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2011 Events
2011 saw a range of events, most old and well loved although some occasional new forays:
Christmas Party 2011
Another year of events culminated in festive fun at the Malt shovel including buffet, quiz, paper hats and a raffle
with prizes ranging from some very desirable beers and collectibles to some of the worst beer-related tat
we could barely give away.
Thanks go to Simon, Belinda and staff at the Malt Shovel for their hospitality and excellent festive beers.
York Pub Crawl
An excellent Saturday in December was spent round the central pubs of York enjoyed by a large group
of branch members plus friends from nearby branches. A huge range of ales were on offer and, despite all being
extremely busy, service in most pubs was excellent meaning we managed to fit a lot of good pubs in, despite these still
being only a fraction of what is on offer in the city.
One of the highlight was the new York Tap on the station which was, for many of us,
our first visit to this beautifully refurbished beer house.
We escaped the shoppers and the floods and a great day was had by all. Even Nick seemed to really enjoy himself despite our efforts to lose him ; )
Wakefield Beer Festival
A stalwart group made it to sample Wakefield's ales and pubs;
not to mention the award-winning pies that are always worth the trip.
We eventually all converged on Lightwaves Leisure centre after the less financially endowed of
the branch used all means, fair and foul, to make it the cheapest possible journey.
Beer of the Festival Presentation Trip
Millstone Brewery, Mossley
As a branch we were very keen to present the certificate for Beer of the Festival 2011
in person to the brewers of Millstone's True Grit so arranged a special visit
in November where they kindly opened the brewery on a Saturday for us to do this.
We were warmly received by Nick and John who explained the history of the brewery and
present-day operations to us and were very impressed by the number of awards they had
received and to find we were in good company as many of these, as ours, had been
awarded for True Grit.
After this visit we made the most of the return journey taking in many splendid pubs on the western
half of the Trans-Pennine Rail Trail such as the Stalybridge buffet bar below
that we had not reached during out branch trip in the summer.
Gainsborough Beer Festival
The branch were keen to support this local beer festival in the beautiful
setting of Gainsborough Old Hall with members visitng both during evening
sessions and on Saturday afternoon.
The festival featuted an excellent range of beers from the East Midlands
in an A-Z catalogue style.
Do not be taken in by the golden glow of sunlight, the venue was still
absolutely freezing although this didn't stop one of our number wearing shorts.
Pub Of the Season
Our Autumn Pub of the Season is Pooleys located on Messingham High Street. Originally
(and still during the day) a tea room Pooleys was licensed in December 2010,
and after numerous requests to open in the evening,
they finally did so in April 2011 and have gone from strength to strength.
The award was presented on Tuesday 18 October.
Please visit the Pub of the Season page for more information.
14th Scunthorpe and District
Beer Festival
The beer voted 'Beer of the Festival' was Millstone Brewery's 'True Grit'
with a presentation visit on Saturday 29th October.
A sample of beer festival photos and for more please visit the Festival Gallery.
We were very pleased to receive many positive comments at the event and a special thank you
to the following who also took the time to contact us after the event:
"Mark, I just want to congratulate you and your team for running a splendid festival.
I've been disappointed by "small" events in the past because the beer choice can be very limited.
However, I finally decided to attend because I followed the music link on your website and
discovered Chris James's brilliant guitar work. I must say that the festival exceeded all
expectations - a varied selection of beer in perfect condition, an excellent venue with plenty
of comfortable seating, delicious pie and peas, a lovely, friendly crowd of people
(which I should have expected having worked in the town in the 1980's),
an incentive to drink dark beer (which I prefer anyway so no persuasion was required),
first class digs (Normanby Guesthouse) and the opportunity to visit friends in the area.
Please pass my thanks and best wishes to all concerned. I hope I'll be able to attend again in the
future and even have a two night stay! Regards..."
Tony Laverick, Fenland CAMRA.
"Mark ... Good to hear positive comments, we had an enjoyable evening & endorse Tony's comments,
good varied choice and all in fine form, l hope that attendance was up on last year & the
finances will be positive. Regards..."
Steve High, Scunthorpe & District CAMRA
"Sarah, just a note to thank you and the rest of the members of Scunthorpe CAMRA for putting on
such a great Beer Festival and especially for making me feel so welcome. It was really enjoyable
to finally talk to people with the same passion for real ale and with very little persuasion by
yourself have subsequently (and not before time) joined CAMRA. I'll keep an eye out for upcoming
events and work commitments permitting will hope to attend some of these in the future.
"Cheers" and again many thanks."
Pete Hawley, new CAMRA member
"Hi Mark ... Quick note to say well done on another excellent Beer Festival!
I hope it was a success and the 2012 Festival is already in the pipeline!
Barrie tells me that the Beer of the Festival was "True Grit" that was one of my favourites
along with Blue Monkey. Anyway, well done to everyone involved and here's to next years!!"
Keith Dixon, Scunthorpe CAMRA.
"Hi Mark ... By chance the beer of the festival was the one I chose to carry out as by 4.30
Tabatha was knackered!. Enjoyed being a sponsor and hope to do it again next year.
As a season ticket holder at Barnsley FC if you could get Barnsley Bitter that would be great .
Or Old Tom......... Thank you for another great Festival."
