There is a whole 5 weeks to wait until the Hitchin Beer & Cider festival — what to do in the meantime? Well all year round you can get great cask ale in excellent North Herts pubs — especially at their own independent beer festivals! The Our Mutual Friend in Stevenage, a Good Beer Guide regular and repeat winner of our Pub of the Year award, will be holding their Winter Beer Festival from the 2nd to the 5th of February — i.e. starting Thursday this week!

The festival will feature around 20 cask ales as well as 15 ciders and perries from a variety of local producers. Although, cider & perry lovers should note that more than 10 ciders and perries is business-as-usual at the Mutual.

The OMF is a 30 minute walk from Stevenage rail station, or a quick and convenient bus or taxi ride. There is a taxi rank just outside the station, and you’ll find most of the busses by crossing the bridge over the main road and heading to the right once you reach ground level. Use the www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk website to find yourself an appropriate transport option. The map below shows the location of the pub.

Remember: support our local pubs!

Hitchin 2012 Beer & Cider Festival

Not long to go now!

Mark March 9th and 10th on your calendars for the Hitchin Beer & Cider festival. Held jointly by North Hertfordshire CAMRA and the Hitchin Round Table at the Town Hall. (Maybe for the last time – yes, we keep saying that. We expect that eventually they’ll get their act together and make the town hall unusable to us as promised.)

We’re still working on the beer list – so if you have any suggestions let us know via a comment here on this post, or to @nh_camra on Twitter, or using an email to: editor@camranorthherts.co.uk.

More details on the Fesival Page – including the beer list when it is finalised!

We also need volunteers to help out at the festival. To volunteer you need to be a CAMRA or Round Table member. Volunteers get a discounted beer price, a t-shirt, and a festival glass! To volunteer email Paul Beardsley on: socialsecretary@camranorthherts.org.uk

"Diablo is our flagship IPA, loaded with US hop varieties, dominated by the 'Citra' variety. Huge tropical flavours & aromas punctuate, mango, lychee, and papaya fruits abound, with notes of resinous pine leading to a lasting bitterness. A devilishly good IPA."

By popular vote, the beer of the festival at Letchworth was Summer Wine Brewery Diablo – a strong & hoppy IPA, a style becoming increasingly popular (other well-known examples include: Thornbridge Jaipur IPA and BrewDog Punk IPA.) Summer Wine Brewery are quite new to the UK brewing scene, though already very well known amongst beer twitterers and bloggers.  They are also no stranger to controversy when it comes to CAMRA, as one of a new wave of breweries that are pushing the boundaries of the beer world they probably often find themselves in the firing line of the occaisional cask ale traditionalist.  There is a famous (in online beer circles) “altercation” with one Kevin, documented on their blog here: CAMRA – The Campaign for Real Alienation.  It makes for amusing reading, so long as you’re not too sensitive – it is worth reflecting on.

If you use Twitter you can follow SWB: @SWBrewery

I was a little worried that the brewery would simply refuse to accept the award, to make a point of some sort.  Luckily it seems that our two members, who headed up north back in November to present the certificate, weren’t put through the malt-mill never to be seen again, nor immediately ejected from the brewery.  The text below is their presentation report.

Regular readers may remember that Summer Wine Brewery’s Diablo IPA 6% was voted the Beer of the Festival at Letchworth in September. North Herts branch policy is to visit en masse, drink free beer at the brewery and then decamp to nearby recommended boozers to get stuck in to plenty more. Sounds good eh? Well this time it didn’t go quite to plan. Summer Wine are going through a never-ending growth in demand for their beers and couldn’t find time to accommodate us. However, a trip to the Yorkshire Motherland gave two of us an opportunity to sneak up while they weren’t looking and thrust the certificate into the Head Brewer’s hands. This was the brewery’s first ever BOF win so it was well received.

Head Brewer James Farran (left) is delighted to receive the certificate from some grinning idiot (right).

