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Beer & Pub News Round-Up
A tiny brew pub in the Swansea Valley has won the title of Champion Beer of Wales for the second year running. The Bryncelyn Brewery, based at the Wern Fawr pub in Ystalyfera beat off stiff competition from the likes of Brains and Felinfoel to win the title with their 4.5% golden ale Oh Boy.
The competition, held at the Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival, City Hall, Cardiff, is the highpoint of the calendar for all Welsh breweries. "All the brewers want to win this award", said James Daley, CAMRA Regional Director for South & Mid-Wales, "Well done to Will & Rob at the Wern Fawr pub for winning the title for a second year. It just goes to show that you don't have to be big to win awards."
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If you enjoy a good pub crawl, then CAMRA has a book just right for you. "Fifty More Great Pub Crawls", edited by Barrie Pepper, has a range of different types of crawls, not only walking ones but also trams, buses and even a water taxi. And it even includes routes in Amsterdam, Brussels and Prague.
Each crawl has been selected not only for the pubs and their beer quality but for other places of interest including castles, churches, museums and even breweries. The book includes easy to use maps and details on public transport, accommodation and history and architecture as well of course on the pubs and the beers available.
The book is available at £7.99 from book shops or from www.camra.org.uk (+ £1 p&p) or buy one at the forthcoming London Beer & Cider Festival (subject to availability).
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The 2004 Brewing Industry International Awards will, for the first time, hold the judging for four of the categories in London. The four predominantly draught categories will remain in Burton on Trent in March whilst the bottles and cans will be judged at the Commonwealth Conference & Events Centre in Kensington in April. The Awards are very much the industry awards and are judged by professional brewers as (to quote the magazine the World of Beer) "an outstanding commercial example of its style". These awards are very different from CAMRA's awards, which are very much more biased towards the moreishness and drinkability of the beer.
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Brakspear are continuing their recent tradition by announcing their 2004 seasonal beers, starting off with the golden coloured, Brass Monkey (4.0%). March will see Three Sheets, described as an Indian Pale Ale at 4.6% followed by Bee Sting (with wheat and honey) in May and June. Hooray Henry 4.5%) returns for July and August before going into the stronger Leaf Fall (5.1%). The winter brews are richer with Fire Dog (4.4%) and O Be Joyful finishing the year in November and December respectively. Nothing like setting your calendar by the beer!
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Independent British brewers are fighting back and have been for some time. Kent's Shepherd Neame Brewery saw sales rise by 20%, as did Greene King's Abbot Ale, and both of London's family brewers (Fuller's and Young's) saw sales rise. What's more there is an under reporting of real ale sales thanks to the hundreds and hundreds of micro brewers and home brew pubs, according to Martin Information. Martin Cornell from Martin Information reported that the number of cask ale outlets was increasing. Also, an independent statistical company CGA shows that cask real ale sales are around 5 million barrels a year and that cask ale is more than 20% of the total on-trade beer sales making it the second biggest category after the heavily advertised lagers.
Christine Cryne
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Latest figures from the British Beer and Pub Association for 2002 showed increasing consumption per head of beer in the UK (100.6 litres per head compared to 99.0 in 2001). This is a reversal on the trend, which had showed a decline in beer sales but on the surface the bad news is that lager consumption is taking sales away from bitter, stout and mild. Further investigation seem to point to a very mixed bag, particularly when it comes to real ale. The main reason for the decline seems to be the reluctance of the four major brewers Coors, Carlsberg-Tetley, Interbrew and Scottish Courage to support cask beer production. All four of these brewers have major lager brands that they generally seem more keen on promoting than traditional British beer.
Did you know that Coors own Carling, Interbrew own Stella Artois and Scottish Courage own Kronenbourg? A fight for the world domination in the lager market perhaps where Britain, as the fifth biggest beer drinker per head of population, is a key market? The only beers that seem to have any major support are Scottish Courage's John Smiths and Carlsberg Tetley's Tetley but the smooth flow nitrokeg versions – not the real versions.
The results of a survey covered in the February page of Coors' calendar reinforces that the way to a man's heart is through the beer glass. 53% of British men admit to feeling more excited about beer than Valentine's Day. So perhaps Valentine's Day is still a day of love – but perhaps not quite the sort of love we thought!
John Cryne
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 24.
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