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2009 Events
2009 saw plenty of well-attended events culminating with the Christmas Party.
Christmas Party, Malt Shovel Ashby
Members enjoyed a festive evening involving a Christmas quiz, raffle, exchanging homebrew topped off with
the pub's Saturday live music slot.
Not to mention the Christmas caption competition: 'Just what had Chris suggested to Deb?'
Any ideas?
Many thanks to the Malt Shovel for hosting the party and providing an excellent range of beers and buffet.
Meet the Brewer, Blue Bell, Scunthorpe
The branch were pleased to support this event arranged by the Blue Bell and to meet Iain Kenny,
Brewer at Kelham Island Brewery, Sheffield.
Iain brought along some materials to explain the brewing process and was very helpful in answering
a variety of members' questions ranging from home brew to qualifications in brewing to hop-growing.
The Blue Bell had a selection of 3 Kelham Island beers on tap which went down very well and we
plan to contact Iain and organise a trip to the brewery in the new year.
Wakefield Beer Festival & Pub Crawl
Several members of the branch (some arriving slightly later than others!) enjoyed an excellent Saturday
out in Wakefield. Starting with the beer festival in the less than salubrious Lightwaves Leisure Centre
with its notable food selection there were, nether-the-less some good quality beers to beers to be had.
The festival was starting to run out, however, after proving extremely popular on Friday night and, after
our chairman yet again managed to bypass a certain red building, we moved on to some of the town centre pubs.
Fernandes Brewey Tap was as good as ever and we thoroughly enjoyed our first visit to its addition of a
European Beer Keller then finished off with a new pub,'The Hop'.
Autumn Pub of the Season, The Haven Inn
This award was presented to the Haven Inn, Barrow Haven on saturday 24th October
For further information see the Pub of the Season page
Gainsborough Beer Festival
Several members supported the 1st Gainsborough Beer and Folk festival held in mid October
Joint CAMRA & River Don Beer Festival
The branch undertook a joint weekend beer festival with the River Don tavern at Eastoft. There were a
selection of beers from Yorkshire breweries both inside the pub and on the CAMRA bar out back.
A variety of entertainment took place over the weekend including Irish and Rock bands and the weather was very kind
for the occasion.
Several members of the branch volunteered to staff the event or made the trip to Eastoft to show their support
although the jury is still out with regard to the new branch mascot.
Summer Pub of the Season Presentation
The Berkeley Hotel, Scunthorpe
Our Pub of the Season was recently presented to Shane & Theresa Hodkin at the Berkeley
Hotel, Scunthorpe although our member concerned didn't seem particularly keen to hand it over!
See the Pub of the Season page for further information.
Barton Line Rail Ale Trip
On a pleasant Saturday in August several members and friends set out to take in a tour of some of the pubs available
on the Barton-Cleethorpes Line courtesy of 'Rail Ale' compiled by the Friends of the
Barton Line.
Members from Scunthorpe, Barton and Grimsby met up at Cleeethorpes station with an excellent turnout of 17 taking
in the No2 Refreshment Rooms, Willy's Bar and the Nottingham before moving on to the Yarborough Hotel in Grimsby.
The group then travelled to more rural areas assessing the beer at the Haven Inn at Barrow Haven before making
the fnal leg of the journey to Barton and the Sloop Inn and finally the Wheatsheaf.
A very good day out was had with a large selection of beers ranging from Landlord, Tom Woods, Ruddles & Harvest Pale
amongst others to Willy's brews bottled Belgian beers and the occasional cider.
Sunfest, The Rising sun, Sheffield
This year saw the third annual Sunfest Beer Festival at the Rising Sun, the Abbeydale Brewery Tap, our
third much-enjoyed visit as a branch not to mention a long-awaited return of the 'Moonshine Boys!
The Rising sun is already well-endowed with beers with 6 Abbeydale beers always available plus
6 rotating guest ales. Sunfest added more than 50 guest ales to this tally, many from local breweries
plus a selection from small breweries around the country.