While there we had the 50p tour. Current production is on a six barrel plant which will be replaced with something much bigger sometime this year when suitable premises to put it in can be found. Most of the beer is bottled, some is cask and gasp some gets put into kegs… Bottles are now available to buy online if you’re interested. Summer Wine beers are not your typical brown Yorkshire Bitter; most have very complex malt recipes and more hops than you can shake a stick at. The bottles we took away with us were certainly an interesting bunch.

Afterwards we traditionally decamped to the nearby Nook in Holmfirth (round the back of Sid’s Café in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’) which also has a brewery in the back yard, and we got an impromptu tour of that too when we were caught pressing our faces to the windows for a better look. Two breweries in a day, can’t be bad!

Words: Graham Perry, Photo: Helen Perry

Whittlesea Straw Bear

As promised, here are the final details and the itinerary for the annual visit of the ‘North Herts Branch’ to the ‘Straw Bear Festival’ at Whittlesea on Saturday 14 January 2012.

Though you can obviously make your own way there, a group from the branch plans to meet up at certain train stations (and the more the merrier!) We always meet in the front carriage, so that we know who is going. The current plan is as follows: trains from Knebworth; 0838, change at Hitchin or Stevenage, Stevenage; 0847, Hitchin 0852, (arrive Peterborough at 0937), Peterborough 0955 and arrive at Whittlesea at 1003. This way, there is plenty of time to get to the town for the parade itself.

The parade itself consists of many, many Morris Dancing and Sword Dancing teams from all over Britain. They dance and sing at various venues in the streets and pubs. A program is available, (for a small donation), which shows who is where and when and what they are doing. In addition and the main reason for going is the ‘pubs’. There are three in the 2012 GBG, the Boat, George Hotel and the Letter B, along with quite a few other ones worth a visit.

We are planning to leave Whittlesea on the 1553, which arrives in Ely at 1622 and gives us just over three hours to visit the three pubs there; the Prince Albert, (then maybe Fish & Chips), Townhouse Pub and West End House, (then Tesco’s for a last minute snack!). We then get to the station to catch the 2005 back to Hitchin, arriving at 2059 and then train continues and stops at Stevenage and Knebworth.

It’s a great day out and over the years that we have been going, many of us have enjoyed the dancing and drinking. Why not join us this year; you will be made very welcome.

For the impatient, you can get hold of the newsletter as an Adobe PDF document via the South Herts CAMRA website: Pints of View

For the even more impatient, here is a direct link to the PDF file.

December Events

While I’m at it, here’s a reminder about events we have on this December:

Wed 7th Dec 8pm: Pub Ramble in Baldock: White Hart, Cock, Victoria, Orange Tree, Engine.

Sat 10th Dec 6.30pm: Minibus Trip to Graveley & Lt Wymondley: Highwayman, George & Dragon, Wagon & Horses, Plume Of Feathers, Buck’s Head (pickups from 6.00pm onwards in Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth + Baldock, £6 members, £10 non-members, contact Paul Beardsley to book using: socialsecretary@camranorthherts.org.uk)

Friday 16th Dec 8pm: Pub Ramble in Hitchin: Half Moon, Sun Runner, Victoria and Nightingale.

Monday 19th Dec 8pm: Branch Meeting: Red Lion, Preston.

• Polhill Arms Beer & Bangers Festival, Renhold, Bedfordshire: Thursday 10th to Sunday 13th November
• Canary Club Winter Beer Festival, Hitchin Town Football Club: Friday 18th to Sunday 20th November
• Orange Tree Winter Beer Festival, Baldock: Thursday 22nd December to Monday 2nd January 2012

If you know any more local festivals, please feel free to tell us: email, comment on this post or tweet us a message on @nh_camra

Whittlesea Straw Bear 2012

When I saw the words “Straw Bear Festival” I must admit that I first thought it was a typo – too much ‘beer’ finding it’s way in my thinking perhaps? Actually, the North Herts Branch has been going to Whittlesea for many years – this year the Branch outing will be on Saturday 14 January 2012 that will coincide with the Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, followed by visits to Good Beer Guide Pubs in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Though you can obviously make your own way there, a group from the branch plan to meet up at certain train stations (and the more the merrier!) The current plan is as follows: trains from Knebworth; 0838, change at Hitchin or Stevenage, Stevenage; 0847, Hitchin 0852, Peterborough 0955 and arrive at Whittlesea at 1003. This way, there is plenty of time to get to the town for the parade itself.

