Mine's a Pint - Autumn 2018
The Autumn 2018 Magazine of the Reading & Mid-Berkshire Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
The Autumn 2018 Magazine of the Reading & Mid-Berkshire Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
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THE MAGAZINE FOR READING AND MID<br />
BERKSHIRE BRANCH OF THE CAMPAIGN<br />
FOR REAL ALE<br />
IN THIS ISSUE...<br />
PUB & BREWERY NEWS<br />
CAMRA GALA PRESENTATIONS<br />
SMALL BEER<br />
HISTORY OF LAGER IN THE UK<br />
WORLD CUP OF PUBS<br />
& MORE...<br />
FREE<br />
A DRINK FOR ALL SEASONS<br />
ISSUE FORTY SEVEN AUTUMN <strong>2018</strong><br />
FREE - PLEASE TAKE A COPY
Shop and Taproom<br />
Opening Hours<br />
Shop Open Daily:<br />
10am to 6pm<br />
Taproom Open Daily:<br />
10am to 6pm,<br />
Weds - Sat until 11pm<br />
Kitchen Open:<br />
Tues - Sun 12pm to 3pm,<br />
Weds - Sat 6pm to 9pm<br />
Phone: 01635 767090<br />
Email: info@wbbrew.co.uk<br />
wbbtaproom<br />
Available for private tours<br />
Please call 01635 767090 or<br />
Email: taproomandkitchen@wbbrew.co.uk<br />
West Berkshire Brewery Shop, Taproom & Kitchen.<br />
The Old Dairy, Yattendon, Berkshire, RG18 0XT
Branch Diary<br />
All meetings and social events are relaxed and friendly.<br />
Non-members are welcome to all events except branch<br />
meetings. Please check the website before setting out in case<br />
of any last-minute changes.<br />
September<br />
THURS 6: (20:00) First Thursday of the Month Social. Hop<br />
Leaf, 163-165 Southampton Street, Reading, RG1 2QZ.<br />
TUES 11: (20:00) Gala Awards Evening. Park House,<br />
Whiteknights Campus, Reading, RG6 6UR. Note that bar is<br />
cashless.<br />
SAT 15: (10:25) No. 127 Bus Pub Crawl. Bus at 10:25 from<br />
Reading, Friar Street (stop FC) to Shire Horse, Bath Road,<br />
Littlewick Green SL6 3QA. Then bus to Knowl Hill, lunch<br />
at Royal Oak, followed by other pubs on A4 and then bus<br />
to Twyford. Return to Reading on 16:55 from Twyford<br />
Crossroads, arrive Friar Street 17:27. Bus ticket Courtney<br />
Network All Zones ticket (£6.50).<br />
TUES 18: (20:00) Branch meeting. Castle Tap, 120 Castle<br />
Street, Reading, RG1 7RJ. CAMRA members only, please.<br />
October<br />
THURS 4: (20:00) First Thursday of the Month Social. Nags<br />
Head, 5 Russell Street, Reading, RG1 7XD.<br />
TUES 16: (20:00) Branch meeting. Park House, Whiteknights<br />
Campus, Reading, RG6 6UR. CAMRA members only, please.<br />
Note that bar is cashless.<br />
November<br />
THURS 1: (20:00) First Thursday of the Month Social.<br />
Details TBC.<br />
SAT 24: (13:30) Branch AGM. Griffin, 10/12 Church Road,<br />
Caversham, RG4 7AD (upstairs). CAMRA members only,<br />
please.<br />
December<br />
THURS 6: (20:00) First Thursday of the Month Social.<br />
Details TBC.<br />
This is a guide only and Reading & Mid Berkshire CAMRA cannot be<br />
held responsible for any loss due to the alteration or cancellation of<br />
any of these events.<br />
See www.readingcamra.org.uk for more details of events.<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
3<br />
Contact Us<br />
Useful contact details for this<br />
magazine, CAMRA and other<br />
important things…<br />
Mine’s a <strong>Pint</strong> Circulation: 3,000.<br />
Outlets: Over 70 across the region.<br />
Editor: Phil Gill<br />
editor@readingcamra.org.uk<br />
0771 455 0293<br />
81 Addison Road, Reading, RG1 8EG<br />
Magazine published on behalf of<br />
Reading and Mid Berkshire CAMRA<br />
by:<br />
Neil Richards MBE at Matelot<br />
Marketing<br />
01536 358670 / 07710 281381<br />
n.richards@btinternet.com<br />
Printed by CKN Print Ltd, 2 North<br />
Portway Close, Round Spinney,<br />
Northampton, NN3 8RQ<br />
01604 645555<br />
Reading & Mid Berkshire CAMRA<br />
www.readingcamra.org.uk<br />
Social Secretary: Chris Hinton<br />
social@readingcamra.org.uk<br />
Contact for all other branch matters:<br />
Katrina Fletcher<br />
contact@readingcamra.org.uk<br />
0779 401 9437<br />
Local Trading Standards<br />
Reading Borough Council:<br />
citizensadvice.org.uk / 03454 040506<br />
West Berkshire Council:<br />
tsadvice@westberks.gov.uk / 03454<br />
040506<br />
Royal Borough of Windsor &<br />
Maidenhead:<br />
citizensadvice.org.uk / 03454 040506<br />
Wokingham Borough Council:<br />
tsadvice@westberks.gov.uk / 03454<br />
040506<br />
The next issue of Mine’s a <strong>Pint</strong> will be<br />
published in early December. Please<br />
feel free to submit any copy or ideas<br />
by 1 st November.<br />
The opinions expressed in Mine’s a <strong>Pint</strong><br />
are not necessarily those of the editor or<br />
the Campaign for Real Ale. © Campaign<br />
for Real Ale <strong>2018</strong>.
great beers from<br />
oxfordshire since 2003<br />
visit<br />
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Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong>
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
5<br />
From The Editor<br />
I’m writing this in the middle of a heatwave so,<br />
by rights, it should be cold and raining when<br />
you read it! Luckily real ale, cider and perry<br />
are the natural drinks for all weathers – cool<br />
and refreshing in the sunshine, yet cheery and<br />
comforting when it’s colder.<br />
As the long hot summer slips away though,<br />
our thoughts turn to our great local pubs and<br />
breweries and celebrating what they do for us.<br />
Reading CAMRA’s Gala Awards Evening in<br />
September is a great way to say thank you to<br />
those in the industry that have helped us in the<br />
last twelve months, and everyone is welcome<br />
to attend. There’s more information about the<br />
event in the feature in this issue, so put Tuesday<br />
11th of September in your diary and get down<br />
to Park House at the University to help us<br />
celebrate.<br />
Berkshire breweries must be doing something<br />
right, as it’s the second time in three years that<br />
a local brewery has won CAMRA’s Champion<br />
Beer of Britain accolade. Following Binghams’<br />
win in 2016 with their Vanilla Stout, this year<br />
it was Siren Craft that came out on top in the<br />
prestigious contest with their Broken Dream<br />
Breakfast Stout. Berkshire certainly has a rich<br />
brewing tradition but it’s amazing to get such<br />
recognition at a national level.<br />
How about being a champion for your local<br />
pub? There are something like 150 real ale pubs<br />
in our branch area and we can’t get to them all,<br />
however much we’d like to try! So if you want<br />
to let us know any news or info about your<br />
local, contact us on contact@readingcamra.<br />
org.uk or send us comments through WhatPub<br />
on whatpub.com. If you could help deliver this<br />
magazine to a pub or pubs near where you<br />
live, that would also be great and we’d be very<br />
happy to hear from you.<br />
Have a pint at the same time and the publicans<br />
will be very happy to see you too. Cheers!<br />
Phil Gill<br />
Editor<br />
Contents<br />
BRANCH DIARY 3<br />
FROM THE EDITOR 5<br />
PUB & BREWERY NEWS 6-13<br />
SMALL BEER 14-17<br />
JOIN CAMRA 18<br />
CAMRA GALA PRESENTATION 19<br />
BEHIND THE BAR 20<br />
WORLD CUP OF PUBS 21-22<br />
PUBS IN WORLD WAR 1 23<br />
FURTHER HISTORY OF LAGER IN THE UK 24-26<br />
BAMBERG 27-29<br />
GDPR ADVERT 30
Pub & Brewery News<br />
Pub News<br />
CAVERSHAM<br />
The RED COW on Star Road has unexpectedly<br />
reopened. On an initial visit only keg<br />
Boddingtons and Guinness were available,<br />
together with some bottles including Black<br />
Sheep. The landlord is reportedly looking<br />
into getting some handpumps installed but we<br />
have no further news about that. Star Road<br />
was actually named after another pub, the<br />
Star, which stood at the northern end by the<br />
mini roundabout. It’s now a Co-Op, fulfilling<br />
community needs of a different kind.<br />
Hopfest 3 at the FOX AND HOUNDS in<br />
Gosbrook Road was a great success. Starting<br />
with a tap takeover by Siren Craft, it was a<br />
four day party featuring food, music and loads<br />
of lovely beers including Cloudwater, Wylam,<br />
Deya, Double-Barrelled and many more.<br />
MORTIMER<br />
The TURNERS ARMS has been reported to<br />
be open only sporadically. We’re told it’s often<br />
closed by 9pm, not open at all on Sunday<br />
evenings and keeping erratic hours on other<br />
days. If you have any other news or feedback<br />
on this pub then we’d like to hear it, so please<br />
get in touch.<br />
READING<br />
for the bar called Purple TurtAle, and other<br />
beers from the same brewery have also featured<br />
in this iconic venue. At over 25 years old the<br />
Turtle is one of Reading’s longest running<br />
