Summer 2015 Issue 26 |www.soxoncamra.org.uk

Your FREE guide to real ale and pubs in South Oxfordshire

Maris Otter barley • Cuban beer revolution Ale drinking in Acton • Local and national news

Also Inside:

Woodcote Rally Beer Festival11th - 12th July

Published every threemonths by the SouthOxfordshire branch ofthe Campaign for RealAle © CAMRA 2015SoxonAle is producedand distributed by

members of the branch in their own time. Views expressed in SoxonAle are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher orof CAMRA.

Edited by:Paul DixonEmail: contact@soxoncamra.org.uk.

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Got a short pint? If you believe that you have been treated unfairly in a pub, club or bar, you should contact the Trading Standards service by writing to them at Oxfordshire Trading Standards, Graham Hill House, Electric Avenue, Ferry Hinksey Rd, Oxford OX2 0BYor call them on 0845 051 0845.

A wide range of consumer information andadvice is also available online from the Consumer Direct website at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk

LOCAL NEWS

The annual Woodcote Rally is fast approaching. It’s been going nowfor over 50 years and as usual willfeature steam traction engines, vintage cars, static displays and allmanner of sideshows. For most ofthat time your South OxfordshireBranch of CAMRA has operatedthe beer tent. Well over £400k hasbeen raised for charities, and theSOX beer tent is one of the main

contributors. As ever, we’ve ordered a great range of beers(many from local brewers but with a good sprinkling of othersfrom further away), local ciders plus lager and wine. Our volunteer staff look forward to welcoming thirsty rally-goersagain. The beer menu is included in the centre pages of thismagazine.

The Rally runs over the weekend of the 11th and 12th of July.See www.woodcoterally.org.uk for details of all the events.

Pub news in South Oxfordshire features the some long-running stories and a couple of newcomers ....

Cray’s Pond, near Woodcote, has been without its pub sinceAugust 2013 when Greene King sold the White Lion througha London commercial property agent. The new owner startedto develop the pub into a dwelling without first bothering toobtain planning permission. Many local made representationsto the planning authorities contesting the owner’s justificationand the adverse effect his actions are having on the local community. SODC received 60 written objections to SouthOxfordshire District Council and a 400+ signature petition.

The community’s fight to win back the White Lion is now entering the final stages. In July 2014, SODC served an enforcement notice on the owner which he subsequently appealed against and the enforcement is now on hold. His appeal was due to be held in January 2015 but, because of thelarge amount of local interest, the Planning Inspector decidedto change the type of appeal to a Public Hearing. For supportersof the pub it’s a chance to voice opinion and save the WhiteLion. The Public Hearing will be held at 10am on the 16th June

3Continued on page 4

CAMRA, the Campaign forReal Ale is an independent,voluntary organisation campaigning for real ale,community pubs and consumer rights.

Miller of Mansfield artwork to follow

But on a brighter note, Didcot’s Wheatsheaf inthe Wantage Road has finished its refit and islooking pretty good. The outside has been fresh-ened up, and the inside has been completely redesigned and a new kitchen added. Of particular interest is a large colour mural expressing the town’s long connection with therailways. What hasn’t changed is the wide andvarying selection of ales.

A planning application has been submitted to change part of the White Hart Hotel, Dorch-ester, into private dwellings. This will mean that the original 1591 White Hart Inn, whichwas the coaching inn, would be converted from hotel space and become a private housealong with two other Grade II listed three-bedroom houses on that side of the plot. Thebar in the old White Hart Inn part of the business was closed some years ago and changedinto a meeting room, the bar being moved into what was an adjacent bakers shop. This barwill continue to operate, along with the restaurant behind the bar and a downsized 11 bedhotel with "boutique" bedrooms. Further, the project proposes three new-build terracedhouses in the car park. Parking is bad enough in Dorchester already!

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in the Fountain Conference Centre, Howbery Business Park in Crowmarsh Gifford, OX10 8BA. This is after SoxonAle goes to print, so we will report the outcome inthe September issue.