The Ely-southward journey from Whittlesea is planned to depart around 1600 and go to Ely to visit the GBG Pubs; leaving Ely around 2000 ensures that the group will arrive at Hitchin around 2100.

There will be more details nearer the time (especially with new train timetables), from Social Secretary – stay tuned for further updates!

A 'Straw Bear' in 1909 - nothing says 'traditional' like a someone dressed for the amusement of others. All in good fun, of course!

Good Beer Guide 2012: it's out now, but we need your votes from this year if you want to include your favourite pubs for _next_ year!

You may be a firm supporter of your favourite pub, as a regular and a CAMRA member, but do you know why we ask you to score your beer? For those unaware, it reveals to the rest of the branch if our pubs have been putting the care and effort in serving beer by keeping them in tip-top shape (note that 0 is a ‘no ale’ and 1 is ‘undrinkable’ while 5 is ‘Whoa! Outstanding!!’), and naturally as a member you should be far happier to be served a tasty pint than one that is.. well (quite franky), isn’t. Unsurprisingly, a pub receiving many good beer scores do a great deal in it getting in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, and ultimately being shortlisted for our branch’s Pub of the Year. Although there are many factors in differentiating an OK pub from a great, serving good beer really is one of the primary factors – there is plenty of competition in our branch area (and we have increased it by including clubs too!)

The greatest tragedy as a member attending the monthly branch meetings leading up to picking a shortlist for the Good Beer Guide (hey you, North Herts members! You can show up too – check the calendar!) is this: seeing that though we have many wonderful drinking establishments eager to serve great beer we cannot include them all. The list is can get pretty long, and length of discussion can mirror that. But if it isn’t scored, it has less backing to get it shortlisted.

So if you cannot make it to the branch meetings, we really can’t emphasize enough: please rate your beer regularly and often as possible. Each year is tallied anew; if you have any scores within this year you need to put them into the NBSS as soon as possible. Every vote helps, and if any of your favourite pubs make it into the Good Beer Guide I’m sure that they won’t be unthankful for the extra exposure for a year. (And why would you want to hide a potential North Herts CAMRA Pub of the Year?)

PS: Hopefully, there will be branch-approved pages to demystify the procedures in how we select the Good Beer Guide list for our branch area as well as how we determine our Pub of the Year. Stay tuned!

Another Letchworth Beer Festival has come and gone, making it 20 that the branch has under its collective belt now. On the stats it was a good one as Letchworth festivals go, a handful more people than last year and a reasonable range of beer available until the end but not too much left over. All up 986 people came through the doors and they drank an average of 3.8 pints of ale each. Of course some of our visitors were of the more fruity persuasion – managing to put away nearly 1000 pints of cider and perry.

I had the honour of putting together the beer list this year – a job much more more difficult than it might sound. Several late evenings were spent poring over the suppliers’ lists trying to pick a range of interesting beers to fit the profile. I managed to arrange some special ales by chatting directly to some breweries online. This is how we got the Grain Blackwood Stout in an oak barrel – an impressive sight! Several ale drinkers, with a look of nostalgia in their eyes, were heard to exclaim something along the lines of “I haven’t seen one of them since I were a lad!” We also had a couple of beers from a new brewery in Norwich, Northcote, thanks to a special request received via twitter from a chap who was going to visit the festival on the eve of his birthday. Thus the Jiggle Juice, one of our two strong IPAs was acquired. Another was the Project Venus Venus Rouge the second in a series of collaboration brews involving brewsters from several British breweries.

Smile & wave for the camera!

During the festival I received more requests to recommend a beer matching a description along the lines of “pale and hoppy” than anything else. This isn’t one of our recognised styles and covers beers we classify as bitters, best bitters, and strong ales. Luckily our kilderkin of Buntingford’s Polar Star provided something we could offer the hop-heads until nearly the very end of the festival. Most of our other hoppy ales ran dry early on Friday. A particular favourite seemed to be the Bristol Beer Factory Acer – a “single hop” ale using a Japanese variety called Sorachi Ace. The flavour imparted to this beer by the hops was unusual yet compelling, very modern – it was described by one of our visitors as “hipster beer”. We may have to give this sort of ale a little more attention for future beer festivals.

