We're here for the Beer!

Members take advantage of the Member Bar at the Albert Hall

The CAMRA National AGM for 2015 ran over the weekend just gone (17th-19th April).  It was held at the Albert Hall, Nottingham, hosted by the Nottingham branch.
There was a good turn out, with the 700 seat main Auditorium close to capacity on the Saturday and Sunday for the debates and guest speaker, with a good number of people watching via video link from elsewhere in the the hall as well.  There were delegates from all corners of the country as well as overseas, many of whom had come specifically to speak on the motions being put forward.
The weekend started on Friday night with the AGM members bar beer festival in the hall with around 30 local beers available and half a dozen real ciders. 
Cider would be hot topic during the debates on Sunday.  See the next blog post for more details of the motions put forward and the discussions that followed.
There were organised tours for the early evening to 10 of the local breweries that proved extremely popular and had filled up well in advance.  These included the Blue Monkey, Castle Rock, Flipside, Nottingham, Lincoln Green, Navigation, Magpie, Totally Brewed and Charnwood Cider.  While there was a charge for most, they included, transport, samples of the product and food as well.

Nottingham itself has a good number of real ale pubs including at least two that lay claim to the title of the Oldest Pub in Britain (Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem and The Bell).
Many of the pubs had events on to support the AGM including cellar tours, beer festivals and other activities.  A cellar tour might not sound that exciting but when the cellars in question dates back as far as 1068 and are made up of natural and man made caves that used to serve as a brewery, a cockfighting pit, dungeons and a jail for Nottingham castle; as they do at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, it certainly adds to the interest.
In fact caves form a big part of the history of many of the pubs in Nottingham and are used extensively as cellars, bars and dining areas and do much to add to the atmosphere.

Saturday saw your humble correspondent feeling exceedingly humble following the previous nights activities.  That last half of the Flipside Brewery's Russian Rouble 7.3% Porter may have been a beer too far, although I'm sure that hot dog tasted dodgy!  
Saturdays main business was to debate the motions put forward by the National Executive and by regional branches.   As above there will be a separate blog post to cover these as there were 21 in total and they really deserve their own post.
In between times we managed to find time to pay a visit to the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, where we found local ales from our own Welbeck and Dukeries breweries as well as other local beers and real ciders.
"The Trip" had opened their cellars for the AGM and having asked at the bar we were given a fascinating guided tour free of charge.  These tours are still available so if you ever visit, just ask.  If they can fit you in, they will.  Be warned though, you may need to call and book in advance during busy periods as they are a very popular destination.As well as the Trip we also managed to squeeze in the City of Caves tour in the city centre.  Despite the entrance being on the 1st floor of a large modern shopping centre (the Broadmarsh Centre) it very quickly descends  into a much older version of Nottingham.  It includes cave systems used as living space, a tannery, pub, air raid shelters, and other uses stretching back hundreds of years and was well worth taking the time to visit.

Pub in a cave beneath Nottingham,
complete with pub games

Down into the depths below
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem 

After this it was back to the AGM for the remaining motions of the day ( have I mentioned there will be a separate post about these?) before retiring to the members bar to recuperate from the days exertions.  The respite didn't last long however as it was soon time to depart on the Young (and Young at Heart) Members pub crawl.  A good sized group of young and not so young members departed for the first of five pubs on the crawl.

1. The Crafty Crow - http://whatpub.com/pubs/NOT/544/crafty-crow-nottingham-central
The Crafty Crow is the Brewery Tap for Magpie Brewery, but they don't limit themselves to their own beers and had a good selection of local ales on the dozen hand pulls around the bar as well as Real Ale in Bottles and a selection of Craft beers on fountain.A swift half or pint here according to preference  with only a brief interruption to accost soap actress Charley Webb, was then followed by a short walk up the hill (this would be a theme for the night) to:

2. The Roundhouse - http://whatpub.com/pubs/NOT/223/roundhouse-nottingham

The Roundhouse used to form part of the old Nottingham General Hospital and is, as the name suggests, round.  As well as a large modern bar area with plenty of seating and tables it also has an impressive outdoor terrace area that sits at the edge of a large modern amphitheater.  They had 6 local real ales on hand pub when we arrived which were duly sampled while taking the air on the terrace.  Once finished the group moved on, although this time in stages with three smaller groups making their way up hill (again) under their own steam to:

3. The Hand and Heart - http://whatpub.com/pubs/NOT/102/hand-heart-nottingham-central

The Hand and Heart is one of the pubs in the city that makes use of some of the many caves carved out of the sandstone on which it sits.  This includes a large "dining cave" that we'd had the chance to experience the night before when we stopped in for some of their excellent food. When we visited they were holding their own Spring Ale Festival and had over 30 beers on hand pull and a dedicated Cider bar upstairs.  Somewhat confusingly, the groups did not arrive in the same order in which they departed the Roundhouse, with the largest group that had set off first arriving last.  They claimed this was due to a deliberate detour to go through the Park Tunnel that links Ropewalk and Derby Road on the way, the rest of us thought the beer had more to do with it!

The Hand and Heart is not the biggest pub in the world, and with the beer festival on was crammed to capacity with CAMRA folks from the AGM.  We did eventually manage to sample some of the beers on offer though and they were worth the wait.  Having fortified ourselves appropriately we set off again, you guessed it, uphill, to:

4. Sir John Borlase Warren - http://whatpub.com/pubs/NOT/234/sir-john-borlase-warren-nottingham-central

Previously an Everards pub the Sir John reopened last year after being bought and refurbished by  The Brown Ales pub co. It has a decent range of beers on hand pull, not only from the Brown Ales brewery but also a number of guest beers as well as bottled and craft beers.  It is also the proud owner of what has been voted the best beer garden in Britain and is almost as much of a warren of different rooms and drinking areas as the caves under the city.  Having squeezed our way in to this very popular pub we sampled the wares before squeezing ourselves back out again and made our way to the final stop of the crawl.  And this time we didn't go uphill!

5. The Organ Grinder - http://whatpub.com/pubs/NOT/185/organ-grinder-nottingham-central

The final port of call was the Organ Grinder.  Formerly the Red Lion, this has been taken over and refurbished as the Brewery Tap for the Blue Monkey Brewery.  As well as a regular rotation of 6 of their own beers they also have 3 guest ales regularly available.  Since this was the last stop on the crawl we snagged some chairs and bench seats and settled into work our way through the beers on offer.  After all that walking uphill we needed to sit down!

Finally the time came to head back to homes and hotel rooms and we left the group and made our way back down hill to the AGM venue and the members bar to use up our spare tokens for a last night cap, or four.


The crawl was a good night out, with some wonderful people (not just the young ones) and thoroughly enjoyable.  It gave us the chance to try some pubs we probably wouldn't have thought of and otherwise drink some great beer.  Many thanks to Andrew Rodbourne for organising the crawl, although I do think he may have missed his true vocation as mountain guide.  Next time can we do one that's flat please!
Sunday morning dawned bright and far too early for some, but after the healing powers of the full english breakfast had been administered to the suffering, we made our way back to the AGM venue for the last of the motions to be debated (Next post, you get the idea by now surely...)
With the official business of the day done there was little left to do but to bid farewell to those we had met and return home after a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.  Huge thanks to the organisers and volunteers that made it all possible, all the Nottingham Breweries for opening their doors to us and the local pubs for making it extra special, and of course, CAMRA members for being such friendly and welcoming souls.  Next year, Liverpool!

If you are reading this blog and you aren't a CAMRA member (why not!?) go to www.camra.org.uk and join the 170,000 other people who think that Beer (and Cider and Perry) is something worth getting excited about!