independent bars and is famous for offering<br />
a wide choice of music events as well as very<br />
late opening! And as we found out last year,<br />
for being the destination of choice for people<br />
who’ve just been hit by a bus (youtube.com/<br />
watch?v=b2i4C1bG-8w).<br />
The university bar on Redlands Road – once<br />
the Cotton Club, now DAIRY – has taken out<br />
its cask beers. They were due to be replaced by<br />
a font of five craft keg beers – two regulars and<br />
three changing. The manager we spoke to didn’t<br />
know whether any would be real ale keykeg<br />
beers. In common with other university bars,<br />
this one has also gone cashless i.e. payment is<br />
by card only.<br />
PAVLOV’S DOG on St Mary’s Butts has<br />
launched a new menu that includes a range of<br />
vegan dishes as well as new burgers. There’s<br />
a Burger of the Month as well as daily deals<br />
including Tuesday pancake day and Wing<br />
Wednesdays.<br />
A planning application to demolish the RED<br />
LION in Southampton Street and replace it<br />
with flats has been withdrawn.<br />
The PURPLE TURTLE<br />
on Gun Street now has<br />
a house beer and it’s a<br />
LocAle! Maidenhead<br />
brewery New Wharf<br />
has produced a 5%<br />
ABV hoppy, golden ale<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
6
Fullers have bought the BEL & THE<br />
DRAGON chain. It’s made up of six properties<br />
across Berkshire and Surrey including the bar<br />
and restaurant in Gas Works Road, on the<br />
Kennet. Presumably this will mean the local<br />
breweries that have featured on the bar will<br />
be replaced by Fullers brands, so expect to see<br />
London Pride, Gales and Dark Star making an<br />
appearance.<br />
The LYNDHURST on Watlington Street has<br />
been rebranded as a bar and kitchen, with a<br />
more upmarket “casual fine dining” food offer<br />
to try and compete with town centre chain<br />
restaurants. It’s now only open Wednesday to<br />
Sunday with a set lunch from noon to 6pm<br />
and an a la carte evening offer. Sandwiches and<br />
Ploughman’s boards will also be served during<br />
the day. Landlord and chef Kris Dorward is<br />
aiming to serve food that customers can’t make<br />
at home. Local suppliers like the Grumpy<br />
Goat (cheese), Dudman’s (fruit and veg) and<br />
Tilehurst Village Butchers will feature.<br />
The regular <strong>Autumn</strong> beer festival returns to<br />
the CASTLE TAP on Castle Street. Opening at<br />
6pm on Thursday 20 th September and running<br />
till 11pm on Sunday 23 rd . Expect stillage and<br />
a bar in the back room, interesting casks and<br />
kegs plus extra cider. Also featuring a quiz,<br />
live music and food, although possibly not all<br />
at once. Other events coming up include the<br />
Halloween party on Saturday 27 th October<br />
– this year’s theme is Fur & Fangs – and the<br />
Travelling Talesman will be telling stories of<br />
werewolves and other things that go bite in the<br />
night on Wednesday 31 st October.<br />
The 3Bs is set to make a reappearance as part<br />
of refurbishment works to the Town Hall.<br />
We expect it to reopen with a new look this<br />
autumn, although there are no details about<br />
whether real ale – or even any ale at all – will<br />
feature. The cafe bar closed in 2011 and has<br />
been open only occasionally for special events<br />
since, including in April 2016 when BBC<br />
Radio Berkshire hosted an evening to celebrate<br />
the local brewing family Simonds. Raymond<br />
Simonds has compiled a fascinating archive of<br />
information about the history and times of H.<br />
& G. Simonds Ltd. Brewery, which you can see<br />
if you visit simondsfamily.me.uk.<br />
There’s an intriguing planning application<br />
for the old Lloyds Bank building in Market<br />
Place. The proposal is to change the use of the<br />
ground floor to a food hall with bars, the first<br />
and second floors to be a hotel and the third<br />
floor to provide a rooftop bar. The application<br />
describes it in more detail:<br />
“The intention is to create a permanent internal<br />
food market with a modern twist. The venue<br />
will feature a permanent, artisanal bakery, café,<br />
and pizza stall (all one stall), plus three further<br />
stalls that will rotate regularly to allow an everchanging<br />
range of Streetfood-style food offers<br />
… There will be a main bar featuring a range<br />
of independent cask and craft beers, a carefully<br />
curated wine list, a wide range of premium<br />
spirits and cocktails, and healthy smoothies<br />
and juices. In addition, there will be a second<br />
satellite bar that can be changed and which will<br />
be focussed on a particular product (e.g. gin bar<br />
or cocktail bar) … The rear of the ground floor<br />
will see the former bank vault transformed into<br />
a secret garden with a retractable roof, a small<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
7
open area for al-fresco drinks and dining …<br />
Within the small third floor level it is proposed<br />
to create an intimate cocktail bar, opening out<br />
onto an external roof terrace which is furnished<br />
with seating booths.”<br />
Taylor’s Champion Club. The brewery awards<br />
Champion Club status to their loyal, permanent<br />
stockists who continue to go the extra mile it<br />
takes to serve their beer in perfect condition.<br />
At the time of writing the application had not<br />
been determined.<br />
Meanwhile a separate application to develop a<br />
container market to the south of Broad Street<br />
Mall, which would have featured a rooftop<br />
bar, has been refused. One reason was that<br />
the Council believed it would increase crime,<br />
or the perception of crime. The area still seems<br />
to be suffering from the reputation of Eva’s<br />
nightclub, which closed down last year after<br />
a series of major incidents, drug problems and<br />
breaches of its licensing conditions.<br />
Further news on the LOWER SHIP in Duke<br />
Street, which we featured in the last issue as<br />
having been closed since the 1980s. We noticed<br />
over the summer that the hoardings had been<br />
brought out to the edge of the pavement, which<br />
we assume is an attempt to stop homeless<br />
people sleeping there. So the owners Samuel<br />
Smiths Brewery from Yorkshire do seem to be<br />
keeping an eye on the place, which makes it<br />
even more puzzling why they’ve kept it closed<br />
for 30 years.<br />
SHINFIELD<br />
Nigel Lamb has left the BELL AND BOTTLE<br />
and moved to Bournemouth for family care<br />
responsibilities. At the time of writing we didn’t<br />
know who would be taking over the pub but<br />
we hope they continue to build on the good<br />
reputation that Nigel, and before him Mark<br />
and Chrissie East, had build up for real ale.<br />
THREE MILE CROSS<br />
The SWAN is a member of the Timothy<br />
Two Timothy Taylor ales are usually stocked<br />
at the Swan – the well-known Landlord and<br />
the more rarely seen Boltmaker – alongside<br />
offerings from four other breweries. The<br />
BUTLER in Reading is also a member of the<br />
Champion Club.<br />
TWYFORD<br />
The GOLDEN CROSS in Station Road sells<br />
Upham beers – and normally only Upham beers<br />
– the only such pub in our branch area. Carl,<br />
the licensee, has told us that he’s negotiated<br />
a deal with Upham to produce a unique (not<br />
rebadged) beer for his pub. It will be a short<br />
run brew to be sold for about two months<br />
and called Umpire’s Finger. The cricket link is<br />
because of the pub’s sponsorship of Twyford &<br />
Ruscombe Cricket Club. It will be followed by<br />
another special, the details of which are yet to<br />
be decided.<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
8
WOODLEY<br />
The BULL & CHEQUERS in Church Road is a<br />
Greene King pub, but can order from SIBA (the<br />
Society of Independent Brewers). The person<br />
who orders the beers tells us that he rotates<br />
his third handpump with local breweries –<br />
Andwell, Loddon and Rebellion. On a visit<br />
over the summer the guest beer was Andell’s<br />
King John.<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
9
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
10<br />
All images are courtesy of the breweries unless<br />
otherwise stated.<br />
BINGHAMS<br />
Binghams have listened<br />
to their customers<br />
requesting they open a<br />
little earlier on Saturdays<br />
and so they are now<br />
open 11am to 5pm<br />
on Saturdays (was 12<br />
to 6pm). Binghams<br />
have responded to<br />
comments from their<br />
shop customers and so to<br />
reduce the use of single<br />
use plastics, they now have Stainless Steel 2 litre,<br />