The Half Moon, Cuxham, was closed by Brakspear nine months ago. The villagers succeeded in having it declared an Asset of Community Value (ACV) which gave them abreathing-space of six months to raise the money and buy it as a community pub. As it turnedout, they were unable to raise enough funds within the time allowed. But on the plus-side,Brakspear has accepted an offer from an individual who, it is believed, intends to reopen itand run it as a pub.

After being successful for many years the Crown, South Moreton, went through a bad patchwith frequent changes of tenant and intermittent closure. A period of stability followed andthings started to look up, though it wasn’t helped by the extended closure of Fulscot Bridgewhich carries one of the main roads into the village. It’s recently been taken on by Jane andMike Binyon. In 1996 Jane and Mike trained with Gibbs Mew and had their first pub withthem. (Gibbs Mew was absorbed into the Marston group around 2000.) They then had apub with Ushers. (Ushers went the same route as Gibbs Mew!). After that they joined Wadworth and had the Prince of Wales in Shrivenham from 2000 to 2010. During that timethey were in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide for eight years and also won the branch Pub ofthe Year award. Following a spell in a GBG free-house near Dorking they’re back in a Wadworth pub. They aim to keep the Crown traditional, with good value and good qualityhomemade food. Regular events include a weekly Wednesday quiz, two darts teams, AuntSally, monthly live music and food nights.

But the news is less promising for another Crown, this one in Didcot. A planning applicationhas been submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council for its demolition and replacementwith five terraced houses plus another detached one. It has to be said that the Crown is(was?) an unremarkable estate pub dating from the mid-50s. It was wet-sales only whichfor a pub in this situation can be a challenge these days. It’s not been helped by the fact thatthere appears to have been little or no attempt to maintain it, so inevitably it’s becomepretty shabby and run down. The viability assessment submitted in support of the planningapplication indicates that the Crown barely made any money in its last year of trading.There’s little evidence of any local opposition to the planning application – just a couplecomments from people who are concerned about car parking arrangements with the additional houses.

At the time of writing the Wallingford Arms, also in Didcot, has been shut for some weeksand may be yet another candidate for closure. On one hand it could be argued that thiswouldn’t matter because, again, it has been allowed to become pretty scruffy. But, as wenoted in the last SoxonAle, the pub situation in Didcot is becoming increasingly dire. It hasonly 5% of South Oxfordshire’s pubs but 20% of the population: a figure due to increaseto 25% within a few years.

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Local News - continuedLocal News - continued

Continued on page 6

Still in Henley, Brakspear is supporting Henley in Bloom for asecond year with its seasonal ale Blooming Marvellous, whichwill be available in its pubs from 1st June. For every pint of the4.3% ABV golden ale sold during June, Brakspear will donate20p to the campaign. With input from the Henley in Bloomcommittee, Blooming Marvellous was first brewed last yearat Brakspear’s Bell Street Brewery. Light and refreshing, it proved a popular drink in pub gardens and at the end of thesummer Brakspear donated £800 to Henley in Bloom.

In something of a coup, Richard Benyon MP chose WestBerkshire Brewery’sMister Chubbs to be the week’s guestale in the Stranger’s Bar in the House of Commons. SOX inhabitants will be familiar with this ale, since it can be frequently found in our area. WestBerks was also official ale supplier to this year’s PGA Championship at Wentworth, supplyingtheir Saazbrucker Pilsner and flagship ale Good Old Boy. West Berks ales will also be availableat an even more prestigious event in July: namely, the SOX beer tent at the Woodcote Rally.

West Berks continues its programme of special beers:June Yaffle (4.1% ABV). Pale in colour with afull hop flavour. The yaffle or green wood-pecker can be seen and frequently heard in theBerkshire woodlands - first brewed in 2005.

July/Aug Double Decadence (4.5%ABV): acask special to mark West Berks’ 20th anniver-sary, also in bottle.

Sept/Oct Blindside Flanker (4.3%ABV):brewed for the forthcoming Rugby WorldCup.

Forthcoming brewery tours are on: 27th June, 11th July and 25thJuly. And you might like to know that the brewery shop (just outside Yattendon) is now open from 9-5, Monday to Saturday.

