If you know of any others that people may be interested in, please let us know, at secretary@camranorthherts.org.uk

————————————————————  AUGUST ————————————————————

13 - 15  [ Fri - Sun ]  /  Wyboston Lakes  /  Beer Festival  /  www.wybostonlakes.co.uk

21 Sat / Bramfield Beer & Music Festival, Bramfield Village Hall Recreation Ground / www.bramfieldbeerfest.co.uk

27 – 30 [ Fri - Mon ] / Lytton Arms, Old Knebworth / Summer Beer Festival / www.lyttonarms.co.uk

27-30 [ Fri - Mon ] / Radcliffe Arms, Hitchin / Beer Festival / www.radcliffearms.com

————————————————————  SEPTEMBER ————————————————————

23 – 26 [ Thu - Sun ] / Red Lion, Great Offley / Beer Festival / www.redlionoffley.co.uk

24-26 [ Fri - Sun ] / Red Lion, Woolmer Green / Beer Festival /

————————————————————  OCTOBER ————————————————————

————————————————————  NOVEMBER ————————————————————

4 – 6   [ Thu - Sun ]  /  The Red Lion, Preston, nr Hitchin / Beer Festival /
beer list not known at this time  /  01462-459585.

• the accounts for last year were presented (but not yet audited)
• new auditors were appointed to complete the above, and for next year
• the committee was re-elected
• the Half Moon, Hitchin, was chosen as the North Hert’s Pub Of The Year

The North Herts CAMRA Committee is voted for at our Branch AGM in March each year.

The committee members for 2010-11 are:

• Colin Yates – Chair and Pints Of View Local Newsletter Coordinator
• Tony Driscoll – Secretary
• Jacqui Piper – Treasurer
• Malcolm Mills – Membership Secretary
• Andy Rawnsley - Pubs Officer and Festival Organiser
• Gill Richardson – Publicity Officer and Branch Contact and Auditor
• Ashleigh Milner – Social Secretary (contact for minibus trips, etc., via e-mail or on 07930-958548)
• Dan Hancu – Young Members Coordinator
• Richard Merritt – Public Affairs Officer
• Paul Breadsley – Herts Liaison Rep.
• Elaine LaRoche – Auditor

In particular, any general enquiries about, or comments on, the branch’s activities can be sent to the Branch Contact by clicking here.  If necessary, the Branch Contact will forward your query to an appropriate committee member.

• branch business
• branch beer festivals
• other branches’ beer festivals
• brewery visits
• pub visits

For dates and venues of all of our activities, see:

• this website’s Diary,
• the Diary section in What’s Brewing
• our Social Secretary’s monthly e-mail (sign-up for e-mails via CAMRA HQ or contact our Social Secretary)
• the Diary section of Pints Of View.

We want to see as many of you as possible at our events.  If we are holding an event near you, please feel free to come and meet us.  You don’t have to be a member, but we hope that if you like good beer you will decide to join.  Husbands, wives or other partners and friends are also welcome, even if they insist on drinking something unmentionable.  We are a friendly crew and you may afterwards decide that you could get more out of your CAMRA membership by joining in regularly.  We certainly hope so.

If you can’t make it to these events, feel free to suggest alternatives.

We conduct branch business once a month at a Branch Meeting or Committee Meeting.  We usually alternate the Branch and Committee Meeeting.  Branch Meeetings are of course open to all members.  Committee Meetings are aimed at committee members, but are also open to all members to attend; but only committee members can vote (if any voting is needed).  Of course, as well as doing the business, we also enjoy a few drinks in pleasant company.

We hold two Beer Festivals each year: Hitchin in March; and Letchworth in September.  At these, a team of hard-working members ensure that beer lovers can sample a wide range of beers, many not normally found in our area. More help is always welcome at these events; please contact the Festival Organiser to offer your services. You need to be a CAMRA member (or a Round Table member for the Hitchin festival) if you want to help, but if you are not already a CAMRA member we can sign you up on the spot!