double walled growlers available in their brewery<br />
shop. The first batch sold out very quickly but<br />
a new batch is now in stock! The growlers are<br />
double walled so help to keep your beer cool for<br />
longer when you’re out and about. Just wash them<br />
out by hand after drinking the beer and bring them<br />
in for a refill - with a discount compared to the 2<br />
litre plastic bottles!<br />
The latest monthly special is RyePA, which is a<br />
golden IPA with Rye malt and US hops. The<br />
Ricochet special is an Oatmeal Pale which is<br />
unfined, unfiltered and brewed with oats and<br />
lactose for a creamy, smooth, hoppy pale ale.<br />
BOND BREWS<br />
The brewery celebrated its third birthday over<br />
the summer with a beer festival. Music, food and<br />
plenty of beer, including the World Cup special<br />
Moore Beer (4.0% ABV), were on offer and the<br />
event raised nearly £300 for Prostate Cancer UK.<br />
CHILTERN<br />
The Chiltern Brewery are extremely proud to have<br />
picked up a number of awards at the recent SIBA<br />
Midlands Independent Beer Awards, including a<br />
gold medal for Bodger’s Barley Wine (8.5% ABV).<br />
Available in 330ml bottles, this vegan beer is a<br />
strong bottle conditioned barley wine described<br />
as “heavenly nectar”. A golden chestnut ale<br />
with citrus fruits, juicy malt and spicy hops, it’s<br />
brewed with 100% pale Maris Otter malt and<br />
large quantities of Fuggles and Goldings hops for<br />
aroma.<br />
Head Brewer, Tom Jenkinson, said on the day of<br />
the awards that he was:<br />
”Extremely proud that Bodger’s Barley Wine has<br />
won gold at the SIBA awards, building on the<br />
success of winning three stars at last year’s Great<br />
Taste Awards. It is also great to see more awards<br />
for two of our most popular beers, Monument<br />
Gold & Beechwood Bitter, and we must thank all<br />
of our loyal customers for their ongoing support<br />
to make this possible.”<br />
DOUBLE-BARRELLED<br />
Luci and Mike have just moved into their new<br />
unit on Stadium Way Industrial Estate and work<br />
has begun on fitting out the brewery installations.<br />
They’re looking at getting the first batches out<br />
from the new site by the end of September. It’s<br />
a move from the old 150 litre brew kit in their<br />
garage to a new 2,500 litre kit (about 15 brewers’<br />
barrels) with 4 fermenters, so you can hopefully<br />
expect to see the beer popping up more regularly<br />
from then onwards. The next step after that will<br />
be to get some small pack cans available too.<br />
They’ve also applied for planning and licensing<br />
to open a tap room on Friday evening and<br />
Saturdays so, if that’s approved, you’ll be able<br />
to come and drink straight from the brewery –
in the end. So they relocated the office elsewhere<br />
in the brewery and the new taproom has three<br />
lines of Loddon cask, one line of experimental keg<br />
– where the plan is to try some new ideas – and<br />
bottles and ciders in the fridge. It’s the first stage<br />
in an ongoing project to make the brewery into a<br />
venue for events / parties / birthdays / weddings<br />
etc., with a host of new events and open evenings<br />
planned over the next few months.<br />
THE NEW BREWERY UNIT – PLENTY OF<br />
ROOM FOR EXPANSION!<br />
hopefully by the end of the year. In advance of that<br />
the plan is to provide tasting from the brewery,<br />
tours and to offer take home beers to drink off<br />
site. So lots of fingers crossed and hope for the<br />
next few months ahead!<br />
LODDON<br />
The big news from Loddon is that they’ve had<br />
the builders in! The old office and shop have<br />
been transformed into a new tap room that was<br />
launched at the end of July.<br />
There are great, locally-roasted coffees to drink<br />
in or take away, and the revamped shop has a<br />
much bigger range of local products, from honey<br />
to gin as well as beer. Work is due to start soon<br />
on decking the outside area and it should be done<br />
in time for the next appearance in Midsomer<br />
Murders and the inevitable influx of tourists that<br />
will come with it.<br />
NEW WHARF<br />
As mentioned elsewhere, Purple TurtAle, a 5%<br />
ABV hoppy, unfiltered and unpasteurised beer is<br />
being brewed especially for the Purple Turtle in<br />
Reading. New Wharf have also become a sponsor<br />
of Maidenhead Football Club and New Wharf<br />
beer will be available in all of their bars.<br />
REBELLION<br />
The special beer for autumn on cask is planned to<br />
be the simply-named Red, a 4.7% ABV warming,<br />
autumnal red ale. Rich and malty with a balancing<br />
bittersweet hop character, it’s available from<br />
September to November.<br />
In bottles, the autumn offering is 24 Carat (5.0%<br />
ABV). New World hops dominate the character of<br />
this golden beer and a blend of traditional, home<br />
grown malted barley gives it an intense, tropical<br />
aroma and a distinctive bittersweet flavour,<br />
typical of a contemporary American Pale Ale. It’s<br />
available in September and October.<br />
Since opening the shop they’ve been delighted with<br />
how popular it’s been, but it just proved too small<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
11<br />
SIREN CRAFT<br />
A huge congratulations to our friends at Siren<br />
for winning CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain<br />
Contest. In a blind tasting held at the Great British<br />
Beer Festival, Broken Dream Breakfast Stout was<br />
declared the Supreme Champion for <strong>2018</strong>. This<br />
6% ABV stout has a gentle touch of smoke, coffee<br />
and chocolate. Now the problem comes of how to<br />
brew enough of it to keep up with demand.
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
12<br />
great drinking cities, Siren will be at the Bristol<br />
Craft Beer Festival between 14-16 September, and<br />
Craft Beer Calling at Wylam Brewery in Newcastle<br />
between 18-20 October.<br />
BROKEN DREAM AT THE GREAT BRITISH<br />
BEER FESTIVAL. IMAGE COURTESY OF<br />
GBBF (CAMRA): @GBBF<br />
The brewers from Finchampstead continue the<br />
innovation for which they have become renowned<br />
with Spin Botany, a Gin and Tonic Gose (a<br />
German style of slightly sour, slightly salty beer<br />
with minimal bitterness) made in association with<br />
the East London Liquor Company. Not only is it<br />
infused with massive amounts of juniper for that<br />
authentic gin experience, it’s also brewed without<br />
hops which makes it a “gruit”. Technically it also<br />
makes it an ale as opposed to a beer, but in the<br />
UK that would confuse things too much so let’s<br />
stick with the continental term! Initially on the<br />
bar in keg form, the plan is to make Spin Botany<br />
available in bottles too.<br />
This summer the brewers have been busy keeping<br />
hopheads supplied with a number of variations<br />
of their flagship West Coast IPA, Sound Wave.<br />
Normally 5.6% ABV, all the new versions<br />
are all lower ABV Session IPAs, each with an<br />
individual twist. The first was a standard Session<br />
IPA, followed by the excellent Double Citra and<br />
Milkshake. Double Simcoe, due for release in late<br />
August, rounds out the list.<br />
If you fancy a trip further afield to one of our<br />
WEST BERKSHIRE<br />
This year there’s not an Oktoberwest Beer<br />
Festival at the brewery. Instead there’s a “Not<br />
Oktoberwest” beer festival, and it’s on Saturday<br />
22nd September between 12 – 10pm. Real ale,<br />
other craft beers and gin are on offer, alongside live<br />
music, street food and pizza. Confirmed breweries<br />
and cider makers at the time of writing, alongside<br />
West Berkshire Brewery, were Buxton, Burnt Mill,<br />
Wild Card, Pohjala, Sandford Orchards and Tutts<br />
Clump, with more to be announced. Visit wbbrew.<br />
com for more details and tickets.<br />
WINDSOR & ETON<br />
Knight of the Garter won bronze in the Golden<br />
Ales category of Champion Beer of Britain. At<br />
3.8% ABV this is a straw coloured golden session<br />
ale with Amarillo as the lead hop. An initial hit of<br />
cut grapefruit zest gives way to a deliciously sharp<br />
sherbet finish.<br />
XT / ANIMAL<br />
Hop Cat, the 3.9% ABV hoppy beer that we<br />
featured a couple of issues ago, has had to be<br />
renamed Hop Kitty following a legal battle with<br />
a bar company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA<br />
who claim worldwide ownership of the name. The<br />
beer itself remains the same and has been joined<br />
by two stronger limited edition versions: the street<br />
fighting alley cat Bad Kitty at 5.9% and the utterly<br />