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Local News - continued

The second Henley Club to Pub Swim is taking place on Saturday 25 July and brewerand pub operator Brakspear is helping to recruit swimmers by covering the entry costfor its licensees and by providing a bottle ofcommemorative Two Bells beer for all whocomplete the 1.5 km course. Two Bells, a3.7% ABV golden ale specially brewed byBrakspear to mark the event, is also beingmade available in cask this year and will be onsale in Henley’s pubs at the time of theswim.Brakspear is once again providing allswimmers with a bottle of the commemora-tive Two Bells beer and putting on a barbecueand party at the Angel on the Bridge for allwho finish the course and their supporters.

This year’s swim will follow the same courseas in 2014, with competitors swimming upstream from Henley Rowing Club to MarshLock and then down to the Angel on theBridge. Swimmers will start on the 7pmchime of St. Mary the Virgin church, with theaim of finishing before the bells ring at 8pm.To enter visit www.brakspear.co.uk/swim

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Local News - continued

The SOX Branch holds a meeting on the first Wednesday of each month and a socialevening on the third Thursday. We vary the venues to cover as much of the Branch’s(quite extensive) territory. For news and events take a look at the Branch website:www.soxoncamra.org.uk. Alternatively email us at contact@soxoncamra.org.uk.

Serving fine ales and home cooked food

for 250 years.

The ArgyllPub & Kitchen

Come and visit our famous pubwhere two episodes of the tv series‘Midsomer Murders’ have been

filmed. Join our friendly locals for adrink or enjoy a fantastic meal.

On offer is top quality home cookedfood, including fillet, rib eye and

sirloin steaks, old English sausage andmash along with homemade

vegetarian options, sea bass, salmonand traditional fish and chips.

Sunday roasts are a specialty.

The Argyll Public House 15 Market Place, Henley-on-Thames, RG9 2AA.

For bookings call: 01491 573 400www.theargyllhenley.co.uk The Argyll Pub & Kitchen

For the third Budget in a row the tax on beer has been cut by a penny a pint. The cut follows ex-tensive CAMRA campaigning to highlight the positive impact of Chancellor George Osborne’sfirst two penny-off-a-pint cuts and, more importantly, axing the Beer Duty Escalator. The lasttwo cuts have already had a huge impact, saving more than 1,000 pubs from closure and keepingthe price of a pub pint down. Independent research forecasts the price of a pub pint will now bemore than 20p cheaper than it would have been had the duty escalator remained in place. Thechancellor announced some good news for cider and perry drinkers too, cutting the excise dutyby 2%.

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill has been passed, which makes law the intro-duction of a pubs code and adjudicator. From next year, tied tenants with companies owning morethan 500 pubs will have the choice of a market rent only (MRO) option. So, tenants of large pubcoswill have the right, at review or renewal, to request an independent assessment of their rent andopt to pay that. (The reforms do not mean the end of the beer tie.) The new law will also allowtenants to buy beer on the open market, saving about 60p a pint. The reforms will be phased inover five years alongside rent reviews and lease renewals or after significant price rises and willtake into account competition in the local market.

Pubs in England listed as Assets of Community Value (ACV) have greater protection after newrules came in to force on 6th April. The change comes after extensive CAMRA campaigning,which included 4,000 members lobbying their MPs. The amendments to permitted developmentrules aim to ensure pubs listed as ACVs cannot be demolished or converted to retail and otheruses without planning permission. The changes will enable local authorities to assess planningapplications against national and local policies. This should go some way to stem the flow of pubslost to conversion to convenience stores. Although CAMRA hoped to see permitted developmentrights removed from all public houses, the changes will substantially increase protection to pubs.It gives local authorities the ability to reference adopted policies which will lead to informed anddemocratic decision making.

The changes can be summarised as follows:Pubs listed as ACVs will require planning permission to change their use or be demolished.

This includes pubs already listed as ACVs.

In addition to this planning permission will be required to change the use or demolish a pubfrom the point of nomination. CAMRA requested this to be included in the amendments and theGovernment obliged.

Planning permission will be required for change of use and or demolition for the period thatthe pub is listed which is five years from the date of listing.