Letchworth Morris Men in action

Beer & Cider of the Festival

At the end of the festival we counted the votes and the beer of the festival turned out to be the Summer Wine Brewery Diablo IPA. One of our “pale and hoppy” beers and our other “strong IPA” – 6% ABV and dominated by flavours imparted by Citra hops. We will be arranging an award presentation trip as soon as possible – the brewery is in Honley, just south of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. Keep your eyes on What’s Brewing and our website for further details.

On the cider front we found our winner somewhat closer to home – our own Apple Cottage in Baldock. Their Rumble, a medium-dry cider matured in rum casks, is our cider of the festival and I believe a presentation will take place sometime in October – again, check our website for details.

Our extensive real cider & perry range

Future Uncertain for Plinston Hall

Sadly Plinston Hall is to be renovated and is not expected to be available for the festival next year. As is the case in Hitchin, the hunt is on for a new venue. We’ve held back on being too dramatic about this being the “last festival in Plinston”, look at our situation with Hitchin town hall… we’ll see you there again on the 9th and 10th of March 2012 for yet-another “last festival in the town hall.” Meanwhile we are still interested in hearing your ideas on possible alternative venues in both towns.

Since our first festival in 1991 Dennis Hill and his staff at Plinston Hall have done an excellent job supporting the festival. So it is with some regret that we must bring you the news of Dennis’s well-earned retirement. To recognise his contribution, former branch chairman Brian Mason presented Dennis with an Eric Watson Memorial Award at the beer festival on Friday. Fittingly, Brian was wearing the 1991 Letchworth Beer festival t-shirt at the time! We wish Dennis all the best for the future!

Brian Mason presents Dennis Hill with an Eric Watson award

Festival Charities

At this festival we chose to support two hospices local to our branch area, this was in memory of Cherry Harrington. The collection came to £106.58, the money will be split between the charities. Please support these excellent local organisations that do a great deal of good in our community: The Garden House Hospice & The Isabel Hospice.

Festival Photos

Sadly, this may be the last year the Letchworth festival is to be hosted in Plinston Hall, but I hope that it would become another memorable festival for all the attendees. See you there!

We could still do with a few more volunteers for the Letchworth Beer Festival – which is very soon! – It’s on today! 5pm and we’re opening the doors! –

We need volunteers for the following times (you don’t have to be available for the whole time) – volunteers must be 18+ and CAMRA members.

Especially for Thursday!

• Thursday 22nd September (bar/etc service) – 12 noon – Midnight
• Friday 23rd September (bar/etc service) – 11am – Midnight
• Saturday 24th September (bar/etc service) – 11am – Midnight
• Sunday 25th September (take-down) – 10am – 2pm

As encouragement here are some of the benefits of volunteering:

• You get your beer for just £1 a pint while you’re working.
• If you stay after 11pm CAMRA will pay for your taxi home.
• You get an invite to the workers’ party (free beer & food!)

If you can help out please contact Paul Beardsley via email to socialsecretary@camranorthherts.org.uk or by phone using 07970 440 703.

Thanks – and see you at the festival!

For more details and future updates keep an eye on the festival page.

These monthly trips are our attempt to get out to remote pubs in our branch area to promote more submissions of beer scores – an essential to qualify for the Good Beer Guide. The scheduled stops for this round: The Fox & Hounds and Chequers in Barley, The Tally Ho in Barkway, The Woodman in Nuthampstead, The Blind Fiddler in Anstey and The Golden Fleece in Braughing.

For most of the participants the delay to the first pint was long but the wait was eased by driving through the picturesque countryside; those who were facing the front were greeted by a gate-like structure attached to our first stop: The (recently reopened) Fox and Hounds. The offerings that whetted our palettes came from Falstaff Brewery with Barley’s Best and Fox’s Finest, and Cambridge Moonshine with Barton Bitter.

