Beer Duty Escalator Scrapped!
Hooray! We all won! It is great news that the beer duty escallator has been scrapped – this means less financial pressure on pubs and beer consumers. Read the full CAMRA HQ press release here: http://www.camra.org.uk/pressreleases
However, let us be realistic – don’t expect your local pub to be reducing their £3.50 pint to £3.49. Even if they do, briefly, it is a purely symbolic gesture. For a taste of reality here’s what Rob Scahill, landlord at the Orange Tree in Baldock (our 2013 Pub of the Year), has to say about pricing on the back of the budget news:
I have just spoken to the Greene King press office and asked for their position on when this reduction will be passed onto their tenanted pubs. We received notification of a 3.5% increase across the board effective from 4th March and I have still to implement this price rise, instead choosing to wait for this Budget to see how much more my total price increase should be.
Obviously now I am expecting a reduction from Greene King in their wholesale tied prices for beer, which I hope they will announce shortly. I therefore expect a price rise at The Orange Tree in the order of only 10p a pint – the first price increase here since July 2011.
For us drinkers today’s news represents a reduction in the increase of the price in a pint. That isn’t as jolly as we’d all like it to be – but it is a relief all the same.
2013 Hitchin Beer & Cider Festival – Dates & Venue
Brilliant news: THERE WILL BE ONE! CAMRA North Herts and the Hitchin Round Table are pleased to announce that the annual Hitchin Beer & Cider Festival will be held again this year and with a new partner: Hitchin Rugby Football Club (HRFC). The festival will be taking place this year at the later-than-usual dates of Thursday 6th, [...Read on]
Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival 2013
The Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival is fast approaching on the 11th-13th January – and the North Herts Branch annual social to this great event would be the held on the 12th (Saturday).
Stop Press…
Update for the annual Branch trip to the Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival 2013 and then GBG pubs in Ely, Cambridgeshire.
This[...Read on]
Save Your Pint – Mass Parliamentary Lobby Day! 12-12-12
Join us on the 12th December to lobby your MP and stop spiralling beer tax. Save your pint – stop the beer duty escalator! What: 100,000 signatures on the e-petition and a three-hour debate in Parliament, the mass lobby is now more important than ever to ensure Government stick to their commitments and review the damaging [...Read on]
Call for Community Pub of the Year 2013 Nominations
Know of a pub that supports their local community? Let us know As part of Community Pubs Month April 2013 we are seeking nominations for the 2013 North Herts. Community Pub of the year. These are pubs that support their local community through hosting sports clubs, supporting local charities, organising community events or just for being [...Read on]
Festival Worker’s Party Trip to “XT”
XT Brewing Company’s bright delivery van. The reward for our hard working Letchworth Beer Festival volunteers this year was a branch–sponsored trip to a new but extremely interesting brewery — XT. Twenty–two merry souls set off by coach on October 20 to the darkest remotest part of the vale of Aylesbury. Located on a [...Read on]
2012 Letchworth Beer & Cider Festival Report
More people, drinking less… We’re glad to report numbers well up on last year’s festival, well over 100 more people through the door, at a count of just over 1100 visitors. Interestingly our customers drank less beer to the tune of about a pint per head. So overall volume of beer sold was down, and cider [...Read on]
Letchworth 2012 – A festival of firsts
First of all, thanks to all the CAMRA volunteers for your time and The Green House for hosting the Letchworth Beer & Cider Festival.. There have been a number of ‘firsts’ on the 21st running of this festival, with the change of venue and the use of key kegs as notable examples. It has been [...Read on]
Nearly Upon Us! Letchworth Beer & Cider Festival
Wow, is that the date already? We have less than a week to go before Letchworth Beer & Cider festival kicks off. Next Thursday at 5PM we open the doors… and what an amazing list of beers, ciders, and perries we have for you to enjoy!
We have a lot[...Read on]
2012 Letchworth Beer & Cider Festival
Festival time is creeping upon us! Reserve September 20th, 21st, 22nd for the 2012 Letchworth Beer & Cider Festival – in a new venue for 2012: Letchworth Green House (just 200 yards/meters from the station). We’re building a great list of cask ales, real ciders, and foreign draught beers for your enjoyment at the festival. For further details [...Read on]

Branch Meeting
Hitchin Beer & Cider Festival
Social and N.Herts Pub of the year presentation
Cambridge Pub Ramble