Groups of us also support the festivals held by other branches.  For this purpose, we usually meet on the train (in the front carriage).  Friends and relations are welcome, but no children please, as they cannot be admitted to most festivals.

From time to time we visit breweries at which we see all stages of the brewing process and get to taste the final product. This is not just a fun activity; we also get to hear about the problems the brewers have to contend with, which can affect our campaigning activities profoundly.  Usually these trips are in conjunction with presenting the brewer with one of our Beer Of Festival awards.

We also try to visit as many pubs in our area as we can during the course of the year.  We do this mainly in two ways: Wednesday walks; and Saturday minibusses.

• Wednesday evening walks around town centres, visiting several pubs.  These walks start at 8pm in the first pub, and the number of pubs (usually four) is chosen to fill a reasonable evening walk for time and length, depending upon how spread out each town centre is.  Some towns require several visits to cover all the pubs.
• Saturday evening minibus trips to the rural pubs.  VISIT RURAL PUBS WITHOUT HAVING TO DRIVE!  These trips start at 7pm in the first pub, but minibus pick-ups start from 6:30 onwards in Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock.  A minibus trip costs £6 to members and £10 to non-member.  The number of seats on the minibus is limited, and so, places have to be booked in advance with the Social Secretary; I suggest, you book early.

We also meet more frequently on a purely socially basis.

Nationally, CAMRA runs many campaigns on all manner of beer-related issues, in addition to it’s stated aims as the UK beer consumer’s champion.

Locally, our three main tasks each year are:

• selecting the best pubs in North Herts for our part of the Good Beer Guide,
• selecting pubs for local awards and
• collecting local news for our part of the all-Hertfordshire newsletter, Pints of View.

Surveying pubs for possible inclusion in the Good Beer Guide is a grim business.  It tends to involve drinking rather a lot of beer; but the only way to judge beer quality is to drink the stuff.  Hopefully, most of it will be good, but there are always a few which don’t make the grade.  We try to spread the work among as many members as possible, and your help with this arduous task would be much appreciated.  All you need to do is record what you drink, when, where, and how good or bad it is on CAMRA’s 0-5 rating scale (the National Beer Scoring System).  You can enter them interactively on this website or send them to us in emails, on spreadsheets or on the back of fag packets.  If your favourite pub never gets into the GBG, you need to tell us how great it is.

We present the following local awards to the good pubs in our area, the recipients being decided by members at Branch Meetings, and we try to get as many members as possible to the actual presentations:

• Pub-of-the-Year (this one goes into the County competition, and may progress on to the Regional and National levels)
• Community Pub-of-the-Year
• Most Improved Pub-of-the-Year.

Every two months, we submit articles to the Pints Of View newsletter, covering branch activties, pub news, brewery news, events, awards, etc.  If you know of any beer related news, do let us know, so we can pass it on.  We also rely on members to distribute the newsletters to the pubs, and volunteers are always needed to complete our coverage of the branch area.  So if you can spare an evening or two every two months to visit some pubs take and them some newsletters, please let us know.

Perhaps the last at the Town Hall

Opening times

Friday 12th March, Noon to 11pm

Saturday 13th March, 11am to 11pm

Format:   Dates /  CAMRA Branch Name  /  Festival Name.

4-6 February 2010 / CAMRA Chelmsford & Mid-Essex / Chelmsford Winter Beer Festival

18-20 February 2010 / CAMRA South Bedfordshire / Luton Beer and Cider Festival

26-27 February 2010 / CAMRA all Essex branches / Chappel Winter Festival

12-13 March 2010 - CAMRA North Hertfordshire / Hitchin Beer and Cider Festival

18-20 March 2010 / CAMRA Huntingdonshire / ‘Booze on the Ouse’ St Neots Beer Festival

7-10 April 2010 / CAMRA Dengie Hundred / Maldon Beer Festival

21-24 April 2010 / CAMRA West Suffolk / East Anglian Beer Festival, Bury St Edmunds