The Fox and Hounds, Barley

The Fox and Hounds pub sign

With a warm sun still out we set off to the next pub: The Chequers. An isolated but friendly Greene King pub, we were tempted with Greene King Abbot Ale and IPA as well as Morland’s Original Bitter. After a few demonstrations of Ringing the Bull (and subsequent laughs) we were on the road once more.

The group arrive at The Chequers

A demonstration of 'Ringing the Bull'

The Tally Ho provided us with Tring Brewery’s Mansion Mild, Buntingford Brewery’s Highwayman and Harlow Brewery’s Rebellion IPA. Beers were enjoyed while sharing thoughts on the pubs future plans, since sadly the landlord (Paul Danter) passed away recently – however Sue is keeping things running and the future of this great pub seems assured. Alas, we soon had to set off into the quickly fading daylight.

Tally Ho, Barkway

The Tally Ho pub sign

The Woodman in Nuthampstead was reached in the twilight, there was still enough light for those curious to read about the history just in the next field to it. Here we had the choice of Buntingford Brewery’s Polar Star, Adnam’s Bitter and Greene King IPA offered on gravity at the bar.

The Woodsman, Nuthampstead

Polar Star by Buntingford Brewery at The Woodsman

It was thoroughly dark by the time we reached The Blind Fiddler, but we were greeted by colourful lighting (and music – probably a local celebration or possibly a ‘disco night’). We all had Fuller’s London Pride as that was all that was available; under different circumstances there was space for another 2 ales.

The Blind Fiddler

It was clear that we were behind schedule by the time we arrived in The Golden Fleece in Braughing but the landlord was keen and welcoming. Hearty discussions about the changing recipes of popular ales were accompanied with the consumption of Wadworth 6X, Adnam’s Bitter and Wells & Young’s Waggle Dance. Thus ends another minibus ramble – our 6 intrepid, and somewhat the worse for beer, adventurers were deposited safely back at their respective stops. Our next minibus ramble is on 20th of August – we’ll be visiting pubs to the west of Hitchin. We hope to see you on the bus! (Members & non-members most welcome.)

The Golden Fleece pub sign

(Written by Kathlene Belista)

The first stop: Gosmore with The Bird in Hand and The Bull less than 10 yards apart. Gosmore may be a small village but it seems able to support two pubs stocking cask ales. We started off with Greene King’s Ale Fresco & IPA at “The Bird”. Those new to the pub had the opportunity to see the impressively detailed model of the pub.

The Bird in Hand, Gosmore

First half pint: Ale Fresco by Greene King at 'The Bird'

A very short walk to The Bull offered us London Pride; the smells from the restaurant side was rather alluring but we still had much ground to cover that evening so of we went!

The Bull, Gosmore

Waiting for pints at The Bull

Driving past the open fields on the edges of St Ippolyts we found ourselves at the recently renovated The Rusty Gun in Chapelfoot. Again, there was only one ale on offer: Rusty Gun from The Old Cannon Brewery. Though as tempting it was to savour the beer by the warm outdoor firepit in the new gardens it was not long that we needed to continue our journey.

Aptly named beer for the location: Rusty Gun by The Old Cannon Brewery

Enjoying a natter by the firepit at The Rusty Gun

The fourth pub visited was The Strathmore Arms in St Paul’s Walden, where all were relieved with the power of choice: the selection I sampled was Alton’s Pride by Triple F Brewery and Sherpa Tenzing – a one off special from Mighty Oak. In addition, there was some time spent on the pub games: bar billiards and darts while some munched on the home-made samosas on offer.

Getting served at The Strathmore Arms

Exercising the bar billiards table (and the darts board) in The Strathmore Arms

In the fading light we once again set off to the final pub of the evening: Preston’s Red Lion. The continuation of a hearty discussion regarding hops in the brewing process was enjoyed; I had a pint of Roysteiner by Buntingford while the bar’s other choices included (but were not limited to) London Pride and Brewster’s Decadence.