feral Evil Kitty, which is 7.2% and was only<br />
available to a limited number of pubs and at the<br />
Great British Beer Festival.<br />
Other new beers available at GBBF and beyond<br />
are:<br />
• Burton IPA, a proper old school IPA – brewed<br />
strong at 7.1% and aged for three months in<br />
full sized oak barrels.<br />
• Animal Rhino, a quad hop amber ale – filled<br />
with Amarillo, Simcoe, Citra and Sorachi<br />
Ace hops.<br />
• Collaboration Red, The Siamese Fighting<br />
Fish (4.6%) – brewed with a leading malt<br />
supplier who joined XT in the brewing<br />
process, gave technical help and provided
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
13<br />
the trendy new Red-X malt. The beer also<br />
uses liquid nitrogen frozen hops: Cryo-Hops<br />
– a new technique for cracking out more<br />
flavours.<br />
PUB QUALITY<br />
BEER<br />
...AT HOME<br />
Drink Rebellion cask ale<br />
at home, fresh from the<br />
brewery shop<br />
Fresh beer, ready to drink<br />
1 litre bottles up to 72 pint barrels<br />
<br />
including 10% OFF beer<br />
Fresh cider<br />
Local produce<br />
Over 300 worldwide wines<br />
Free glass hire<br />
Call 01628 476594<br />
Shop opening hours:<br />
Mon-Sat 8am-7pm<br />
Or visit our website:<br />
www.rebellionbeer.co.uk<br />
@RebellionBeer<br />
RebellionBeerCo<br />
Rebellion Beer Co. Ltd. Bencombe Farm, Marlow Bottom, SL7 3LT<br />
A GOLDEN WONDER<br />
FRESH MIX OF HOPS FOR A DELICIOUS ALE<br />
RICH RUBY ALE<br />
SMOOTH AND MALTY WITH A FULL BODY
Small Beer<br />
A round up of news and information<br />
CHANGE TO LOCALE<br />
SCHEME<br />
(from 30 miles) for both beer and cider / perry.<br />
This is consistent with most other CAMRA<br />
branches in the region. That’s still over 50<br />
breweries brewing close-by, though!<br />
You can find out more, including a list of<br />
LocAle breweries and pubs, on our website<br />
www.readingcamra.org.uk under the “LocAle<br />
Breweries, Pubs & Shops” section.<br />
The new LocAle radius of 25 miles<br />
LocAle is an initiative that promotes pubs<br />
stocking locally brewed real ale. The scheme<br />
builds on a growing consumer demand<br />
for quality local produce and an increased<br />
awareness of “green” issues. Everyone benefits<br />
from local pubs stocking locally-brewed real<br />
ale:<br />
• Public houses as stocking local real ales<br />
can increase pub visits.<br />
• Consumers who enjoy greater beer choice<br />
and diversity.<br />
• Local brewers who gain from increased<br />
sales<br />
• The local economy because more money is<br />
spent and retained locally.<br />
• The environment due to fewer “beer<br />
miles” resulting in less road congestion<br />
and pollution.<br />
• Tourism due to an increased sense of local<br />
identity and pride - let’s celebrate what<br />
makes our locality different.<br />
As we were getting close to 90 LocAle<br />
breweries, the branch has decided to reduce its<br />
LocAle radius to 25 miles from central Reading<br />
GOOD BEER GUIDE 2019<br />
Britain’s premier pub<br />
and brewery guide,<br />
the Good Beer Guide,<br />
celebrates the release<br />
of its 46 th edition<br />
on 13 September.<br />
The Good Beer<br />
Guide is completely<br />
independent, with<br />
every one of its<br />
4,500 pub listings<br />
recommended and<br />
evaluated by people<br />
who know a thing<br />
or two about good<br />
beer – CAMRA volunteers. The Guide is the<br />
result of thousands of volunteers’ hard work<br />
over the past year; scoring beers, surveying<br />
pubs, surveying breweries and making difficult<br />
choices. These entries have been curated and<br />
checked by regional teams and finally brought<br />
together by staff at CAMRA’s HQ in St Albans.<br />
All should be justifiably proud of their hard<br />
work.<br />
Visit the CAMRA shop at shop.camra.org.uk<br />
to secure your copy. The Good Beer Guide App<br />
is also available to download, allowing users<br />
to find thousands of pubs, beers and breweries<br />
at their fingertips. The app is available in both<br />
Apple stores and Google Play and can be<br />
downloaded at gbgapp.camra.org.uk.<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
14
COMINGS AND GOINGS<br />
Tim Page, CAMRA’s Chief Executive, has<br />
decided to leave the campaign. During the past<br />
three and a half years, Tim was instrumental in<br />
executing a major strategic review of CAMRA,<br />
which aroused strong passions among the<br />
membership. The decisions taken at this year’s<br />
AGM and Members’ Weekend mean that<br />
the Campaign will be in a stronger position<br />
to recruit active members and to continue to<br />
campaign effectively for real ale, cider and<br />
perry, and pubs. Tim’s previous two roles prior<br />
to joining CAMRA were with charities and he<br />
has decided to return to the charitable sector<br />
for the last few years of his career.<br />
CAMRA’s Chief Campaigns Officer, Jonathan<br />
Mail, will also be leaving the staff team in<br />
October after almost 20 years of service to<br />
the campaign. He is going to fulfil a long-held<br />
ambition to spend six months travelling in India<br />
– a country he has a great affection for and<br />
has travelled to on many occasions previously.<br />
The campaigns team will continue effective<br />
campaigning until a new Chief Campaigns<br />
Officer is in post.<br />
Meanwhile the Minister for Small Business,<br />
Andrew Griffiths, has resigned from government<br />
after a newspaper revealed that he had sent<br />
2,000 sex texts to two women. Griffiths,<br />
who was formerly chair of the All-Party<br />
Parliamentary Beer Group had controversially<br />
been awarded CAMRA’s Parliamentarian of<br />
the Year Award in 2015. The award was for<br />
his contribution to scrapping the beer duty<br />
escalator and cutting beer duty, but many<br />
people both inside and outside of CAMRA<br />
were angry as they believed he had consistently<br />
opposed CAMRA’s campaign to strengthen<br />
the planning process to protect pubs and had<br />
fought against industry reform which would<br />
have redressed the balance between pubcos and<br />
their tenants. Few in the campaign will be sorry<br />
to see him go.<br />
BRITISH TRAPPIST BEER<br />
Monks at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in<br />
Leicestershire have become the first in the<br />
UK to be awarded Trappist accreditation for<br />
brewing their own beer.<br />
The abbey, near Coalville,<br />
is only the 12 th in the world<br />
to receive the accolade,<br />
joining six in Belgium, two<br />
in the Netherlands, and one<br />
each in the USA, Austria<br />
and Italy.<br />
The monks started to look<br />
at the idea of brewing in<br />
2013 after they had to<br />
close down their dairy farm<br />
when it became economically unviable. After<br />
much research they settled on a 7.4% dubbel<br />
style, quite sweet and extremely smooth, and<br />
reminiscent of other Trappist beers such as<br />
Rochefort.<br />
It marks a return to a 19 th century tradition of<br />
brewing in Mount Saint Bernard abbey. When<br />
the brethren first arrived in 1835 they settled<br />
in a poor cottage on Tynt Meadow, now an<br />
extension of the monastic enclosure.<br />
To receive the rare Trappist accreditation, beer<br />
must be brewed within an abbey directly by the<br />
monks or under their supervision. The brewery’s<br />
activities must be secondary in importance to<br />
the monastery’s work and way of life. It should<br />
not be run as a profit-making venture, with<br />
funds going to fund the monks’ living expenses<br />
and grounds and to help charitable causes.<br />
Dom Erik Varden, the abbot of Mount Saint<br />
Bernard, hopes that the brewery will help them<br />
extend their community work. “Beer is a good,<br />
honest, nurturing drink - our Belgian friends<br />
said more than once it should be liquid bread<br />
and not coloured water, and that’s what we’re<br />
aiming to live up to,” he said.<br />
Many abbeys licence their name to commercial<br />
operations but these are called “abbey beers”<br />
and cannot receive the Trappist seal of approval.<br />
MASS LOBBY DAY<br />
CAMRA will be holding a Mass Lobby Day in<br />
Westminster on Tuesday 30 October. This will<br />
be our opportunity to bring pressing campaign<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
15
issues to the attention of up to 650 Members<br />
of Parliament. The purpose of the Lobby Day<br />
will be to ask MPs to commit to these CAMRA<br />
campaigns:<br />
• Axeing plans to increase beer duty in the<br />
upcoming <strong>Autumn</strong> Budget.<br />
• A permanent business rate relief for pubs<br />
in England in the <strong>Autumn</strong> Budget.<br />