As part of the changes, pub owners and developers will be required to ascertain whether pubsnot on the asset list have actually been nominated. This must be done formally in writing.

The local authority has 56 days to confirm whether the pub is listed or nominated. This meansthat the owner cannot change use or demolish a pub lawfully within the prescribed 56 day period.

NATIONAL NEWS

Continued on page 12

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West Berks Breweryartwork to follow

Wainwright and Lancaster Bomber, as well as mostof the firm’s 150-strong team of sales, marketingand distribution staff. Some brewing will be re-tained in Blackburn on the company’s Crafty Danmicrobrewing plant, which was installed in 2011.Marston’s has been brewing most of Thwaitesbeers since early last year and will continue to con-tract brew some of the Thwaites beers it didn’tbuy. In 2013, Thwaites announced the closure ofits 200-year-old main brewery in Blackburn, sayingit planned to relocate the brewery. However theplans to move looked doomed when a deal to redevelop the Blackburn site as a Sainsbury’sshopping development foundered.

And now an advert.Many of us enjoy a dayout in the Capital exploring the excellentpubs and drinking opportunities. In fact inthis very magazinethere’s an articlerecording (yet another)SOX expedition aroundthere, this time aroundActon. An invaluableaid to these jaunts isthe ‘CAMRA Guide toLondon’s Best Beer,Pubs and Bars’ by Des

de Moor, the 2nd edition of which will be availableby the time you read this. This presents the essen-tial guide to beer drinking in London. Completelyrevised for 2015, it’s is packed with detailed mapsand easy-to-use listings. Features tell you moreabout London's rich history of brewing and thecity's vibrant modern brewing scene, where well-known brands rub shoulders with tiny micro-breweries and brewery numbers havequintupled in the last four years.

Order it from CAMRA at www.camra.org.uk/shopat £12.99, or the CAMRA members’ price of£10.99.

National News - continued

Extra government money has been announced for schemes to support community ownership of pubs. Already, more than £50m has been invested by communities in the past year,and the government estimates this year will see 150 new community-owned enterprises, includingpubs. Now, up to £200,000 is being made available from the Community Shares Unit (CSU) forgroups trying to buy a pub or other building listed as an ACV. The CSU supports groups to use community shares as a way of financing projects such as the takeover ofpubs, with more than £50 million raised over the past three years. In addition, a further £100,000has been given to the Pub is The Hub, which is helping landlords diversify and provide essential services for their local communities such as village shops and post offices. Andany group which has successfully nominated a pub as an ACV can apply to the Department forCommunities and Local Government for a certificate to display in the listed pub.

It was widely reported at the time, but bears repeating. In early April the owners of a historicLondon pub, the Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale, demolished it without planning permission. Theyhave since been ordered to rebuild it, brick by brick. The council issued an unprecedented en-forcement notice that the pub is to be ‘recreate in facsimile the building as it stood immediatelyprior to its demolition’. The owners, Tel Aviv-based developers CLTX Ltd, ordered bulldozers in to reduce the early 1920s building to rubble earlier this month after staffwere told to stay at home - for a stock inventory! It is thought this is the first instance of a localcouncil ordering a building be reconstructed from the ground up.

More than 200 years brewing in Blackburn is to end since Daniel Thwaites has sold its beer busi-ness to Marston in a cash deal worth more than £25m. The deal includes two ales,

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National News - continued

131212

Woodcote Rally Beer List

There was a lot of work to do to re-establish the purity of the strain and the process of “re-selection” played a crucial role. It involved manually picking out the purest stock andusing it to start a new breeding cycle.

H Banham has continued to follow the practice, using a secret field in the wilds of NorthNorfolk dedicated to maintaining the integrity of the variety. They regularly take a 30 m2

patch of special ‘mother’ field and go through it manually, checking each and every ear ofbarley. Anything that isn’t a perfect specimen of Maris Otter is discarded. The remainingflawless grain from that patch is harvested separately and used to reseed the mother field.Within seven years the majority of the Maris Otter grown in Britain will have originatedfrom this secret plot.