The Red Lion, Preston

Beer and conversation in The Red Lion

We run these trips every month and pick people up in Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth, and Baldock. Non-members are also welcome to join in (slightly pricier than for a member but still much more economical than a taxi for the entire evening). The dates and locations are published ahead of time on the diary section of this website as well as in the CAMRA “What’s Brewing” paper and our local “Pints of View” which can be found in most real ale pubs in our region. The bus only seats 11 people – so if you want to come on a ramble do get in touch well ahead of time!

Here’s a gallery of what we got up to that evening:

Redemption

On Saturday June 4th a group of North Herts CAMRA members headed into London. We assembled at the Betjeman Arms in St Pancras station then made our way to the Tottenham Hale tube stop, twice losing members along the way – but in the end we all safely reached our goal. Tucked away inside an industrial unit in N17 we found ourselves at one of London’s exciting new microbreweries: Redemption Brewing Company. We had traveled all this way into North London to present the brewery with a “beer of the festival” award won at the 2011 Hitchin Beer Festival in March. During our beer festivas all visitors are invited to put in a vote for their favourite beer and at the end, when all the votes were tallied up, one of Redemption’s beers took the prize.

Redemption Trinity

The winning beer was the Trinity, a beer perplexingly described as a “pale mild” – unusual in a time where if you ask most people to describe a mild the first thing you’re likely to hear is “dark”. But “mild” is a bit of beer terminology with a long history and I’ve heard (and been involved in) many debates about what a mild should be. The earliest use of the term I’m aware of was simply to denote “young beer”; a beer that had not been aged and probably didn’t have a lot of preservative hops in it – so not “bitter”. I’ve also read the original milds were probably quite strong and at the darker end of the colour range. So how do I describe the Trinity: a light golden beer dry-hopped to the hilt, when you drink it the first thing you get is a nosefull of fruity hop aroma, in the mouth the fruit continues with citric and and lightly resinous notes backed by a surprisingly solid body for a beer weighing in at only 3%. (That’s just my brief personal tasting note – check out the RateBeer page for far more florid descriptions.) The brewer calls it a mild, you can argue against that if you like, but at the end of the day one thing is most important: it is a damn fine beer!

Trying a sample

The name Trinity is not only derived from the 3% ABV – additional threes come from the beer being made using 3 different malts and 3 different hops. The malts (I don’t know what they are) are mashed at a higher temperature than usual to give the beer more body at a lower ABV. This works because higher mash temperatures favour the extraction of unfermentable sugars. The three hops used are Chinook, Columbus, and Centennial – all members of the brigade of modern American hops that are assaulting the palates of ale drinkers across the UK. (With much debate as to whether this is “proper” for an English beer!) At the end of the ferment the temperature is dropped and a large quantity of these three hops is added and left in the fermenter for 2 days before the beer is transferred to a conditioning tank. This addition of hops to the fermenter is what is known as “dry hopping” and contributes the big fruity aroma often found in these modern-style brews.

Andy Moffat (centre) with the beer-of-the-festival award

Redemption Brewing Company is run by Andy Moffat, who comes to brewing from the banking sector! On choosing the name “Redemption” for the brewery Andy jokes that he is seeking redemption from his previous career; he says he took some inspiration from Dark Star’s style of branding as opposed to choosing something more traditional like “The North London Brewing Company”, he also clearly likes being able to say things like “pubs where you’ll find redemption”. Andy started out, like many professional brewers, with home-brewing and as part of going pro he’s taken courses from BrewLab and David Smith (who he also employs as an adviser and to performing brewery audits.) Redemption’s assistant brewer is Andy Smith (this must get confusing) who’s actually a trained chef turned brewer, with a background and continued interest in home-brewing. There is also a 3-day-a-week van driver who we didn’t get to meet, though Andy told us he does like to do the odd delivery himself so he can meet the people selling his beer – on the topic of beer & brewing in general he says “It’s about relationships.” Some quick facts: it’s 12 barrel affair with equipment originally from Slaters Brewery, they use plain old local water (adjusted slightly at the brewery), they buy all their electricity under an eco-friendly tarrif, and their yeast strain has Scottish & Newcastle origins and was obtained from York Brewery. While they’ve only been operating for about a year they’re already making a great name for themselves in the growing London micro-brewing scene.