• An urgent review of the Pubs Code so that<br />
the Market Rent Only option becomes a<br />
genuine choice for tenants in England and<br />
Wales.<br />
A Mass Lobby Day is an effective way to<br />
communicate to MPs and the Government<br />
about a cause which needs legislative change in<br />
a short time period, creating a sense of urgency.<br />
Meetings with multiple MPs on one single day<br />
encourages them to discuss our campaigns with<br />
Ministers, among each other within Parliament,<br />
and outline their support for our campaigns on<br />
social media.<br />
CAMRA branches are taking the lead on<br />
finding volunteers to contact their local MPs.<br />
Activity will begin with registration at a<br />
Westminster venue and will finish after a rally<br />
with high profile speakers at 5.30pm. The exact<br />
start time will depend on what time (and how<br />
many) CAMRA members arrange to meet their<br />
MP.<br />
NEW POCKET GUIDE FOR<br />
HOMEBREWERS<br />
CAMRA’s Essential Home Brewing, the musthave<br />
new pocket guide book for both old hands<br />
and novice homebrewers, is now available to<br />
purchase from the CAMRA shop.<br />
Ever since real ale captured the nation’s<br />
imagination in the 1970s, dedicated beer lovers<br />
have been trying to brew their own to replicate<br />
some of the fantastic recipes and flavours out<br />
there. Even if you have never brewed before or<br />
your brewing kit is gathering dust up on the<br />
shelf, CAMRA’s Essential Home Brewing can<br />
help you get started on a new, exciting hobby.<br />
For old hands at brewing, you can expand your<br />
brewing repertoire with over 30 recipes from<br />
leading British and international craft brewers.<br />
Easy-to-follow instructions and a variety of<br />
beer styles and recipes make this the perfect<br />
companion to suit everyone’s taste. Written<br />
by Andy Parker, brewer and owner of Elusive<br />
Brewing of Finchampstead, and Graham<br />
Wheeler, internationally-renowned authority<br />
on home brewing, CAMRA’s Essential<br />
Home Brewing provides an introduction<br />
to homebrewing in a way that is easy to<br />
understand and follow.<br />
CAMRA’s latest title retails for for £11.99<br />
(£7.99 with the CAMRA members’ discount).<br />
For more information, or to order your copy,<br />
visit shop.camra.org.uk<br />
UPCOMING FESTIVALS<br />
September: Sherfield on Loddon<br />
Beer Festival<br />
Saturday 15 September: Held in Sherfield<br />
Village Hall and its garden, just off the A33.<br />
Featuring 40+ real ales (mostly local with<br />
some from further afield) and cider, hot food,<br />
live bands, face painting and a free evening<br />
minibus service to and from Bramley Station.<br />
Tickets £5 on the door or £4 in advance, and<br />
under 18s get in free when accompanied by an<br />
adult. Open 11.30am – 11pm. More details at<br />
sherfieldbeerfestival.org.uk.<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
16
October: Ascot Beer Festival<br />
Friday 5 – Saturday 6 October: This year’s<br />
festival organised by the Berkshire South East<br />
CAMRA branch at Ascot racecourse will, as<br />
usual, exhibit around 200 different real ales<br />
and over 30 real ciders and perries. As well as<br />
a fabulous selection of drinks, the festival will<br />
also offer some top class flat racing and the<br />
chance to have a flutter if you fancy, plus live<br />
music.<br />
To get in you need to buy a ticket for the race<br />
meeting. As the festival is in the concourse of<br />
the main grandstand any class of ticket will<br />
get you to the beer, but the cheapest option<br />
(and with no dress code) is to go for a “Queen<br />
Anne Enclosure” ticket, available from tickets.<br />
ascot.co.uk. Don’t forget to use the code<br />
CAMRA<strong>2018</strong> to get 50% off a Queen Anne<br />
Enclosure ticket when you book in advance,<br />
and remember that under 18s get in free when<br />
accompanied by an adult. More info available<br />
on ascotbeerfest.org.uk.<br />
November: Oxford Beer and Cider<br />
Festival<br />
Thursday 8 – Saturday 10 November: The<br />
Oxford branch of CAMRA has a provisional<br />
booking to hold its 21 st Beer and Cider Festival<br />
in Oxford Town Hall. It’s expected to follow a<br />
very similar format to last year’s festival, which<br />
featured 140 different real ales and 40 more<br />
held over to the Saturday, and 50 ciders and<br />
perries. Hot and cold food will be on sale and<br />
some seating available in the old library. Open<br />
to the public from 5pm on the Thursday, entry<br />
on the day (no advance ticket sales) is £10, or<br />
£8 to card-carrying CAMRA members. Entry<br />
includes a commemorative glass and drink<br />
tokens, and more tokens can be purchased once<br />
inside. Head to oxfordbeerfestival.camra.org.<br />
uk for more details as they’re confirmed.<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
17
Join up, join in,<br />
join the campaign<br />
From<br />
as little as<br />
£25 †<br />
a year. That’s less<br />
than a pint a<br />
month!<br />
Partner’s Details (if Joint Membership)<br />
Protect the traditions of great<br />
British pubs and everything that<br />
goes with them by joining today<br />
at www.camra.org.uk/joinup<br />
Or enter your details and complete the Direct Debit form below and you will receive<br />
15 months membership for the price of 12 and save £2 on your membership subscription<br />
Alternatively you can send a cheque payable to CAMRA Ltd with your completed form,<br />
visit www.camra.org.uk/joinus, or call 01727 798440.* All forms should be addressed to<br />
Membership Department, CAMRA, 230 Hatfield Road, St Albans, AL1 4LW.<br />
Your details:<br />
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For concessionary rates please visit<br />
www.camra.org.uk or call 01727 798440.<br />
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agree to abide by the Memorandum and<br />
Articles of Association which can be found<br />
on our website.<br />
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<br />
To the Manager<br />
Address<br />
Instruction to your Bank or<br />
Building Society to pay by Direct Debit<br />
Please fill in the whole form using a ball point pen and send to:<br />
Campaign for Real Ale Ltd. 230 Hatfield Road St. Albans, Herts AL1 4LW<br />
Name and full postal address of your Bank or Building Society<br />
Postcode<br />
Name(s) of Account Holder<br />
Bank or Building Society Account Number<br />
Branch Sort Code<br />
Reference<br />
Bank or Building Society<br />
Service User Number<br />
9 2 6 1 2 9<br />
FOR CAMRA OFFICIAL USE ONLY<br />
This is not part of the instruction to your Bank or Building Society<br />
Membership Number<br />
Name<br />
Postcode<br />
Instructions to your Bank or Building Society<br />
Please pay Campaign For Real Ale Limited Direct Debits<br />
from the account detailed on this instruction subject to<br />
the safeguards assured by the Direct Debit Guarantee. I<br />
understand that this instruction may remain with Campaign<br />
For Real Ale Limited and, if so, will be passed electronically<br />
to my Bank/Building Society.<br />
Signature(s)<br />
Banks and Building Societies may not accept Direct Debit Instructions for some types of account.<br />
Date<br />
This Guarantee should be detached<br />
and retained by the payer.<br />
The Direct Debit Guarantee<br />
This Guarantee is offered by all banks<br />
and building societies that accept<br />
instructions to pay by Direct Debits<br />
If there are any changes to the amount,<br />
date or frequency of your Direct Debit<br />
The Campaign for Real Ale Ltd will notify<br />
you 10 working days in advance of your<br />
account being debited or as otherwise<br />
agreed. If you request The Campaign<br />
for Real Ale Ltd to collect a payment,<br />
confirmation of the amount and date<br />
will be given to you at the time of<br />
the request<br />
If an error is made in the payment of<br />
your Direct Debit by The Campaign<br />
for Real Ale Ltd or your bank or<br />
building society, you are entitled to<br />
a full and immediate refund of the<br />
amount paid from your bank or<br />
building society<br />
If you receive a refund you are not<br />
entitled to, you must pay it back<br />
when The Campaign Real Ale Ltd<br />
asks you to<br />
You can cancel a Direct Debit at any<br />
time by simply contacting your bank<br />
or building society. Written confirmation<br />
may be required. Please also notify us.<br />
†Price of single membership when paying by Direct Debit. *Calls from landlines charged at local rates, cost may vary from mobile phones.<br />
New Direct Debit members will receive a 12 month supply of vouchers in their first 15 months of membership.
