POTTERS BAR

Recommendations

Info

MILK STOUT MAYHEM What do you call a group of Micro Brewers? a Tun, a Mash, a Barrel?, well on Cup final day in May, such a gathering occured at the recently opened ELUSIVE brewery in Fleet, Hampshire, Andy of the afformentioned Elusive brewery, Dan of Weird Beard, London Brew Co, Carl of Twisted Barrel, Coventry, along with Chris Smith of Potteries branch (also a micro brewer), also present were myself (Jeff Smith), my daughter our driver for the day,also Phil from Otters Tears, Burslem, Chris from Wolverhampton, and Martin Ridge a familiar Potteries branch member. The reason,you may well ask? Chris Smith has constructed from scratch his owm micro brewery in a shed in his garden in Blurton, for the record he called his brewery Neck End Brewery, owing to its proximity to Longton, and it’s historical name of ‘Neck End’. big brewers in their own rites, Cloudwater, Black Jack in Manchester! Unfortunately shortly after all this Chris became ill, including several admissions to hospital, which brings us to his latest diagnosis of cancer, which has slowed him down dramatically!!! This has shocked all his family and friends! Also a lot of his micro brewer friends, When Andy of Elusive heard he said he like to brew one of his recipes commercially. This brings us back to Cup final day in May, when we all gathered and brewed his milk stout recipe, which has since been barrelled, some casks,some key kegs and has now been seen around local pubs here in Stoke, it has also gone to London, Manchester, Nottingham, and Birmingham beer bash. We would like to thank the local pubs, and micro pubs that took part, CONGRESS, LONGTON-BULL+BUSH, STOKE-HOP INN, NEWCASTLE-HOPWATER CELLAR, NEWCASTLE, HOLY INADEQUATE, ETURIA, OTTERS TEARS, BURSLEM, BOTTLECRAFT, HANLEY, and also the landlords of all these establishmen’s. Meanwhile Chris is continuing keeping positive and hoping to something with other brewers soon. His stout was called ‘Coswort’, if you weren’t lucky enough to try it, you missed a wonderful stout, to quote Shaun of the Congress, *beer of the year Thanks to Martin Perry for letting me tell this story in the excellent Potters Bar,and look out Elusive brewery really good beers!!! Chris did many brews of his own recipes! milk stouts, hoppy pale ales etc, and his trial tasters were me and my wife Ang,also the regulars of the Congress, Longton, and other micro brewers across England, many who become Jeff Smith AUTUMN 2016 POTTERS BAR 39
The Clubs Corner: Supporting Local Beer Festivals Many people will not be surprised at the growing trend of beer festivals, both in The Potteries and around the surrounding areas. Whether it be a small festival (eight cask ales and two ciders) or a big one (40 cask ales and 20 Ciders), all have one thing in common, a ‘need’ to raise funds, for sports and other equipment (such as kit for their young participants) or charities which are important to their members. You will find that most of these beer festivals will have been well-supported by sponsors (many of whom are family and friends of members of the organisations or clubs) It is nonetheless surprising that many will charge an entry fee, as they either need to maximise the funds they require, or to cover outlay such as bars and bands etc. We can be proud of our local brewers such as Lymestone, Peakstones Rock, RAN Ales, Titanic and Weal Ales and many others who help sourcing the beers and ciders, offer advice and guidance, racking, setting up and occasionally help ‘man’ the stalls; you will also see some seasoned CAMRA members working as volunteers at many of our local beer festivals. This is an ideal time to join or rejoin CAMRA as often local brewers provide an additional incentive to the already many benefits of holding a CAMRA membership. Many beer enthusiasts complain that small beer festivals don’t offer a sufficient choice of beers, or that they have to pay entry fees, as most CAMRA events are either free or reduced entrance fees for CAMRA members. My personal view is that these local beer festivals are an ideal opportunity for the locals & club members to try beers that they have never tasted before, the various flavours, smooth, sharp, hoppy, citrate, smoky, chocolaty and fruity tastes of the ales and ciders which are available. An example of this happened whilst I was working on the Cider Bar at Gladstone Beer and Music Festival this year: there was a sweet perry (Westons Country Perry) that I encouraged a good number of people to try and all were pleasantly surprised and said that they would never had thought of trying it before but will again in the future. By listing some of the local beer festivals around our area, I am bound to miss some, so to help you promote your festival, please let me know in advance if your club, organisation, or charity is holding a beer festival and I will endeavour to promote it on the CAMRA Facebook page. In no particular order, these are some of the festivals to watch out for: Cricket Clubs: Audley, Barlaston, Bignall End, Caverswall, Cheadle, Leek, Porthill, Wedgwood. Football Clubs: Audley, Leek. Hockey Clubs: Leek. Rugby Clubs: Newcastle, Trentham. Plus: Milton Scouts, Newcastle Jazz & Blues, Penkhull Jazz & Blues, Pride in Northword Park, Gladstone Beer & Music, Baddeley Green Working Men’s Club, Hollybush Brown Edge, Hollybush Denford, Olde Bull & Bush (Stoke), Bulls Head (Burslem), Castle Mona (Newcastle), Congress (Longton), Holy Inadequate (Etruria), Marquis of Granby (Penkhull) Yewstock at The Yew Tree (Cauldon). I encourage as many people as possible to support their local beer festivals, not just for their own enjoyment, but for the benefit of the club or charity that is being supported. Andy Parkin 40 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 and 10: having given it a thorough refurbis
Page 11 and 12: MERVYN’S MUSINGS Local historian
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: THE CIDER CORNER APPLES ON TOUR: LE
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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?