Getting off to the right start

Most importantly both Andy’s are simply brilliant blokes and we had a great time at the brewery chatting with them and drinking their excellent beer – even sampling a bit of Urban Dusk and a special one-off brew from the conditioning tanks. Andy gave us a bit of a tour of the brewery explaining their processes and equipment. No matter how many brewery tours I attend they never get boring and Redemption was no exception – it’s about the people as much as the equipment and the beer. Andy seemed rather pleased when our branch chairman, Tony Driscoll, presented him and his assistant with their award. In turn we’re extremely pleased to have had the honour of presenting Redemption Brewing Company with their first beer-of-the-festival award. I’m certain it won’t be their last. Thanks to both Andy’s for being excellent hosts and for their excellent beer, which we can look forward to seeing around our area as our local Buntingford Brewery distributes their beer. In fact while we were at the brewery I gather orders for about 6 firkins of their special one-off beer were made for various pubs in our area. We’ll try to let you know when/where these beers appear via our Twitter account.

To keep tabs on what the Redemption guys are up to you can find them on twitter as RedemptionBrew and PartizanSmith (Andy Smith),

Finally, here’s a gallery of our photos from the visit.

This year our winning pub was The Half Moon in Hitchin – North Herts pub of the year for the third year running. The Half Moon has been on quite a winning streak and was also last years Hertfordshire pub of the year. North Herts branch Chairman Tony Driscoll presented the award to Howard and Wendy during their excellent 7th anniversary beer festival on the 30th of April. (Terribly convenient timing that.)

Half Moon North Herts Pub-of-the-Year Award

As a new feature this year we’re also announcing the two closest runners-up in the branch area in an effort to spread the recognition around a little more (but not too thin!) The Pub-of-theYear award is a tough competition and some pubs have come close for several years but never quite got there. For 2011 the runners-up were: Strathmore Arms in St Pauls Walden and the Lordship Arms in Bennington – congratulations!

It doesn’t end there however – once all four Hertfordshire branches have selected their respective pub-of-the-year winners the competition is on for Hertfordshire pub of the year! In this case CAMRA members from throughout the region are invited to visit all four pubs and score them on the same categories we use for our finalists in North Herts. To aid in this we run a minibus trip that goes on an arduous circuit of four of Hertfordshire’s best pubs where we enjoy the hospitality and beer in each venue (trying not to make it too obvious what we’re up to to begin with in the hope we get a true feel for the place – but this is difficult.) This year our trip took in the four fine pubs below – I’m not going to waffle on about how good they all were, they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t!  You can find more information about the pubs from their respective branches in the June/July Pints of View newsletter.

The Land of Liberty Peace and Plenty, Heronsgate

Land of Liberty - Bar

Land of Liberty Peace and Plenty pub sign

The Queen’s Head, Allens Green

Queen's Head pub sign

Inside the Queen's Head

The Woodman, Wildhill

Woodman pub sign

Inside the Woodman

And our own Half Moon, Hitchin

Half Moon pub sign

North Herts Pub-of-the-Year

Since our trip all the scores from all four branches have been submitted and collated and the winner is… The Woodman! Our congratulations to them on their achievement and all the best in the East Anglian regional competition!

Scoring pubs for this award is truly difficult. Take my personal case: I’d never been to two of the pubs before, one I used to go to regularly and loved several years ago, and our own branch area pub is one of my locals. How can I score these fairly? What if I catch one of the pubs I don’t know on a bad day or at a bad time? Plus we visit the pubs in one day – say: one early in the trading hours,  one in the lunch peak, one in the mid-afternoon doldrums, and one in the busyness of evening. How do you rate these pubs against each other on factors like clientèle and atmosphere? You just have to do your best! Importantly it comes down to statistics, which should even out any bumps – as I said at the beginning of this post: the more people who get involved the better. So next year, when it comes time to judge our pub of the year please come along – we had a few empty seats on our minibus this year.

There’s more information on all these great pubs in the June/July Hertfordshire Pints of View newsletter – which is now being distributed around pubs in our region and will be made available on the South Hertfordshire website in due course.

