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Colchester and North East Essex Branch of CAMRA
and Suffolk Branches of Camra
- Re-launch 31/10/98
08/02/99
- Contact Mike@rusty56.freeserve.co.uk
- if you have any information or comments.
Many thanks to Viv Marsh for ensuring the transplant to PC from Acorn worked!Look out for a major change soon!
- Also to Richard Cooper for a lot of help not yet in the page and for uploading and minding the page at present.
- This credit list could get very long with my capacity to make mistakes!09/02/99
I forgot to mention Gylesharvey@home .support all the time!
- REALE ALE GUIDE AND PUB covering the North East Essex and Suffolk Borders
Sales have at last slowed right down. As every bought book is a little profit now the team is quite happy to have a break.Thanks to Last Orders and OTT we are still sending the odd copy out mail order. After GBG surveying we intend to check up on the few remaining SOR copies.And by that time it will be Bury and Colchester beer festivals and sales will pick up again.
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9TH. ESSEX BEER GUIDE
was published in late '98. It is the definitive guide of Essex pubs and charts the history of real ale in pubs over the last six years. It is very much a labour of love and Alan Barker must be congratulated for sticking to his guns and producing the most up to date guide possible. There are some 400 pubs fewer than in the 1992 edition and that should be a cause for concern. Its format is based on that year's guide and it stresses the continuity that large county pub guides need. The Guide will be available at all beer festivals in East Anglia. Its RRP is 4 pounds 95pence. It can also be purchased mail order for 5 pounds 50 pence which includes post and package from Sally Murray, 4, Brookside Cottages, Runwell Rd., Wickford, Essex, SS11 7PN.
- COLCHESTER BRANCH MEETINGS 1999
- Thursday 11th. February 8.30 p.m. Bricklayers, Colchester
- Beer Festival Committee Sunday February 28th. Noon at the Bricklayers, Colchester
- TENDRING activities 1999.
- May first five days annual cider festival at the Railway Tavern, Brightlingsea
- Spring Bank Holiday Weekend - Hog Roast and Beer Festival at Ye Olde Cherry Tree, Little Oakley,
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- BEER FESTIVALS this year well there are no more for 1998!
- however for me there remains one photo which sums up the fun had at the Clacton on Sea festival - the friendly and fun festival - and here it is with no apologies for failing to reduce it to its smallest posssible k;- David and Robert, our favourite Ipswich supporters, enjoying themselves at a festival where there was time and room for everyone!
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- BEER FESTIVALS 1999
- Colchester Real Ale and Cider Festival 1999 - note new dates
- Tuesday 18th. May until Friday 21st. May
- There will be an extension for Friday night and a band.
- Tuesday 4 - 6 p.m. By invitation only.
- Tuesday 6 - 11.00p.m. Entrance free to all. Music a possibility.
- Wednesday 11.45 - 6.30 admission free to all
- Wednesday 6.30 - 11.00 entrance £1 but free to card carrying CAMRA members. Quiet evening.
- Thursday 11.45 - 6.30 admission free to all
- Thursday 6.30 - 11.00 p.m. entrance £1 but free to CAMRA members. Quiet evening
- Friday 11.45 - 6.30 admission free to all
- Friday 6.30 - 12.00 midnight admission £4 but free to CAMRA members.
- Music by the ARTFUL DODGER . Friday night is party night. It is not a quiet night!
- Look out for some examples of local brewed wine - if we can arrange it
- There will be at least 25 foreign beers and 80 British beers.
All of the above is subject to approval of the budget. Confucius say , "All CAMRA members should enjoy the anxious wait for the return of one budget!"
- Thurrock Beer Festival 8th.- 12th.June
- Clacton - on - Sea Beer Festival 26th. - 29th. August . Local band the Red Hot Radiators will be performing on the Saturday night. The budget remains a nightmare.
Beer festivals - major update next week.
- BEER FESTIVAL REPORTS 1999
- My camera was not at hand when Trevor, Gill and I visited the Harlow Beer Festival on the 29th. January. Having negotioated the notorious Harlow roundabouts we were pleasantly surprised to find a warm, comfortable and modern venue for the second Harlow beerfest. The various roadworks were , of course, meant to confuse us if not put us off the scent. Inside were some excellent beers none more so than Skinners from Truro in Cornwall. The atmosphere was amiable and despite the distance we had travelled there were a few Harlowites who remembered us from Clacton and elsewhere. Good to see the heavily cloned Graham working hard. Nice to see Brendan in what might be his Swan(ley) song as beer manager at a beer fest.
- BEER TRIPS 1999
- Not too surprisingly the trip to Prague looks to be fully booked! However Simon has a number of other beer trips throughout the year. Venues include Lille Flandres - March, Holland - July, Belgian Ardennes - August, Brussels - September, the ever popular Antwerp Beer Festival in November, Holland and the Bok Bier Festival - December??,
- and Brugges and Ostend in December. For more information ring Simon on 01502 589403 or email beertram@aol.com
- Flandres and Lille:- three days and two nights 13th. until 15th. March - £138 per person.
- all prices are based on two people travelling together and exclude insurance
- HOLIDAY BEER REPORT
- This is a new feature. If you have been on holiday anywhere in the world and have discovered real cask ale or bottle conditioned ale then let me know. A picture for scanning would be greatly appreciated but I can always raid the archives of the the travel agents!