Barrie Kay, Scunthorpe CAMRA
Many thanks to our sponsors and to neighbouring branches for their support in lending equipment and to members who attended.
If you have any photos you would be happy for us to put
on the website please email them to the
Social Secretary
Thank you to the Scunthorpe Telegraph
report promoting the event.
Hull Centre Pub Crawl
Some branch members and friends cheered up a wet August Bank Holiday Saturday taking in some very enjoyable ales and City centre pubs in Hull
including those pictured below which are Ye olde Black Boy and the Hop & Vine.
Great British Beer Festival 2011
Several branch members visited this year's GBBF, the last to be held at Earls Court for drinking,
volunteering or a combination of both.
Please use the link on the right to the British Beer Blog for a very interesting and infomative
video account of the event.
Pub of the Season Summer 2011, The Chancel Bottesford
The presentation was made to the Landlord, Mike Hubbard, on July 26th.
Please visit the Pub of the Season page for more information.
Sunfest 2011
Sunfest at the Abbeydale Brewery Tap, the Rising Sun, in Sheffield has become a favourite relaxing
summer event for a branch outing since it began a few years ago.
Starting at the Sheffield Tap on the station before the bus ride to the pub put us in the mood as did
the good weather, smells of the pub barbecue, traditionl sword dancing and brass band not to mention
the over 100 beers on offer.
West Yorkshire Rail Ale Trail
Following in the footsteps of 'Oz and James'
and many who had staggered after them, a bumper
branch crowd took on the West Yorkshire Rail Ale trail in June.
There are many options for the trail but we took in the nearby station pubs in Leeds, Huddersfield, Mirfield and finished up in the
West Riding Refreshment Rooms in Dewsbury making the most of their Midsummer Beer Festival.
And it is with great pride we can announce everyone was on time, with the correct tickets, made every train, lost nobody,
made it through the day together and intact and had a splendid time!
Pub of the Season Spring 2011
The George Hogg, winterton
A very pleasant evening of very good food, beer and pub quiz was enjoyed by several members at the evening presentation at the George Hogg.
For more information visit the Pub of the Season page.
Mild Social, Blue Bell, Scunthorpe
CAMRA designate May as Mild month
and the branch were hugely grateful to the Blue Bell, Scunthorpe in their support of an event to celebrate this.
The choices of mild on offer were excellent both in variety and quality and branch members would like to
extend their appreciation to manager, Paul Ferguson, seen collecting a 'Mild in May' award from the branch chairman.
Mini Beer Festival, Nelthorpe Arms, South Ferriby
Several members and friends showed their support for local village pubs putting on events such as this.
Doncaster Beer Festival
We had a very enjoyable afternoon at Doncaster taking in the festival and the local pubs we could
remember how to find after our previous vist.
Toad Brewery, Doncaster
Toad brewery has been open for about a year, being the first central Doncaster brewery for over 20 years
and is housed in a spacious industrial unit on Stadium Way.
We enjoyed a tour, explanation of the brewing process and the history of the brewery to date plus sampling.
The beers on offer were of good quality and very enjoyable:
Tadpole, a session bitter at 3.8% being one of the core brews,
MIB: Malted in Black, the brewery's first stout and Zigger Zagger brewed for and named by Doncaster Rovers fans
available exclusively at the Brewery Bar which is open whenever Doncaster have a home game,
conveniently situated just around the corner from the stadium.
On returning to Doncaster town centre we made a quick lunch stop before settling in at the
Cask Corner
with a large selection of real ales, hand pulled real ciders and a vast bottled beer list
followed by a selection of quality real ale pubs to finish off the afternoon.
Many thanks to Toad Brewery and Doncaster CAMRA representatives for a very enjoyable day.
www.toadbrewery.co.uk
Pub of the Season Winter 2011
The Dying Gladiator, Brigg
This uniquely named, attractive, community pub has come back from the brink in
recent times. Once boarded up for over two years, it was bought
by local farmer Robert Borrill, and in 2010 was leased by first-time
licensee Peter Carter, who runs the Gladiator helped by wife Vida
and son Stuart.
We congratulate Peter and family on this award, presented on Saturday 12 February at 12.30 pm.
Photo coutesy of Nigel Fisher
For more information visit the Pub of the Season page.
National Winter Ales Festival, Manchester
Several members travelled to Manchester to sample the many winter beers on offer.
At the festival we met up with members from Doncaster CAMRA with whom we went on a tour
of some of the excellent Real Ale pubs in Manchester afterwards, particular favourites being the Marble Arch
where we raved about the Chocolate Marble, 5.5% then sampled the excellent selection at the very friendly
Angel nearby.
The festival was, assuredly, more atmospheric than this photo may suggest.
Christmas Party 2010
We rounded off last year with our Christmas party. This was held at the Malt Shovel, Ashby, where some excellent
festive ales were to be had such as
Abbeydale Winter (5.2% ABV), Dr Morton's Reindeer Repellent (4.2%) and Black Mass (6.66%)
along with the usual quality selection.
The event involved a cornucopia of festive fun including quiz, raffle, buffet, Christmas jumpers:
Not to mention a particularly underhand cracker hat battle amongst some of our more devious of members.
Click herefor previous events.
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