• The Fox, Aspenden – Thursday May 26th to Monday May 30th
  • 16 cask ales, 3 regional ciders
  • Live music Friday, Saturday, Sunday
  • BBQ Saturday, Sunday, Monday
• The Goat, Codicote – Saturday May 28th to Monday May 30th
  • 8 Beers from Adnams, Dark Star, Oldershaw, Saltair, and others
  • Live Music (Local Band) Home Town Boys Sunday and Quiz night Sunday Evening
• Royston Town FC – Sunday from midday until 7pm
  • Beers from Greene King, Buntingford, Oldershaw, Brentwood & Redemption
  • Also live music: The Undercovers (12:30pm-2pm), Kill Buljo (2:30pm-4:00pm), The Incredible Flight of Birdman (4:30pm-6pm)
• Plume of Feathers, Ickleford Friday May 27th to Monday May 30th
  • Over 30 real ales
  • Ciders & Perrys
  • Live music on Saturday
  • BBQ on Sunday
• Hen & Chickens, Baldock
  • Beers from Greene King, Buntingford, and Milton

Of course there is also the 38th Cambridge beer festival running until Saturday.

Please let us know in the comments, via twitter to @nh_camra, or email to editor@camranorthherts.org.uk if you know of any more!

Update @ Tue May 24th: The “most improved pub” nominations were pooled at the North Herts CAMRA branch meeting on May 23rd and those pubs with multiple nominations short-listed for the award. The contenders are:

• The Orange Tree, Baldock
• The Three Horseshoes, Willian
• The Victoria, Hitchin
• The Plough, Datchworth

We encourage members who know these pubs to check them out and help us select the winner at the next branch meeting (June 20th at The Crown in Buntingford.)

It is time for us to pick the pub that will receive North Hertfordshire CAMRA’s “Most Improved Pub” award. This isn’t simply a matter of “stocks more real ale” (which can sometimes be bad for ale quality) but covers any improvement that makes the local pub a more desirable place to pop into for a glass of real ale, cider, or perry. CAMRA’s pub-of-the-year criteria ranks the quality of the beverages served above all else, but to really tell pubs apart our members are asked to also look at other factors that make pubs great places to spend your time and cash. These factors include things like atmosphere, decor, customer service, and value for money. We would expect that any pub nominated does sell real ale of course.

• A landlord who’s finally won some freedom to stock different ales, especially LocAle ales.
• A decent real ale pub that has made the move to stocking real cider and perry as well.
• A once drab pub which has been revamped and transformed into a great place spend your time.
• The management at a pub has put some extra effort into serving the punters the perfect pint.
• A pub that hasn’t served real ale for years has given it a go, and is doing an excellent job of it.

These are just a few ideas. We’re sure you get the point – has a pub become a better pub? Is it moving towards being a Pub-of-the-Year contender (even if that’s from “not a chance” to “not so bad anymore…”)

Nominations are open now and must be in by the 23rd of May, you can get them to us via email or by personally contacting any North Herts CAMRA committee member you may know. (Be prepared to justify your nomination!) If you want to email your nomination send it to our branch secretary Gill Richardson, along with a brief summary as to why you’ve nominated your chosen pub, to: secretary@camranorthherts.org.uk. You can also nominate your chosen pub via Twitter, simply direct a tweet or two to @nh_camra. Or you can simply show up at our next branch meeting to submit your nomination, which will be held on the 23rd of May at Our Mutual Friend in Stevenage.

At the branch meeting on the 23rd the nominations we’ve received will be collated and a short-list decided (remember, all branch members are welcome to attend and take part in this process!)

The short-list will be distributed and the winner decided by the votes of our branch members. (We will publish more details along with the short-list.)

• Baldock Independent Beer Festival – Friday to Sunday -  58 ales, 23 ciders & perrys, & 14 continental beers!
• Half Moon in Hitchin: 7th Anniversary Beer Festival – Thursday to Sunday – 35 ales, plus ciders and perrys
• Cricketers in Ickleford: Beer Festival – Thursday to Monday – 16 ales

If you know of any other beer festivals on this weekend let us know in the comments.