POTTERS BAR

Recommendations

Info

RAN ALES of Fenton Karen speaks… RAN Ales celebrated their 2nd anniversary on 22 nd July, which is also Brewer Nev’s birthday! A fabulous time was had by all with plenty of beer and dancing! Nev marked the occasion with a new brew called ‘Ranniversary’, a light, fruity, 4.0% ale which will be available throughout the coming months. We can’t believe it’s two years since our first barrel appeared in The Bench & Bar in Fenton. A lot has happened since then and we’ve learned a lot too! We were very proud to supply all the beer, cider and wine for the Gladstone Beer Festival held at Gladstone Pottery Museum in July and have already been asked to do it again next year! We worked behind our own mobile bar all three nights and met loads of interesting people. Our Cherry Chilli and Rum and Raisin Stouts proved very popular, as did our ‘RAN Ales Mystery Beer’ which Nev brewed specially for the festival. This was a 4.5% pale ale which kept everyone guessing. Only a handful of people correctly identified the flavours. Rather than publicly reveal the beer we have decided to keep it a secret! So watch out for it and tell us what you think. We may give away a bottle or two to those who guess correctly?! TALKE O’TH’ HILL of Talke Due to a leak in the brewery roof, brewing at Talke O’Th’ Hill has been intermittent over the summer; Ed has been brewing his beers at other breweries while the problem is fixed, but the beers have turned out rather different to usual. Potter’s Porter has turned into Stout & About, whilst a stronger version of Citrade has made an appearance in various local pubs. TITANIC of Burslem Autumn at The Bull’s Head, 14 St. John’s Square, Burslem, ST6 3AJ 28 th August: Visit The Bull’s Head Beer Tent at The Apedale Classic Car Show, Chesterton September/October/November (throughout): South East Cider Festival at The Bull’s Head. 10 th & 11 th September: Heritage Weekend: Bull’s Head Beer Tent at The Etruria Industrial Museum, including Stationary Engines (Saturday) & Classic Car Show (Sunday) 13 th – 20 th September: Battle of Britain Week: Beer & Badges. 22 nd September: Trip around pubs on railway stations, including Sheffield, York & Huddersfield. See Bob in the pub for more details. 8 th & 9 th October: Bull’s Head Beer Tent at The Apedale Centenary Weekend. 18 th – 23 rd October: Lifeboat Week, including Trafalgar Day. 29 th – 31 st October: Hallowe’en Beers. 8 th – 13 th November: Poppy Day: Beer & Badges. 24 th November: Coach Trip to Dudley Winter Ales Fayre and various Black Country pubs. See Bob in the pub for more details. 30 th November – 4 th December: Scottish Beers. WEAL ALES of Chesterton Paul speaks… We continue to explore new recipes to try to enhance our range of beers and, well, just for the fun of it! June saw the release of ‘Ginger Weal’ and ‘Lemon Ginger Weal’, both of which have recently been available locally. Within the brewery, there is a split as to which is the better. We’re still trying to decide if either or both of these should be bottled. The Ginger Weal, along with five other brews, was available at our last open day at the beginning of July. This was a pleasant Sunday afternoon session with old and new friends, which was much enhanced by the sunny weather. Hopefully more will follow in the near future. In September, we have stalls booked at food and drink fairs in Newcastle, Stone and Newport. The last few weeks have seen something of a bottling bonanza at the brewery to ensure that supplies are maintained throughout. As all the bottling is lovingly carried out by hand, this has been a bit of a mammoth task. Following the success of Weller Weal last year, we have entered four more beers in this year’s SIBA competition. Two will be in cask form and two will be bottled. Notwithstanding the above, our big news is the planned opening of our first Weal Ales pub in Pepper Street in Newcastle (just down from The Lymestone Vaults). At the time of writing, planning and licensing applications are being considered by the relevant authorities but initial feedback is very promising. Our projection is that ‘Wellers’ will be open for business sometime in October and our aim is to add further to the cask and keg ale choice in this part of the town centre. AUTUMN 2016 POTTERS BAR 17