H Banham Ltd is a well-established, family-run agricultural merchant business based inHempton just outside Fakenham. From its beginnings as a smallholding raising pigs and poultry in the late 19th century, the business has developed and grown and has been tradinggrain since the 1960s. http://www.h-banham.co.uk/

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Maris Otter 50

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Despite reaching 50 and being the bestknown barley malt, Maris Otter remainsa specialist variety. It makes up less than6% of the barley used to create brewingmalts. There are now more than 1,400breweries in Britain and three new onesare opening each week. Consequently,interest in ingredients is increasing andthe demand for quality malt and hop varieties is growing rapidly.

Malting is the process by which cereal grain (usually, but not always, barley) is processed. Itinvolves partially germinating the grain so that it is ready to convert its starches into sugarduring the brewing process which can then be used by the yeast to produce alcohol.

Bottled ale sales are increasing at around 10% a year and premium cask sales by around4% - with specialist beers even going up even faster. In the ten years to 2003 an average of25,000 tonnes a year of Maris Otter barley was bought by maltsters, whereas in the 10 yearsto 2013 this had grown to 34,500 tonnes a year. That’s an increase of nearly 40%. Maris Otter is now exported to over 20 countries worldwide.

Maris Otter is a low-nitrogen winter barley (sown in the autumn and harvested a few weeksbefore the spring varieties), cross-bred from Proctor and Pioneer in 1965 by the PlantBreeding Institute in Cambridge. Its popularity grew quickly and it dominated the marketthroughout the 1970s. However, by the late 80s it had fallen out of favour with many of thelarger breweries and in 1989 was taken off the National Institute of Agricultural Botany(NIAB) recommended list.

Despite the snub and the fall in volumes, a number of brewers remained loyal to the breed.They said the malt it produced performed excellently in the mash tun, and the resultingbeers had a depth of flavour unmatched by those made with other malts. This commitmentfrom a small group of brewers encouraged grain merchants H Banham and Robin Appel intheir quest to save the variety. Between them, in 1992, the merchants bought the rights toit and they are still the sole owners.

MarisOtterBarley

Happy 50th

Birthday!

Bearartwork to follow

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The Red Lion [W5 5RA]. This is a Good Beer Guide accredited Fullers tied house opposite the Ealing FilmStudios. Originally, Ealing Studios had five stages and thepub was nicknamed ‘Stage 6’. So not surprisingly the wallsare covered with black and white photos of mainly Britishscreen stars of yesteryear who have appeared in Ealingfilms. Going round trying to recognise them makes foran interesting impromptu pub quiz. The beers are fromthe Fullers range, with a guest. So whereas it’s not amust-see pub, it is a very good one and worth visiting ifyou’re in the area. www.redlionealing.co.uk

An indirect walk back towards the station took us to the Sir Michael Balcon [W5 3TJ].This is a Wetherspoon pub and another Good Beer Guide entry. The cinema connection ismaintained since it’s named after a famous Ealing Studios producer and his life and workfeature on the pub walls. Unexpectedly, there are also references to Blondin the tightropewalker - famous for walking over the Niagara Falls and who died in Ealing in less spectacularcircumstances. Our visit coincided with Spoon’s two-week spring beer festival. This onefeatured a number of ales from overseas that had been brewed in the UK just for this event.

The results were mixed. Hightail Ale (4.5%ABV), originally from the Australian breweryMountain Goat and brewed over here by Hook Norton, was ok but pretty bland really. Onthe other hand, Adnam had brewed Californian Breakfast Ale (4.8%ABV) from the US breweryGolden Road and this was stunningly horrible. In a blind tasting you’d think someone hademptied an ashtray into a glass of cold water. Fortunately it wasn’t me that bought it. www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-sir-michael-balcon

A short bus ride to Acton High Street took us toanother Spoons, the Red Lion & Pineapple [W39BP]. This is a large pub on a busy corner. Spoon’sbeer festival was in full swing here too. Decidingto steer clear of copies of foreign beers, I triedWindsor & Eton’s Zinzan’s Drop (4%ABV) ablack bitter with better results. As a point of in-terest, there’s a plaque let into the pavementnear the pub announcing that Waite, Rose & Tay-lor opened the first Waitrose there in 1904. It’scurrently the Babylon Pizza. www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-red-lion-pineapple

