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CAMRA’s Champion Winter Beer of Britain AMRA’s National Winter Ales Festival was held 17 to 19 CFebruary at the Roundhouse in Derby. The highlight of the event was the judging for CAMRA’s Champion Winter Beer of Britain. The winner this year was Chocolate Marble stout (5.5% ABV) from Manchester’s Marble Brewery. The final judging panel, the culmination of over a year of activity by local tasting panels and blind tastings in regional heats, was chaired by London’s own Christine Cryne who said, “The Chocolate Marble had a lovely chocolaty aroma, with flavour of marmalade, mocha and raisins. The chocolate notes perfectly underlaid the mocha character and made a second drink a must”. The Silver award went to old favourite Elland’s 1872 Porter (6.5% ABV) while Plain Ales Inncognito Stout (4.8% ABV) took the Bronze award. You can find a full list of the category winners on the CAMRA website. Alas, there were no London beers featured. The category winners will all go forward to the main Champion Beer of Britain competition to be held at the Great British Beer Festival at Olympia in August. This was the event’s third and last year at Derby. The 2017 festival will be held in the historic 16th Century Blackfriars Hall in Norwich and will stay there in 2018 and 2019. This is the same venue as is used for the Norwich Beer and Cider festival. Gillian Hough, who has organised the Derby event for all three years there, said, “The National Winter Ales Festival has been an honour for Derby to host and we wish Norwich well with the unique roller coaster which comes with organising a National Festival.” Well done to Gillian and her team for a successful stint. This year’s event offered more than 470 beers so it has set quite a standard for Norwich to follow. The dates for the NWAF 2017 are 21 to 24 February. Tony Hedger Fair prices for half pints n a new campaign about an old problem, CAMRA is asking Ilicensees to charge fairly for half pints. This is not a question of the odd penny. A recent survey by CAMRA branches uncovered 59 cases where the difference was totally disproportionate. In the most extreme case, where a pint cost £4.25 – bad enough in itself – a half cost £2.95 or 70% of the exact split. Over half of those identified were overcharging by between 6p and 20p. CAMRA’s Chief Campaigns Officer, Jonathan Mail said, “This feedback from our branches shows how confusing it can be for drinkers. If you buy a half pint in a pub you might be expecting to pay a price broadly in line with the proportional cost of a pint, but in fact you might end up paying 50p more per half pint than you expect. The lack of clear information and pricing for consumers adds to this confusion and we’d urge licensees to be clear and transparent about their pricing to help consumer make an informed decision. CAMRA recognises that there may be a need for pubs to round up to the nearest five pence. However, the wide difference in premium added suggests that some pubs are unfairly penalizing customers trying to drink responsibly by choosing half-pint measures and in some cases obscuring this mark up by not clearly displaying prices.” CAMRA’s initiative was, as you might expect, not well received in some quarters of the ‘hospitality’ industry, ‘ludicrous’ being one of the nicer comments. There is a case for a difference. As licensees told the Morning Advertiser, ‘a smaller measure doesn’t suddenly halve the costs’ and ‘whilst the liquid in the glass costs the same, the overheads do not. They cost the same as serving a pint or a spirit. Wages, licence fees and even simple things like the toilet use and cleaning costs are per head, not per quantity of drink consumed.’ Charging half the price of a pint for a half has always been custom and practice in British pubs but times change and given the financial pressures on the trade, perhaps we should not get too excited about any reasonable difference. To my mind, the key point here is transparency. Some 60% of the pubs in the survey did not display a price list. This used to be a clear legal requirement and while there is a view that consumer legislation can be interpreted as requiring it, the current licensing laws do not. The point that Jonathan Mail is so right to focus upon is that the customer should know what he or she is going to be charged before he or she places their order. It is perfectly possible to put the price of a beer on a handpump; Wetherspoon’s do it so why can’t others? Alternatively a chalk board is not that complicated an item of technology. Very few of us would simply refuse to pay for a beer that has already been poured but having to pay what we think is over the odds is not a good experience and is unlikely to encourage a return to the pub in question. Hospitality or hostility? The ball is in the trade’s court on this one. Tony Hedger ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT LONDON DRINKER Our advertising rates are as follows: Whole page £325 (colour), £260 (mono); Half page £195 (colour), £145 (mono); Quarter page £105 (colour), £80 (mono). Phone John Galpin now on 020 3287 2966, Mobile 07508 036835 Email johngalpinmedia@gmail.com or Twitter@LDads THE FINAL COPY DATE FOR ADVERTISING IN OUR NEXT ISSUE (JUNE/JULY) IS 9 MAY 22
Kingston & Leatherhead CAMRA presents Thursday 12 th to Saturday 14 th May 2016 Celebrating the 100 th anniversary of the first electric trains to Kingston Kingston Workmen’s Club and Institute Old London Road, Kingston KT2 6ND – Behind the ‘falling down’ telephone boxes Four minutes walk from Kingston rail and bus stations • 60+ real ales, many local • 12 ciders & perries • Hot and cold food • Ample lounge seating • Two outdoor areas with tables and seating Thursday: 5.00pm-11.00pm, entry £3 Friday: 11.00am-11.00pm, entry £2 to 4.00pm then £3 Saturday: 11.00am-9.00pm, entry free £1 discount for card carrying CAMRA members Plus £3 (refundable) Commemorative Pint Glass with 1 / 3 and 1 / 2 pint lines
Page 1 and 2: FREE Vol 38 No 2 Apr/May 2016 The A
Page 3 and 4: Editorial London Drinker is publish
Page 5 and 6: ack to back gold medal winner 2015
Page 7 and 8: Branch diaries Clapton Hart, 231 Lo
Page 9 and 10: 8th GLORIOUS YEAR ...HISTORIC BEERS
Page 11 and 12: MODERN BREWS CENTURIES OF TRADITION
Page 14: A clear winner in Cheltenham he win
Page 17 and 18: ENJOY A PINT OF CASK ALE FOR £3 OR
Page 19 and 20: The Bree Louise 69 Cobourg Street N
Page 21: News round-up
Page 25 and 26: SPECIALIST FOOD & WINE MERCHANT Ove
Page 27 and 28: NOW OPEN FOLLOWING AN EXCITING REFU
Page 30 and 31: Beards and engagement at the Brusse
Page 32 and 33: Norwich City of Ale he 6th annual g
Page 34 and 35: The Ant and Bee crawl n Saturday 13
Page 38 and 39: London brewery news BEXLEY BREWERY
Page 40 and 41: London brewery news SAMBROOK’S ol
Page 42 and 43: Matters of taste TWICKENHAM FINE AL
Page 44 and 45: Matters of taste Saturday 11 June a
Page 46 and 47: News round-up (pub and brewery trad
Page 48 and 49: News round-up (pub and brewery trad
Page 50 and 51: Pub campaigning OBSTRUCTIVE ATTITUD
Page 52: Pub campaigning in his crusade to e
Page 55 and 56: whatpub.com WhatPub? update 13 hatP
Page 57 and 58: whatpub.com WhatPub? update 13 EC2,
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Page 61 and 62: Book reviews CITY OF LONDON PUBS BY
Page 63 and 64: The pub saving toolkit - part 2 It
Page 67 and 68: Obituaries EDWARD (KIM) BERRIEDALE-
Page 69 and 70: THE HARP The Harp is a traditional
Page 71 and 72: ONE OF THE TOP PLACES TO HAVE A BEE

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