MERVYN’S MUSINGS Local historian Mervyn Edwards with his thoughts on life, the universe and local pubs GO SMELL A CLUB! Recent CAMRA discussions have embraced the notion of promoting Real Ale in workingmen’s clubs, a bally good idea that I wholeheartedly endorse. Clubs and yours truly go back a long time. When I was a nipper, my parents would take me up to Wolstanton Working Man’s Club on the High Street, it being the case that it wasn’t always easy to acquire the services of a babysitter. Back in the 1960’s, the local clubs were enjoying their hey-day. Many were built or re-built during this period, and people like Dick Scarratt were writing regular columns in the much-missed Newcastle Times newspaper about the various goings-on in Clubland: the days out to Blackpool, the Christmas parties, mounting issues with kids running around the concert rooms when blokes were bringing large trays of Double Diamond back from the bar, etc. Those nights at the club – which were a tremendous respite for my parents, both of whom had to work long hours in order to muster sufficient spondulicks to buy me models of Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds and Ken Dodd’s Big Doddy Book of 1966 – seemed interminable. I recall the endless games of Bingo, during which time I had to be kept quiet, pacified by bottles of Hubbly Bubbly and packets of Golden Wonder crisps. This was some degree of compensation for the torture of having my eyes sting all night, it being the case that virtually everyone and his granny smoked in those days. Packets of Woodbines and Park Drive sat on most tables and the fug of tobacco hung heavily in the air. The gents’ toilets at Wolstanton WMC were at the rear of the premises, and the top windows were often open for ventilation purposes. Through these came the “breath” of the club – expelled fag-smoke that you could smell about twenty yards down Russell Street, mingling with the pong of empty beer bottles stacked in wooden crates, plonked in close proximity to the dustbins. I remember the smells of my youth as if it were yesterday: the over-boiled cabbage they used to serve to Wolstanton Grammar School lads; the crisp, clean odour of a brand new Beano Annual at Christmas; and the manly whiff of beer and fags on my Dad, following his Sunday lunchtime session at the club. To me, it was what all fathers should smell like – strong, pungent, earthy. The whiff of dependability with a faint suggestion of Brylcream. It was not until twenty-odd years later that a friend of mine, remarking on the beer and baccy odour that always escaped from the front door of The Globe in Tunstall, said to me: “If they could bottle THAT, I’d use it as aftershave.” I know what he meant. My first taste of beer came in the late 1960s when Dad offered me a sip from his dimpled pint mug. My first reaction was, “Now I know why they call this bitter.” I hated the sharp flavour and couldn’t have imagined then that one day I would guzzle beer with zest and gusto. My infant tongue would have been ill-equipped to assess the standard of the WMC beer on offer in those days, but in years to come, I began to wonder how so many clubs got away with selling such pretty vapid stuff. Thankfully, much has improved since then, and though the Real Ale Revolution has not properly embraced clubs to date, yet do I hear the distant drums, the shrill cries of the insurgents and the rumble of the tumbrils. Several Wolstanton clubs now sell Real Ale of some description, and among the best pints I have sampled at Wolstanton Social Club in Pitgreen Lane has been the highly satisfying Ringwood’s Fortyniner. I’d like to think that this has been achieved by CAMRA’s capacity to educate people as to what a quality pint actually is - though it perplexes me that some old blokes have been drinking John Smith’s bitter for years and swear by it rather than at it. I don’t see that CAMRA – for all its present introspection and talk of Revitalisation – is doing much wrong, but I think there’s a good opportunity to push back the frontiers and sell such as Sarah Hughes’ Dark Ruby in clubs. Though not while the Bingo’s on, of course. 18 POTTERS BAR AUTUMN 2016
Page 1 and 2: POTTERS BAR MAGAZINE OF THE POTTERI
Page 3 and 4: Potteries CAMRA Branch Pub of the M
Page 5 and 6: Potteries CAMRA Branch Pub of the M
Page 7 and 8: Staffordshire Moorlands CAMRA Pub o
Page 9: having given it a thorough refurbis
Page 13 and 14: VIEW from the Bar Room Floor In my
Page 15 and 16: AUTUMN 2016 POTTERS BAR 23
Page 17 and 18: CIDER AT STOKE BEER AND CIDER FESTI
Page 19 and 20: STAFFING FORM 36th STOKE BEER FESTI
Page 21 and 22: A reminder to all that the followin
Page 23 and 24: The Potteries Pub Preservation Grou
Page 25 and 26: THE CIDER CORNER APPLES ON TOUR: LE
Page 27 and 28: The Clubs Corner: Supporting Local
Page 29 and 30: CAMRA POTTERIES BRANCH LOCALE PUBS
Page 31 and 32: POTTERIES BRANCH CONTACTS CHAIRMAN,
Page 33: PASSION FOR GREAT BEER APPETITE FOR

POTTERS BAR

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?