A short walk took us to what proved to be the main event: the Aeronaut [W3 9BH]. Thisis an astonishing pub which has to be seen to be believed. An imposing former Truman Handbury & Buxton house, it’s now the home of the Laine Brewery and sells a selection ofpub-brewed and Brighton-brewed beers. The brewery is situated right behind the bar andcan easily be seen. Where to start .... Well, Louis Bleriot was the first chap to fly the channelin an aeroplane and a large model of his monoplane is attached to the ceiling in the bar. The

large adjacent functions room features regular circuses, in addition to more mainstream fare suchas stand-up comedy. The circus theme is main-tained in the large patio garden with tableshoused in brightly painted covered booths labelled ‘shooting gallery’ and the like. Back insideyou can amuse yourselves by photographing eachother with your head poking through pictures ofan astronaut or a dancing girl. The beers are goodtoo: the in-house porter at 4.7%ABV was superb. On top of this you can have an excellentburger for £5! It hardly needs stating, but this is

also in the Good Beer Guide.www.aeronaut.pub

Reluctantly leaving the Aeronaut, a few metres walk along the High Street took

Ale drinking in Acton

Ale-Drinking In Acton

Continued on page 19

Aeronaut front and garden

George and Dragon - W3 9DJ

Another edition of SoxonAle, and another pubcrawl around London. Well, when you liveless than an hour from the greatest city in theworld with its almost limitless opportunitiesfor visiting interesting pubs and sampling newand exciting ales the temptation is hard to re-sist. And generally we don’t try. SOX veteranbeer-hound Roy Denison designed anothercrawl, again in an area that is away from themore well-trodden parts of central London.As in previous trips it made good use of theOne-Day Travelcard to go by train, tube andbus. This one started in Ealing, progressedthrough Acton then and ended in ShepherdsBush. So one chilly day in March we caughtthe train to Ealing Broadway from where it’sa short walk to...

us to the George & Dragon [W3 9DJ]. This is an 18th century pub, now a free house andhome of the Dragonfly Brewery. The modestly-sized, though attractive frontage hides thefact that the pub goes back a long way to the huge bar area at the back, dominated by the10-barrel plant. The brewing kit looks very impressive with brightly polished copper andstainless steel. But away from the bar you’re back in the 1700s with low ceilings and darkwood panelling. Three home brewed beers are on handpump and other ‘craft’ beers are

available on keg together with an unusualcider. Laine’s Dark Matter (4.3%ABV) wasvery good indeed. This is a fantastic pub andwell worth making the effort to visit. Butwith the Aeronaut just down the road, thepeople of Acton are really being spoiled.http://dragonflybrewery.co.uk

The 207 bus took us to the final destinationin Shepherd Bush Market: the Defector’sWeld [W12 8AA]. This is a large busy pub,also in the Good Beer Guide, with mainlyguest beers including Truman's Runner, Old

Dairy and others. Less mind-blowing than the previous two, but a good bet if you’re in thearea and for us a suitable jumping-off spot for the journey home. www.defectors-weld.com

Paul Dixon

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Ale drinking in Acton - continued

The Crown Inn, Pishill is a 15th century former CoachingInn & thatched Barn (near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire)ideal for Weddings and Wedding receptions.

Situated close to the magnificent parkland of Stonor House,in the heart of the Chilterns, people come from near-and-farto enjoy dinner, a light lunch, or just a finely kept pint of beer.

With log fires in the winter and the picturesque beer garden inthe summer, The Crown Inn is a welcoming English countrypub for all seasons.

Food ServiceLunch: 12pm to 2:30pm Wed - Sat, 12pm to 3pm Sun and12pm to 2:30pm on Bank Holidays. Dinner: 6.30pm to 9pmWed & Thurs and 6:30pm to 9:30pm Fri & Sat.

All our dishes are home-made and cooked fresh using localproduce where possible.

