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| If you are interested in Real Ale and live in the north of Cumbria then this site is for you. Our area stretches from the border with Scotland, on the west coast, east to the border with Northumberland, taking in Alston, Nenthead and Garrigill. South through Melmerby, Ousby, Culgaith to Penrith. West along the A66 to Mungrisedale then north west through the Caldbeck fells, including Hesket Newmarket, Caldbeck, Uldale and Ireby before going out onto the Solway plain and Abbeytown and Silloth following the coast east to Bowness and eventually Carlisle, our main membership base. SOLWAY BEER FESTIVAL - 23 - 25 October 2008. Cumbria Ballroom, Lakes Court Hotel, Carlisle. At leat 20 Real Ales, mostly from Cumbrian breweries and local cider as well. Tickets on sale at The Kings Head, Fisher Street from September. Meetings are held on the last Monday of the month, usually in a pub in Carlisle, starting at 8.00 pm. All members are invited to attend. Next meeting. Monday 29 Sept. Woodrow Wilson, Botchergate, Carlisle. Socials are held on a regular basis and a minibus is usually used to get us out of town to places that are either hard to get to or have no public transport. Last social: Friday 1 Aug. Pub of the Season presentation at The Bridge Inn, Penton. We visited the Robin Hood, Smithfield which had SIX beers on offer!!! Then a quick pint of Yates at The Graham Arms, Longtown before going to Penton. An excellent night was had by all. Next social: Friday 29 Aug. By minibus to Alston. Non stop as there are now so many outlets to visit we have decided to start and finish in the excellent Cumberland Inn. | ||||||
| WHAT IS REAL ALE? Real Ale is a type of beer defined by its traditional production. Also known as "cask conditioned" beer; the fundamental distinction between real and other ales is that the yeast is still present in the container from which the beer is served, although it will have settled to the bottom and is not poured into the glass. Because the yeast is still alive, the process of fermentation continues in the cask or bottle on the way to the consumer ensuring a fresh and natural taste. WHAT WE DO! The Branch has about 150 members with the majority in the Carlisle area. We agree Aims and Objectives each year at our Annual General Meeting which is held in June. During the course of the year we hold regular meetings and socials. The latter are used to either survey pubs or are tied into our regular presentations. We present a Pub of the Season (POTS) each quarter and also a Pub of the Year (POTY). The winner of our POTY goes forward to compete against three other winners in the county, one each from Furness, Westmorland and West Cumbria branches. The successfull winner then goes head to head with the Lancashire winner to become the West Pennines POTY, making it one of the top 16 pubs in the whole of the country! At the present time our branch has over 150 Real Ale outlets. We maintain a data base listing them all. This has been used to help produce the Cumbria Real Ale Guide (CRAG). A pocket sized guide listing all the known Real Ale outlets in the whole of Cumbria which was published by the Cumbrian Branches in 2005. A NEW edition was published in February 2008 during Cummunity Pubs week. Cost is £4.95. Check out the following web site for further details. www.cumbriacamra.org.uk It was also used to help with the production of a free leaflet entitled 'Ale Trails' which has further details of the 20+ breweries to be found in the county! Each year we are responsible for recommending pubs for inclusion in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, published each September. Members have to first draw up a list of possible pubs and then visit them, sample the beer (somebody has to do it!) and write a description. During the course of a couple of meetings the list is gradually reduced until we reach our quota before final submission. WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU? If you like Real Ale and would like to socialise with other like minded people then this is for you. You can be involved as little or as much as you wnat. If you come a cross a pub that has just introduced Real Ale, one that has changed the beers on offer, or worse still, no longer serving Ale then let us know either by coming to one of our meetings or sending an e-mail to our web master. If you want to be more involved then come to a meeting and drink Real Ale and talk about it, what your local is like, find out how to go about surveying pubs for both the POTS as well as GBG. We do have a committee with members taking on resposbility for various roles including Pub & Brewery Liaison, Press and several others! We have in the past organsised successful beer festivals in Carlisle and may do another if enough volunteers come forward! Could you be one? OUR BREWERIES The number of breweries in our area has more than doubled in number in the last couple of years! Until recently we just had Hesket Newmarket. This has been joined by Derwent, based in Silloth when we re-organised the branch boundaries and at the end of November 2006 our newest Brewery, Geltsdale, based in Brampton went into production with members being invited to visit and sample the first three brews completed. During 2008 brewery visits are planned to Hesket Newmarket, Derwent and Yates, located at Westnewton near Aspatria. Actual dates and times still need to be confirmed. We are aware of another possible new Brewery in Corby Bridge but at the present time building work has not started! If you know of any more please tell us. In addition we also have two 'Cider' producers, Cock Robin Cider, based in Abbeytown. Robin collects and presses his own apples for cider and pears to produce perry. Solway Cider is also based in Abbeytown. Garry moved his presses in 2008, and are fully installed in Abbeytown giving a truely locally produced product. Future plans include making his own 'Perry' from locally grown pears! Page updated 27 August 2008 | |||||||
| Solway CAMRA Carlisle Cumbria Email:webmaster@solwaycamra.org.uk Copyright © Solway CAMRA 2008 | |||||||
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