CAMRA Gala<br />
Presentation <strong>2018</strong><br />
THE IMPRESSIVE ARRAY OF AWARDS AT LAST YEAR’S EVENT<br />
The Reading & Mid Berks branch of CAMRA is<br />
blessed with a wonderful selection of great pubs,<br />
a multitude of local breweries and cider makers<br />
supplying them and a great array of people<br />
making, serving and drinking their produce.<br />
Some of these worthies regularly qualified for<br />
the nationally recognised awards of branch Pub<br />
/ Club of the Year and winners of the Reading<br />
Beer & Cider Festival awards. This meant various<br />
certificates would be presented to the winners, but<br />
at fairly low key events.<br />
In 2015 that all changed. That year, one of the<br />
key objectives for the branch that year was to<br />
“Reward and recognise a wider group of the best<br />
pubs in the branch”. This was soon developed to<br />
include people, not just pubs.<br />
To get to be in the running to be a Pub of the<br />
Year (POTY) is quite an achievement, so we<br />
decided to award certificates to the finalists<br />
as well as the winner and runner-up. We also<br />
agreed to look to make one-off awards for any<br />
outstanding developments or contributions in<br />
the field. We started with a Best Newcomer<br />
(licensee) and the Phoenix award for bring a pub<br />
back from the dead. Moreover the presentations<br />
were all combined into one grand event – a Gala<br />
Presentation Evening. Since then there have been<br />
an outstanding volunteer award, an award for<br />
pubs collaborating to put on a community music<br />
festival, licensee long service awards and several<br />
others.<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
19<br />
The Gala Presentation Evening is a public event,<br />
open to all members of the beer and cider drinking<br />
public. This year it will be held on Tuesday<br />
11 th September at Park House on the Reading<br />
University Whiteknights campus – please note that<br />
the bar is cashless and only accepts card payments.<br />
Park House will be receiving an award for their<br />
Outstanding Support and Promotion of LocAle.<br />
There will be a certificate to commemorate the<br />
long service of Carole Headland as licensee of the<br />
Magpie & Parrot and Vic & Jenny Harrison at<br />
the Swan, Three Mile Cross – both having started<br />
35 years ago. The Outstanding Expansion at the<br />
Shurlock Inn and the Outstanding Development<br />
at the Black Boy will be celebrated. For only the<br />
second time in four years, there was one pub which<br />
received outstanding positive public feedback on<br />
the Ale Trail and the Flower Pot at Aston will<br />
be receiving a certificate to commemorate that.<br />
The Royal Oak at Ruscombe will also receive a<br />
certificate for its long term practical support to the<br />
work of the branch.<br />
The branch committee were unanimous in<br />
agreeing a unique, though possibly undesirable<br />
award to Samuel Smiths brewery. Over 30 years<br />
ago they purchased the Lower Ship Inn in Duke<br />
Street, Reading. It has remained closed since then.<br />
The award goes to them for “The longest closed<br />
pub for no good reason”. It remains to be seen<br />
if anyone from Sam Smiths comes to receive the<br />
certificate.<br />
Brian Jones
Behind the Bar -<br />
Allied Arms<br />
This is the part of the magazine where we turn<br />
things over to a local landlord to tell us about their<br />
pub. This time it’s Moya Rolls of the Allied Arms.<br />
The Allied Arms has been run by the Rolls family<br />
since 2002. Steve and I were both working in the<br />
corporate sales sector and decided that a change of<br />
pace was required. Despite having no experience<br />
of the pub trade, we took on the Allied Arms in<br />
2002 and have been there ever since.<br />
The building dates from the 16 th century but<br />
according to records has been a pub since 1828.<br />
In 2002 the range consisted of Courage Bitter and<br />
London Pride (sometimes) on tap with a mixture<br />
of fairly standard lagers and ciders on offer. Today<br />
much has improved with ten ever-changing cask<br />
ales (with one exception), a choice of bottled craft<br />
beer, a unique wine selection and of course the<br />
various lagers and ciders. The “exception” being<br />
Steve’s favourite tipple, Hullaballoo from Loddon<br />
Brewery, which has been served at the Allied Arms<br />
non-stop since 2003.<br />
Slowly changing the pub from what it was to<br />
what you see today, proved to be hard work, but<br />
it has been the most enjoyable and rewarding task.<br />
The Allied Arms is a “tied” pub, originally with<br />
Unique Pub Company, which was taken over by<br />
Enterprise Inns (now rebranded as EI Group). This<br />
has its challenges, the most critical of which is the<br />
prices they charge for product, which have to be<br />
reflected in the Allied Arms price list. However,<br />
this has not prevented improvements to the pub<br />
and expanding the business over the years. It was<br />
decided that the pub should be kept as original as<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
20<br />
possible and retain its quaint old-fashioned town<br />
pub feel, whilst maintaining high standards of<br />
product care.<br />
One of the most obvious improvements that<br />
has been made is to the garden. Originally very<br />
overgrown and run down, there is now seating for<br />
over 100 people. The garden is a true oasis in the<br />
centre of Reading – who would believe that you<br />
were in the town centre when you are sitting in<br />
the sun in a garden, enjoying a nice pint of ale or<br />
a chilled glass of wine? Efforts have been made to<br />
make it a real garden with beautiful scented roses<br />
and colourful plants and shrubs.<br />
Since introducing ten ales and a craft beer<br />
selection in mid-April, customer response has<br />
been overwhelming in its support. At least 50%<br />
of the beers are from local breweries, via the<br />
SIBA scheme, and this is proving popular with<br />
customers.<br />
Although the Allied Arms does not serve meals,<br />
customers may bring in their own food to enjoy<br />
with their drinks. Neighbouring establishments<br />
such as Pizza Express and Pierre’s Baguettes are<br />
both more than happy to oblige!<br />
The bi-monthly pub quiz has proved popular over<br />
the years with quiz teams taking it in turns to host<br />
the quiz. This results in a wide style of quizzes as<br />
each team comes with their own ideas and it keeps<br />
it fresh. Anyone who fancies hosting a quiz can<br />
add their name to the quiz calendar.<br />
Recently the pub has been managed by resident<br />
Ale Guru, Dom Humphries who has been with us<br />
since 2013 and has proved to be more than equal<br />
to the task.<br />
It has been said that the Allied Arms is a Country<br />
Pub in Town – an epithet well earned!<br />
Moya Rolls<br />
Allied Arms<br />
57 St Mary’s Butts<br />
Reading<br />
RG1 2LG<br />
Tel: 0118 958 3323
World Cup<br />
of Reading Pubs<br />
Following on from the very successful World<br />
Cup of Reading Restaurants voting tournament<br />
held earlier in the year by Edible Reading,<br />
I thought I’d do something similar with<br />
Reading’s best pubs, just in time to tie in with<br />
the FIFA World Cup <strong>2018</strong>. We launched it on<br />
the Explore Reading Twitter feed (twitter.com/<br />
explorerdg) on 14 th June as a bit of fun that<br />
would promote the thriving Reading pub scene.<br />
Shortlisting 32 of the top pubs in Reading and<br />
using a random knockout generator, we placed<br />
them in draws that played out over a series of<br />
Twitter polls across the duration of the football<br />
World Cup.<br />
We ran one Twitter poll per day between two<br />
pubs: no group stages, so you voted for your<br />
favourite pub of the two, and the one with the<br />
least votes got knocked out at each stage until<br />
we reached the nail biting final. We even had<br />
a wall chart which was updated regularly, you<br />
can see the final version here.<br />
At first it was slow going but soon people picked<br />
up on it and a lot of games were very closely<br />
fought and hundreds of people got involved<br />
in many of the polls. There were, of course,<br />
detractors and arguments about the definition<br />
of a pub, that the votes were rigged, that the<br />
draw had been staged and so on, but overall<br />
it was well received and got a lot of people<br />
talking. There were also plenty of comments<br />
about people saying that they needed to re-visit<br />
various pubs in the running as they hadn’t been<br />
in a while.<br />
The pubs with active Twitter presences got<br />
involved too, with playful competitive repartee<br />
between opposing sides and encouraging their<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
21
A big thank you to Explore Reading who<br />
allowed me to pursue and host the idea on<br />
their website and Twitter account. They do a<br />
fantastic job of promoting all things Reading<br />
and pubs and beer are no exception. You can<br />
check them out at explorerdg.com or over on<br />
Twitter at twitter.com/explorerdg<br />
James Moore<br />
various fans to get involved and vote for them.<br />
Particular shout-outs to the semi-finalists Allied<br />
Arms and Purple Turtle who got very involved<br />
in encouraging people to vote on Twitter. The<br />
Greyfriar also is worth a mention for doing the<br />
same in earlier rounds.<br />
After 30 days, 32 pubs and scores of votes, our<br />