The Crown Inn, Pishill, Henley-On-Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 6HHFor reservations and enquiries please call 01491 638364

www.thecrowninnpishill.co.uk

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bands. The weekend is a whirlwind of activity and I set up the temporary brewery in one ofthe outbuildings in the walled garden, next to the racks of barrels.

I learned five things during the festival:Always have a wingman. Not only do you have to brew, but we had crowds of people

asking great questions and taking a general interest in what we were doing. We also hadsome free beer samples as part of my market research into what drinkers like in a beer.

Always print more T-shirts. This was a first attempt at producing merchandise which wasdecent quality and fun for the event.

Smell, touch and taste. Clearly one of the aims of the demo was to promote ale but whatreally hit home was the fact that people loved the aromas of the barley while it was steepingand then the various hops as the sweet wort was boiled. We also had boxes of malt andhops out for people to roll in their hands and really experience the difference in flavoursavailable.

Be prepared for people’s opinion, whether you want it or not. I had some great conver-sations and feedback throughout the two days. Nothing quite prepares you for the ale enthusiast telling you what he or she thinks of your beer! But for one stag party who tastedmy Purdy Peculiar dark bitter (4.3%ABV) I had great satisfaction from the comment ‘I don’tdrink dark beers…. [glug, glug] … ohh that’s nice isn’t it?’

If you like beer festivals and want to try to sample the main event then wait until youhave finished your own brewing. Fortunately with all the help I had from friends and familywe got all the work done.

After an exhausting but cracking weekend we plan to do more of this: just because it’s fun!

Jim SoutheyLovebeer Brewery

Live Brewing

The world of microbrewing is a popular one atthe moment and for those of us that love beerit’s a great opportunity to taste a wide varietyof ales. I started my microbrewery, Lovebeer,as a hobby and now produce up to three 9-gal-lon firkins a week which I sell directly to pubs,or take to festivals. Brewing is enjoyable andcan be very rewarding, but little did I know itwas about to become even more fun.

Brewing is a simple process that has beenaround for thousands of years, and the basis ofany decent beer remains: water, yeast, barleyand hops. The secret is all in the variations tothe brew process and now we have a widerrange of ingredients available than ever before.For instance, my Dr Roo pale ale (3.7%ABV)uses English malted barley but English, American and New Zealand hops.

The Plum Pudding beer festival is only in its second year but is already well known and pop-ular with over 18 ales, a BBQ and several live

If you love beer...It’s always amazing to hear the new ideas that come out during conversation over apint of beer in a pub: even more so when the idea comes to fruition. So it was duringa cold winter’s day in front of the fire at the Plum Pudding when landlord Jez Hill andI agreed that the pub’s next beer festival would include a live brewing demonstration.

Broadwayartwork to follow

Most people associate Cuba with rum and enormous cigars, not beer. But we can report thatHavana now has its very own microbrewery – the Factoria Plaza Vieja. It operates out of a veryhandsome building, in the Spanish colonial style, in one corner of the eponymous square, thePlaza Vieja. The beers are brewed in a handsomecopper plant behind the bar.

The brewery produces three beers though,sadly, they are in the ‘craft’ (well, keg) style. Theyare cloudy (presumably intentionally) and desig-nated ‘light’, ‘dark’ and ‘black’. To be honest,there’s not a massive difference in flavour between the three, but they are a pretty reasonabledrop and very welcome in Havana’s heat. Forthe record, the most common beer in Cuba is apretty average lager called Crystal. Slightly lesscommon, but better, is the stronger Bucanero.

Our Man in Havana also reports that:The average number of legs per Cuban seemssomewhat less than most other places.

The state of the roads is not much worse thanwe have to put up with in South Oxfordshire.

Unlike South Oxfordshire, there’s hardly anyrubbish strewn along the roads.

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The Microbrewery Revolution Breaks Out In Cuba

Traditional Family Run Village PubFour Cask Marque Beers

Award Winning Restaurant7 Station Road, Lower Shiplake,

Henley on Thames, Oxon. RG9 3NYTel: 01189 403332

enquiries@thebaskerville.com www.thebaskerville.com