with large windows overlooking the canal, is a crane that used to lift the barges from the canal when they entered the warehouse. Now it stocks three changing guest beers and a guest cider, with live music featured every week and is Chester and South Clwyd CAMRA joint Pub of the Year 2012. A stroll around Chester 27 Passing through the city and down toward the River Dee, other pubs to look out for include : the Pied Bull, the 2011 Pub of the Year for the Chester branch, which stocks six changing guest beers and has a micro brewery in its cellar ; the Bear and Billet, owned by Okell’s Brewery from the Isle of Man and close-by, one of my favourite pubs, the Spitting Feathers Brewery Tap which was converted from an old Jacobean Hall with a high ceiling and walls hung with tapestries. When it opened it won an English Heritage award for the best pub conversion and it serves seven changing beers and a guest cider. A truly wonderful pub and one not to be missed when visiting the city, especially as it is the other joint winner of the local CAMRA branch Pub of the Year for 2012. Across the road, the Cross Keys has been sold by Punch Taverns to Joules Brewery from Market Drayton, and now serves their Pale Ale and Blonde Beers, both of which were on good form on my visit. Cross over the river and in Hartington Street, tucked away you will find The Carlton Tavern, a Hyde’s pub that also has three guest beers although I stuck to Hyde’s Original, a perfect end to my day in Chester. Article by Barry Seale.
Page 1 and 2: Swiggin in Wiggin Campaign for Real
Page 3 and 4: Welcome to our latest edition of ou
Page 5 and 6: ALL GATES BREWERY The monthly speci
Page 8 and 9: The number of breweries in the UK h
Page 10 and 11: Standish Unity Club - Wigan CAMRA C
Page 13 and 14: The Berkeley - Wigan CAMRA Pub of t
Page 15 and 16: 4.0% ABV www.burscoughbrewery.co.uk
Page 17: Masons Arms win top Wigan CAMRA awa
Page 20 and 21: Cask Ale Week 2012 - “only in Bri
Page 22 and 23: Our last outstanding tasks from the
Page 24 and 25: The Pavilion, Ashworth Lane, Bank T
Page 28 and 29: The SIBA Great Northern Beer Festiv
Page 30 and 31: Online with Wigan CAMRA Branch Cont

Swiggin in Wiggin : September 2012 - Wigan

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