final poll was between The Fox & Hounds and<br />
The Nag’s Head on Sunday 15 July, the same<br />
day as the big football final. It was very tightly<br />
fought with 588 votes and fans of both pubs<br />
being very vocal in their support. But in the<br />
end, it was Caversham’s Fox & Hounds which<br />
emerged as Reading’s favourite pub in a 52/48<br />
percent split.<br />
The extra interest that the competition<br />
drummed up made all the pubs winners, and<br />
just goes to show how lucky we are in Reading<br />
to have so many excellent boozers of all shapes<br />
and sizes that people can visit.<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
22
Pubs in<br />
World War One<br />
The 100 th anniversary of the end of the 1 st<br />
World War leads us to enquire what effect the<br />
war had on pubs. The main effect was a severe<br />
limitation on licensing hours which were cut to<br />
six hours per day under the 1914 Defence of<br />
the Realm Act, affectionately known as DORA,<br />
and the Intoxicating Liquor (Temporary<br />
Restriction) Act, also of 1914. This proved to<br />
be anything but temporary as the spirit of Dora<br />
survived, despite some extension of permitted<br />
hours, through to the late 20 th century.<br />
James Wyeth, landlord of The Barley Mow,<br />
London Street, was one who fell foul of the law<br />
when he was fined £3 for allowing drinking to<br />
take place after 9pm in contravention of the<br />
Act. At the Reading Borough Police Court in<br />
June 1915, two customers were fined 10s (50p)<br />
or seven days behind bars for consuming beer<br />
after hours. Happily, when the police objected<br />
to the renewal of Wyeth’s licence, when next<br />
up for renewal, he escaped with a caution and<br />
carried on running the pub until his death in<br />
1938.<br />
copper informed the landlord that not only was<br />
Walter a soldier fighting for King and Country<br />
but a local as well. He was duly served but was<br />
so incensed by the treatment he had received<br />
that he poured the entire contents of the pint<br />
mug over the bar and walked out!<br />
Most pubs, however, were keen to support the<br />
war effort. In 1917 and 1918 we read of what<br />
almost seems friendly rivalry between such<br />
pubs as the Sun and the Horn in raising money<br />
for the Royal Berkshire Hospital’s Comforts<br />
for Wounded Soldiers appeal and the War<br />
Hospitals Supplies Depot.<br />
John Dearing<br />
“I went into a public ‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,<br />
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no redcoats<br />
here.” – wrote Kipling.<br />
Unfortunately, this attitude seems to have<br />
infected the landlord of the Rising Sun, Henry<br />
Mainman, when a soldier in the Guards, Walter<br />
Lush, came home on leave and on his way back<br />
to Newtown from the station popped into the<br />
Rising Sun for a pint. He was informed that<br />
beer was in short supply and was kept for<br />
the locals only. On emerging from the pub he<br />
encountered a policeman of his acquaintance to<br />
whom he told his woes. They re-entered and the<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
23
The Further History of<br />
Lager in the UK<br />
PAUL DABROWSKI CONCLUDES THE STORY OF LAGER BREWING IN THE UK<br />
By the 1980s it was increasingly apparent<br />
that UK-brewed lagers were almost all being<br />
pasteurised, akin to keg beers, whether<br />
produced in the new megakeggeries established<br />
by the Big Six combines in places such as<br />
Luton, Magor, Northampton, Samlesbury and<br />
Worton Grange or in the surviving ‘traditional’<br />
lager breweries such as Alloa, Moss Side and<br />
Wrexham.<br />
CAMRA, having been formed in response to<br />
the artificial carbonation of traditional British<br />
ale a decade earlier, began to direct its ire<br />
towards the mock lagers that brewers, stung<br />
by the hostility that had been generated against<br />
fizz beer, had started to aggressively market<br />
instead. Lagers such as Hofmeister (Courage)<br />
and Fosters (Watneys) had become not only<br />
weak and overpriced replacement products but<br />
were being foisted on the undiscerning populace<br />
by masquerading as genuinely continental (or<br />
other foreign) beers when none were actually<br />
being brewed abroad.<br />
In 1959 lager had accounted for just 2% of all<br />
beer sales. By 1990 it accounted for 50%, this<br />
exponential growth partly stimulated by the<br />
1961 Licensing Act which removed restrictions<br />
on off-licences and the sales of alcohol in<br />
grocers and the newly-fangled supermarkets.<br />
Lager, too, seemed to suffer fewer detrimental<br />
effects when being canned/kegged as compared<br />
to traditional bitter which canning/kegging<br />
only appeared to exacerbate.<br />
Classic lager beers are characterised as having<br />
a dry, hoppy, palate. They would be stored<br />
(i.e. “lagered”) for a minimum of a month<br />
to cold-condition in the brewery and would<br />
have a strength of c.1040. In sharp contrast,<br />
the new wave of lagers were low in gravity –<br />
in the low to mid-1030s – and were lucky to<br />
even experience three weeks’ maturation before<br />
being despatched to pubs, clubs and other<br />
retailers but were more likely to be released<br />
for sale as quickly as keg (or even traditional)<br />
beers were (i.e. “running beers” in brewers’<br />
terminology). However, unlike real ales, having<br />
no time in the pub cellar to develop any finesse<br />
and, being served so chilled, what little taste<br />
they may have had was completely lost. The<br />
nadir of lager production in the UK probably<br />
came with the advent of diet, or “lite” (sic),<br />
versions; despite being even lower in alcohol<br />
(some below 1030 were not, technically,<br />
alcoholic products at all!) and also low in<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
24
carbohydrates, they were often no less fattening<br />
than other, stronger, brews.<br />
Just like the keg beers which preceded them,<br />
the pasteurisation of British lagers involved<br />
a process frowned upon by top continental<br />
brewers because of the cloying, off-taste,<br />
imparted by a technique more appropriate for<br />
a dairy to employ than a brewery. In Europe,<br />
the serving of lagers either used the natural<br />
carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation<br />
process or strictly-controlled levels of applied<br />
gas pressure to deliver the beer to the taps.<br />
In the UK, there were no restraints on the levels<br />
of gas pressure that could be applied in order to<br />
pump lagers up from cellars – or to artificially<br />
maintain shelf-life when invariably canned<br />
rather than bottled – where, to add insult to<br />
injury, they were wickedly overpriced as well,<br />
presumably to help pay for the huge advertising<br />
budgets that created, admittedly sometimes<br />
memorable, TV and billboard commercials. No<br />
stronger than most milds of that era, yet costing<br />
as much as 6-10p per pint more than beers of<br />
an equivalent strength (when a pint was about<br />
50p!), it was little wonder that the public, with<br />
CAMRA’s help, eventually saw through the<br />
advertising hype.<br />
Meanwhile, many of the extant family brewers<br />
had felt compelled to jump on the bandwagon<br />
either with their own creations or lagers brewed<br />
under licence from continental breweries to<br />
pseudo-authentic recipes. Fuller’s invested<br />
heavily in conical fermenters to produce their<br />
K2 lager, named after the second-highest peak<br />
in the Himalayan mountain range. By contrast,<br />
Young’s used a top-fermenting yeast for their<br />
Saxon Lager so it was little more than an<br />
insipid pale ale!<br />
Inevitably, most of these disappeared under<br />
reciprocal deals with the Big Six producers to<br />
take their heavilyadvertised<br />
ersatz<br />
lagers in exchange<br />
for access to the<br />
pub estates of the<br />
larger companies<br />
with their real ales<br />
as guests. Notably,<br />
a few persisted<br />
with their more<br />
genuine products<br />
such as McMullens of Hertford who, until<br />
comparatively recently, had two brands,<br />
Steingold and Hartsman, and Samuel Smith<br />
in Tadcaster who continue with Ayinger Bräu<br />
under licence, this at least being brewed to<br />
German beer purity law (or Reinheitsgebot)<br />
standards.<br />
It was not all doom and gloom for mainstream<br />
UK-brewed lager as Allied (with probably<br />
the best lager brewing heritage to squander<br />
of any of the Big Six) had even nationally<br />
promoted a real lager in 1983, served through<br />
handpumps, as Ind Coope’s Gold Cross (a<br />
briefly revived recipe and brand from 80<br />
years earlier) but it was only with the advent<br />
of new, sustained, micro-breweries being<br />
established, such as Harviestoun, that Britishbrewed<br />
lager finally started to regain some<br />
credibility. Their Schiehallion has stood as a<br />
beacon for real ale lager for around a quarter<br />
of a century since it was first brewed in 1995<br />
and has been emulated by some other small<br />
breweries. However it remained a fact that,<br />
until the emergence of new-wave artisanal<br />
breweries in the 21st century, the only way to<br />
have sampled excellent, lagered, beer had been<br />
to buy imported products from Europe and<br />
countries beyond.<br />