A splendid afternoon was enjoyed by all, especially, judging by from the photos, by our chairman.
Trent Bank Pub Bike Crawl
A group of would-be cyclists, joined by some far more professional friends from Grimsby CAMRA
took a tour from The Bird in the Barley, Messingham to several Trent Bank pubs and back such as
the Jenny Wren at Susworth stopping for lunch and a photo.
Sheffield Pub Crawl
An splendid Saturday in June was spent touring some of the many excellent Sheffield city pubs
such as the Fat Cat, the Kelham Island Brewery Tap, pictured below.
Rail & Ale
Barrow Hill Roundhouse at Staveley near Chesterfield hosted a well-organised event complete with a free shuttle
bus and a very good range of real ales, many from the surrounding area, plus cider & perry, fruit wines, and a great
selection of food.
The venue was excellent meaning that, even with the heavy showers, there was plenty of shelter to be had in the
roundhouse, plus outside tents not forgetting the steam train that ran trips along a short stretch of the line
for the duration of the day.
Mild in May
The branch supported CAMRA's 'Mild in May' campaign with a social event held at the Malt shovel, Ashby.
3 draft milds had been put on for the occasion with the landlord captured pulling one of these.
Doncaster Beerex
Doncaster CAMRA's 19th Beer Festival, held in the excellent venue of 'the Hub'at New Doncaster College,
was a very enjoyable event.
There was a good choice of cask ales, and, when these started to run out, we took full advantage of the
excellent selection bottled continental beers and lagers on offer (although our chairman failed to convince
any of us on the merits of the smoked beer!)
Should you be in any doubt as to how to enjoy a beer festival
some of our members kindly provided this step-by-step guide:
Spring Pub of the Season - The Bird in the Barley, Messingham
Winter and Spring Beer Festivals
The new year saw an abundance of beer festivals within easy reach of our area with branch members and friends
attending Derby, The National Winter ales Festival, Manchester and Oakwood Festival, Rotherham.
Derby Beer Festival 10th January
On a bitterly cold Saturday in January several of the Scunthorpe branch members set out via train to the
Derby "Not the Twelfth Night" Winter Ales beer festival held in the Assembly Rooms.
Instead if the usual "all beers displayed" setup , they had a limited number of ales for consumption at any one time,
only replacing a beer when one had run out. All beers were numbered 1-30 and you asked for the beer number
enabling the staff to find your beer very quickly! It also ensured there was plenty of choice at all parts of the day.
National Winter Ales Festival 2009
On Saturday 24th January we took a trip to Manchester arriving lunchtime met by long queue.
The layout had changed slightly from previous years, and although the festival was busy
it did seem to make for more space and ease of movement getting around and to the bars.
We sampled a splendid range or beers with the winter stouts and porters proving very popular with some of our members.
Beers were obviously selling out fast by the time we left around 6.00 with the organiser issuing an apology
after the event as almost 9000 had attended compared with 7000 the year before.
Oakwood Festival Rotherham
February saw us visit Rotherham Oakwood Real Ale and Music Festival on 19th February. The festival is very popular and we
were delighted to have enough interest from members for a Thursday evening to hire a minibus and experience the festival
and its vast range of beers on an evening reserved for CAMRA member and guest tickets only with its
full range of beers before the very busy sessions at the weekend.
The festival, held in a secondary school has a very interesting layout making use of the school hall and canteens,
a marquee on the yard and several classroom divided up according to area. After going our separate ways for most
of a very enjoyable evening we miraculously managed to meet up in the Lincolnshire bar at the end of the evening.
Pub of the Season Presentation - The Wheatsheaf,
Barton-upon-Humber,
There was a very good turnout from CAMRA members and regulars for the Pub of the Season presentation
on Saturday 7th February with photographers from the Scunthorpe Telegraph and Scoff Publishing ensuring
plenty of attention both inside and out.
Photograph copyright of Scoff Publishing.
A further article about the Wheatsheaf can be found at
Scoff Publishing
Click herefor previous events.
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