29 Apr – 2 May 2010 / CAMRA NATIONAL / Reading Beer and Cider Festival, Reading

14-15 May 2010 /  CAMRA Ely & District  /  Elysian Beer Festival

24-29 May 2010 / CAMRA Cambridge & District / Cambridge Beer Festival

1-5 June 2010  /  CAMRA Colchester & North East Essex  /  Colchester Real Ale & Cider Festival

8-12 June 2010  /  CAMRA South West Essex  /  Thurrock Beer Festival

10-12 June 2010  /  CAMRA South Hertfordshire  /  Harpenden Beer Festival

10-12 June 2010 / CAMRA North West Essex / Braintree Real Ale Festival

11-13 June 2010  /  CAMRA “Essex Branches”  /  Chappel Cider Festival

17-19 June 2010  /  CAMRA North West Essex  /  Braintree Real Ale Festival

19-20 June 2010 / CAMRA Herts & Essex Borders / Beer In The Gibberd Garden, Harlow (Festival of Beer & Brewing)

1-4 July 2010  /  CAMRA Ipswich & East Suffolk  /  Stowmarket

13-17 July 2010  /  CAMRA Chelmsford & Mid Essex  /  Chelmsford Summer Beer Festival

29-31 July 2010 / CAMRA Herts & Essex Borders / Bishops Stortford Beer Festival

3-7 August 2010  /  CAMRA NATIONAL  /  Great British Beer Festival (GBBF)

24-28 August 2010  /  CAMRA Peterborough & District  /  Peterborough Beer Festival

25-28 August 2010  /  CAMRA Tendring  /  Clacton-on-Sea Real Ale & Cider Festival

7-11 September 2010  /  CAMRA “Essex Branches”  /  Chappel Beer Festival

16-18 September 2010  /  CAMRA Huntingdonshire  /  St Ives “Booze on the Ouse” Beer Festival

23-25 September 2010 / CAMRA North Hertfordshire / Letchworth Beer & Cider Festival

29 September – 2 October 2010  /  CAMRA South Hertfordshire  /  St Albans Beer Festival

6-9 October 2010  /  CAMRA Ipswich & East Suffolk  /  Ipswich Beer Festival

6-9 October 2010  /  CAMRA North Bedfordshire  /  Bedford Beer & Cider Festival

25-30 October 2010  /  CAMRA Norwich & Norfolk  /  Norwich Beer Festival

29-30 October 2010  /  CAMRA Herts & Essex Borders  /  HEBFest Beer Festival

CAMRA’s Hertfordshire branches have arranged a passport scheme covering 35 pubs in the county. Customers collect passport stamps in participating pubs each time they order a pint of real ale. When participants have visited 10 pubs and collected their individual stamps they will receive a free pass to a Hertfordshire beer festival of their choice. Their name will also be entered into a prize draw with 10 prizes – each winning 3 pints at the same beer festival.

Do you want to take part in our Pub Passport? Have a look it is here

It’s our 18th birthday!

 Logo created by UncutID (www.uncutid.com)

The Half Moon Hitchin, The Old Cross Tavern Hertford, The Land of Liberty Peace and Plenty Heronsgate and The Rising Sun High Wych.

Pickup at Letchworth Shell Garage 11:50, Half Moon Hitchin 12:00 and Our Mutual Friend Stevenage 12:30.

£6 Members, £10 Non-Members – To book call or text 07930 958548, giving Name and Contact Number.

Please note we do scrutinise the entries on the database, so don’t try entering a load of 5s for your favourite pub, or 0s for one you’ve been barred from.

We would welcome your regular input, to help ensure the very best local pubs make it into the 2006 Good Beer Guide.

Please click on this link to take you to our Beer Scoring Database.

Barley grain is started into germination by a maltster who then halts the process by roasting the just-sprouted grain in a kiln. The temperature at which it is roasted governs the type of malt which is produced – from pale malt at the lowest temperature right through to black malt at the highest.

Hot water – called “liquor” in the trade – is mixed with malt in a vessel called a “mash tun” in order to extract the sugar from the malt. The brewer determines the type of beer by choosing the mix of malts he puts in the mash. Water temperature and mashing time also affect the quantity and types of sugars extracted.