AND
MOUNT TEIDE DORMANT VOLCANO
TENERIFE - winter sunshine guaranteed and a San Miguel in every bar. The dolphins and Mt. Teide are a bonus, of course. The pickpockets are incompentent. Not much chance of real ale I thought but in the north at Puerto de la Cruz I spied the Apricot Bar just down from the main square towards the seafront. A board advertised Franzikaner weissbier and Gill and I enjoyed the said beer and the refusal of the smiling waitress to roll the bottle before serving.
Back in Los Christianos we found Urdinger weissbier - but not as good as Franzikaner. This was in a German Bar. There were lots of bars for the homesick. Only the British bars guaranteed the real thing selling boddies gold. In a week we found four bars with bca. There were many bars we did not get near and many - using the theory for life in the universe other than our own - some must have bca especially the German bars which attract pyromaniacs. San Miguel was ok as was the local brew Dorada.
Better than ok was Philippa from England who had a ready wit and that ever present smile which makes for an A1 waitress. I hope your Spanish is coming on ok , Philippa, and here's your picture on the web - as promised. Philippa works in the Cutty Sark on the top tier of bars as you walk along the seafront from Los Christianos to las Americas but it is not a britbar.
Further along the same tier of bars was a Brit bar shutting up on Sunday afternoon because business was as bad as in Brid.
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SUFFOLK NEWS
IPSWICH AND EAST SUFFOLK
Wednesday - 17th. February - Branch Meeting Dales PH - 8.30 p.m.
contact Mike Herbert on 01473 462387(eve) 01473 745151 (day)
WEST SUFFOLK
contact Chris Curtis on 01842 860063 (eve)
NORTH EAST WAVENEY DISTRICT SUB-BRANCH
contact Mike Davey on 01502 730747
Horse and Groom , Wivenhoe, has been awarded a Cask Marque. So too have Anne and Rob at the Dragoon. Needless to say the Crown ,Manningtree has a Cask Marque and an award for Regional Caterer of the Year.Congrats. to all three!!
Barrel Push from Crown Manningtree to Walton raised £950 for charity.Terrific stuff and the money is to go to the ITU at Colchester Hospital.
Tap and Spile reverts to its former name The Hospital Arms and is now an Adnams pub.Cheers all round. Fred of Bricklayers and Dragoon is in charge and good reports have been heard very quickly.
Cordy's of Clacton will not become a Hungry Horse under Greene King ownership. There appears to be little hurry in turning it into a pub cum eatery. It would appear that there still some hitches and that the delay is because of these. Who would want to open a pub in the middle of winter anyway?Given Wetherspoon's record in Clacton it should be very popular!
Wooden Fender, Ardleigh, has changed hands. Previous owner was a CAMRA member.
Expect to hear good news on the.....................................top secret.
Chelmsford Branch organised a very unusual beer trip to Colchester and Wivenhoe recently. A dozen Colchester members tagged along. A number of haunted pubs were visited and the lurid details of the haunting revealed by what seemed a very Irish accent and a very tongue in cheek delivery. So now I know why some pubs are so cold. However, the authenticity of the stories was confirmed when it was revealed that Livingston and .......... actually met on the quay at Wivenhoe. This was true because Livingston is always with the Colchester branch as its mascot and so confirmed the veracity of the story. Great trip, Podge, thanks for inviting us along.
A few days before 13 members of the Colchester Branch set out for Groton, Suffolk, and Castling Heath Cidery. The trip was organised by Jimbo but most of us got home. There was a raw nip in the air and very quickly the non cider drinkers were converted by John's organic brews. An outdoor cidery also explained the frequent outdoor visits to bushes. 13 is an unlucky number and inevitably there were casualties. Four were sent home including the organiser of the trip, Jimbo! Meeting up with a Hunt did not bring out the best in people. The fox was certainly more likely to escape without harm than pro hunters on the coach. Quote of the night in the Adnams Lord Nelson:- "We don't sell extra here, sir," standing in front of a cask marked Extra.Yes, we were abandoned in Ipswich by our coach which had been double booked.
Look out for exciting Derek Selby competition in the next edition of Last Orders.And nobody claimed the wonderful prize! You have one more chance in the next issue of Last Orders. If noone identifies the print then I shall be compelled to return the liberated plastic glass to Derek, writer to What's Brewing, with a pint of fluid in. There will be no competition to suggest what that fluid should be. This is a family web page.
Matchbox at Toosey sold for £250K. Changed hands in February 1998 for £160K. Kate is the new owner and Terri is again the cellar person.Kate has just said that she still sees no reason to change the name back to the White Hart.
It's all right , Nigel, you are welcome to borrow snaps from this page for Last Orders any time!
contact mike@rusty56.freeserve.co.uk
OTHER CAMRA PAGES TO VISIT
Harlow Beer Festival Web Page;- http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~southcott-B/harlow99.html
Chesterfield Beer Festival:- http://members.aol.com/Chfld-camra/
Bristol Beer Festival:- http://www.compulink.co.uk/~pigtail/bristolcamra/
Chelmsford and Mid Essex:- http://homepages.enterprise.net/briandebenham/camra.html
Pigs Ear:- www.pigsear.org.uk
CAMRA homepage:- http://www.camra.org.uk
and if your page is not here you can email me with the details.
USEFUL E-MAIL NUMBERS OF BRANCH OFFICIALS
Mark can fill you in more fully on Suffolk affairs so too can Nigel Smith on
I hope to improve on both e-mail addresses and branch pages in the update which follows! I was hoping to put a piccy of Nigel on by his address but he is asleep in every one I have taken! But you are welcome to add yours to the page or to email me