Despite the closure of the Wrexham Lager<br />
brewery in 2000, it is still Britain’s oldest lager<br />
as, from 2011, it was again being produced in<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
25
the town in a micro-brew plant utilising the<br />
same name as the original company. Having<br />
been originally launched by homesick German<br />
emigrées from Saxony in 1882, the brand had<br />
thrived with the introduction of mechanical<br />
refrigeration.<br />
When founded, the Wrexham site for the<br />
original “Little Pilsen Brewery” had been<br />
chosen for the quality of its water considered<br />
eminently suitable for the production of the<br />
particular continental style envisaged, that of<br />
a dark Munich-type, soon supplemented by a<br />
light lager and one in the Pilsner-style. It was<br />
stocked by the White Star Line on ships such<br />
as The Titanic, as well as the Cunard and Elder<br />
Dempster shipping lines, despatched via both<br />
Liverpool and Southampton Docks by the Great<br />
Central and Great Western Railways and, from<br />
the 1930s onwards, was the only lager available<br />
on GWR trains and in their refreshment rooms<br />
and hotels. It was also supplied to Clubs such<br />
as the Carlton and Constitutional and there<br />
is evidence of it having been drunk by British<br />
soldiers at the siege of Khartoum in 1885. With<br />
the demise of this lucrative liner trade in the<br />
1970s, the original Wrexham Brewery had also<br />
produced Sköl before closure.<br />
supermarket chains had started to ditch their<br />
volume, mainstream, lagers in favour of “craft”<br />
beer products instead – Tesco removing as<br />
many as 30 individual lines – and, as a result,<br />
the likes of Heineken and Krœnenberg were no<br />
longer heavily discounting their ersatz products<br />
where they were still available. It has thus<br />
been interesting to see how Ramsbury’s real<br />
Red Ram lager, Rebellion’s new keykeg lager,<br />
Truman’s tank lager, Raw, and XT’s “craft”<br />
lager, Eisbar, (all from 2017) were received by<br />
aficionados of the style.<br />
Paul Dabrowski<br />
with acknowledgements to: CAMRA, 1983 &<br />
1984 Good Beer Guides; Peter Haydon, Beer<br />
& Britannia; Where Have All the Breweries<br />
Gone?, Norman Barber, Brewery History<br />
Society<br />
CAMAL (The Campaign for Authentic Lager)<br />
may be of interest. Please visit www.camal.org.<br />
uk for more details.<br />
Amongst the proliferation of “craft” breweries<br />
of the new millennium, a renewed interest<br />
in lager as a beer style has also come to be<br />
exemplified by Calvor’s, near Needham Market<br />
in Suffolk, that pre-empted – by three years<br />
– the revival of Wrexham in being lager-only.<br />
But other concerns such as London’s Orbit<br />
Beers, in SE17, and the Six O’Clock Beer Co.<br />
in Manchester have both majored in producing<br />
many foreign beer styles as well, brewed to<br />
authentic recipes and strengths, rather than just<br />
lagers and pilsners.<br />
An equally welcome development in 2017<br />
perhaps was the news that many major<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
26
Bamberg - An Adventure in<br />
Brewing, Malt, Smoke and Beer<br />
The air was heavy with the aroma of gently<br />
roasting malt as we disembarked from our<br />
train. Standing on the platform we were taken<br />
with the smell of the Weyermann maltings,<br />
its majestic brick facade towering over the<br />
beautiful Bavarian town of Bamberg.<br />
We had travelled here to take part in a<br />
collaboration brew at the brewery attached<br />
to the 140 year old malting company.<br />
Weyermann make some highly specialist<br />
malts, many of which we use in our XT<br />
and Animal beers. They have an amazing<br />
no-expense-spared, high tech brewery to<br />
test their malts and experiment with a wide<br />
variety of beer styles, and we had been<br />
invited here to play on it.<br />
Bamberg must be one of the world’s top<br />
places for beer and it is well known for the<br />
local smoked Rauchbiers. As with much of<br />
Germany the locals are very loyal to their<br />
local breweries and the styles particular to<br />
the region. Generally I will always search out<br />
the local beers in my travels, but to only see<br />
local beer and no national or multinational<br />
brews at all was a revelation. The Germans<br />
see beer as a highly valued part of their<br />
culture; it’s not just a “drink” and somehow<br />
inferior to wine. The brewing and serving of<br />
beer here is a respected career choice.<br />
THE TOP TABLE AT STERNLA<br />
BAMBERG TOWN HALL<br />
The old town of Bamberg is beautifully<br />
preserved, and it’s a pleasure to wander<br />
around its old timbered houses, grand<br />
churches and cobbled streets. The locals<br />
get about on bikes on the many cycle paths<br />
and somehow they manage to ride normal<br />
looking machines without the need for lycra<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
27<br />
BREWING AT WEYERMANN
WEYERMANN MALTINGS AND<br />
BREWERY<br />
or carbon fibre. Most importantly however,<br />
Bamberg is blessed with nine breweries, all<br />
of which are within the old town environs.<br />
The breweries all have their own traditional<br />
bars attached, plus there are numerous pubs<br />
to tempt you, it’s actually quite hard to find<br />
a bad one.<br />
Here is a short list of some of our favourite<br />
breweries and bars:<br />
Spezial - A traditional brewery which still<br />
smokes its own malts for the house speciality<br />
Rauchbier. We stayed here during our time<br />
in Bamberg, and it is well worth seeking out<br />
these characterful places – take a look on<br />
www.braugasthoefe.de for similar brewery<br />
guest houses across Germany.<br />
Zum Sternla – Thanks to our hosts<br />
Weyermann, who are almost the Bamberg<br />
royal family, we had the honour of sitting<br />
at the “top table”. This is a bit of tradition<br />
where the landlord has his own reserved<br />
table and holds his beery court. It’s a great<br />
way to meet a wide variety of the locals and<br />
get to understand the traditions and enjoy<br />
the respect that Germans have for their<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
28<br />
beer and the well trained staff that serve it<br />
with such reverence. We sampled some very<br />
fine Weissbier (wheat beer) here, which has<br />
a deep rich flavour that’s missing in many<br />
more commercial versions.<br />
Keesmann – Famous for its Herren-<br />
Pils and Helles, but for me it was most<br />
memorable for the huge food portions which<br />
actually defeated my companion who is<br />
not normally the loser in man vs. food. On<br />
investigating the extensive brewery behind<br />
the bar I spotted a huge machine which at<br />
first I could not identify, after enquiring<br />
I learned it was for the cleaning of beer<br />
bottles. In Germany the regional breweries<br />
use standardised bottles and they regularly<br />
collect and refill them. This was eye opening<br />
and a radically different way of thinking to<br />
our own throw-away culture.<br />
Mahr’s Bräu – Opposite Kessmann,<br />
we really enjoyed the biergarten here and,<br />
after the night closed in, the convivial<br />
conversation on long benches in the dark<br />
wood panelled bar inside. The shared<br />
tables in the bars are very much part of<br />
the drinking culture. Everyone sits together<br />
and, if you arouse their interest, you will<br />
inevitably be drawn into the conversation of<br />
your neighbours. This bar also introduced<br />
us to the delights of “Ungespundet” which<br />
literally means “unbunged”. It’s a process<br />
for maturing beers with open vented vessels<br />
leading to much less gassy beer. The age-old<br />
Reinheitsgebot or purity law has far reaching<br />
influence over the beers here. Interestingly it<br />
also forbids the use of extraneous gas in the<br />
beer, only gas from the fermentation can be<br />
in the beer. So there is a little puzzler for you<br />
real ale purists: is German keg beer real ale?<br />
Klosterbräu – Attractive riverside<br />
brewery here for over 450 years. The oldest<br />
in Bamberg.
Schlenkerla – Probably the most famous<br />
Rauchbier: Aecht Schlenkerla. The extensive<br />
bar with several panelled rooms and covered<br />
yards serves only one beer: it is black and it<br />
is very smoky. Served directly from wooden<br />
casks behind the bar, it’s a very special beer<br />
and special bar that encapsulates Bamberg<br />
and its deep beer traditions. If heaven forbid<br />
you want a different beer, you can buy the<br />
bottled helles. And yes, that is smoky too!<br />
I would definitely suggest a beer adventure<br />
in Bamberg with its great beers and great<br />
bars plus the added bonus that it’s actually a<br />
very attractive town. Bamberg is certainly up<br />
there in the top ten beer cities of the world.<br />
Russell Taylor<br />
XT Brewing Co<br />
Mine’s A <strong>Pint</strong><br />
29
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THE BACK OF BEYOND<br />
104–108 KINGS ROAD<br />
READING<br />
BERKSHIRE, RG1 3BY<br />
TEL: 0118 959 5906<br />
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22–24 PROSPECT STREET<br />
CAVERSHAM<br />
BERKSHIRE, RG4 8JG<br />
TEL: 0118 948 1078<br />
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99–105 FRIAR STREET<br />
READING<br />
BERKSHIRE, RG1 1EP<br />
TEL: 0118 958 2266<br />
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