Inside the mash tun at Buntingford Brewery

Note the coloured bands from different malts.

When the mashing process is complete the liquid – now called “wort” – is drawn off from the spent malt, and placed into the “copper”. Nowadays usually made from stainless steel, the copper is where the wort is boiled for an hour or so, and where hops are added to the beer.

Wort run off into the underback at Buntingford Brewery

Here the wort leaves the Mash Tun under gravity into the small tub called an underback. The small green pump pumps it from here into the copper. Buntingford Brewery.

Again the quantity and type of hops used by the brewer have an enormous effect on the taste of the finished beer, along with when during the boil they are added. The boil sterilises the wort, the hops give taste and act as a preservative, and at the end of the boil the wort tastes something like beer. Next the wort is run through a heat exchanger to cool it down , and also to help warm up the liquor for the next brew.

Adding hops to the copper at Buntingford Brewery

Inside Buntingford's copper after the boil

The empty Copper after the boil. Note the hops at the bottom, and on the electric heating elements. The hops help to filter the wort as it leaves the copper, but somebody has to get in and clean them all out afterwards. Buntingford Brewery.

Once it has cooled sufficiently the wort is run into a fermenter where yeast is added. The yeast feeds on the sugars in the wort, converting them to alcohol, a process taking several days. During this time the yeast multiplies enormously, forming a thick yellow foam crust on top of the fermenter. This crust helps prevent bacteria and other nasties getting into the beer and spoiling it. Some of the yeast is kept for the next brew. Some breweries have yeasts which are hundreds of years old, which are carefully kept as they too add their own distinctive flavour to the beer.

Adding yeast to the wort in the fermenter at Buntingford Brewery

Healthy yeast krausen, Buntingford Brewery

Some days later and the yeast has multiplied to form a thick protective crust over the beer. The ball-shaped device is a sprinkler for cleaning the fermenter. Buntingford Brewery.

Once the original fermentation is complete the resulting ale is drawn off (or “racked”) into casks in which it is stored for a period to “condition”. In the cask the beer undergoes a secondary fermentation where the yeast in suspension consumes more of the sugars and carbon dioxide is produced as a by-product. This CO2 is what gives real ale it’s natural fizz.

After conditioning the beer is ready to serve, either direct from a tap inserted in the cask (“gravity dispense”) or via a handpump on the bar.

Different stages of wort from Buntingford Brewery

Stages in the Process. From right to left the straight glasses contain the wort as it leaves the mash tun at the beginning, middle and end of the run. Note how the colour lightens much as tea made from a used tea bag would. This liquid tastes a bit like Ovaltine. The pint pot contains wort from the copper after the boil. This has a bit of froth, and bitterness from the hops, is much clearer and tastes like beer. Buntingford Brewery’s Oatmeal Stout Christmas 2005.

Not Real Ale

Beer produced as described has only a short life, especially after the cask is tapped. This is a problem for pubs with a small turnover of beer because they may be left with several gallons in the cask which has “gone off” or even turned to vinegar.

The brewing industry has tried to counter this problem by filtering out any remaining yeast from the racked beer and then pasteurizing it, producing a lifeless, sterile fluid which nobody wants to drink. This is then dispensed in the pub using carbon dioxide or a mixture of gases under pressure. Part of the carbon dioxide dissolves in the liquid, while the pressure is also used to force the stuff up to a font on the bar, from which an artificially fizzy, brownish liquid gushes into the glass for the undiscerning customer to drink.

Not content with taking all the yeasty goodness out of the beer, some brewers further degrade it by the use of “adjuncts”, materials such as rice and sugar, which are cheaper than malt, produce alcohol when fermented, but either contribute nothing to flavour or, in some cases, actually degrade it.

The problem of flavour (or lack of it) is often overcome by serving the (alleged) beer at such a low temperature that the drinkers’ taste buds are paralysed and all they get is the alcohol.

Despite all this some people actually claim to prefer this kind of drink. That’s OK as far as we are concerned – we are in favour of choice – but we like to think that they know what they are drinking and what, in our opinion, they are missing.