Branch Meeting Minutes 1st July 2015

NORTH NOTTS CAMRA BRANCH  MEETING THE GREY HORSE INN CARLTON IN LINDRICK 8-30pm WEDNESDAY  1st July 2015

·           PERSONS ATTENDING

Steve Bownes, John Bowden, Clare Brown, Lynn Snowdon, Keith Snowdon, Colin Tweed, James Baker, Susan Baker, John Bull, Doug Clark, Michael Oates, Alan Duffy, Barbara Duffy, Terry Johnson, Wayne Cadman, David French, Tom Roe, Clare Monk.

 

·           APOLOGIES

Brian George, Roger Smith, Nick Matthews, Sue Johnson, Joe Catlin, David Brown, John Hutton, Jeff Battram, Suzi Hale, Richard Hale.

·           MATTERS ARISING FROM LAST MINUTES

No matters raised

·           TREASURERS REPORT

Bank account £496.58

Promotional Social fund £52.00

·           MEMBERSHIP REPORT

Our membership continues to grow, we now have a total of 356 members compared to 276 on this day last year. The average age is 52 which would suggest that members joining are generally becoming younger.

·           MAGAZINE UPDATE

The printing of the North Notts drinker has been delayed and delivery is now expected to arrive at the Mallard by Monday 6^th July. Distribution arrangements are now in hand and it is anticipated that the majority of venues will be completed within 2 weeks.

·           WHAT PUB UPDATE

115 real ale pubs now listed, 100% with full information, 90% with part information.

·           PUB/CLUB NEWS

Carlton in Lindrick WMC is hosting a Glastonbury type festival. A new venue to be known as ‘Spencers on the Square’ will soon be opening in Retford.

·           FORTHCOMING BRANCH SOCIALS

July 11th - Saturday 12-30 onwards at the  Grafton.	Grafton Beer festival Beer festival at the brewery tap of the award winning Grafton brewery, celebrating 150 years since the pub opened.
August 14th Friday Bus from Retford 18.55. Market Square Worksop 19.15 The Mallard	The Worksop Walk. A walk through Worksop visiting the better pubs starting at the White Lion (Top House to most) and finishing at Nottinghamshire Pub of the Year, The Mallard.
August 29th Saturday 14-00 at Beerheadz.	Retford Pub Hunt.    A light hearted quiz around Retford pubs and the town centre.  Teams of up to 4 people welcome.
September 5th Sat.      10-53 train from Retford. 20-03 train return from York.	York and the Slip/Swan Summer Beer Festival. A visit to some of the fine York pubs also calling at the Slip/Swan Summer beer festival with 50 beers.  Tickets now available from Virgin East Coast Mainline and the cost will only go up.
September 26th Saturday.  11.00 meet at the Mallard for Worksop people, Retford people contact D French.	Terry's Thankyou Trip. TBC. As a way of a thankyou to Terry who has done the Social Secretary's job for a number of years we are going to ask Terry to chose a secret destination to be revealed on the day.
October 9th Friday.   09-38 train from Worksop  or meet at the festival.	Nottingham Beer Festival. Friday early bird session at a festival with over 1000 cask ales. Advance tickets available. http://www.seetickets.com/event/robin-hood-beer-and-cider-festival/nottingham-castle/879851 Prices vary.
October 16th Friday.    16.14 train from Worksop  or meet at the festival.	Gainsborough Beer Festival. Friday afternoon/evening session, held in the historic Old Hall. Usually 60 beers available.
November 7th Saturday.      11-02 train from Retford 11-13 from Worksop November 28th Saturday.                                                             Meet at the Mallard   11-38 train to Nottingham	Sheffield City Centre Pubs. A walk around some of Sheffield's pubs in or close to the city centre. Nottingham Canning Circus Pubs. Visiting the county capital and one of the best areas for real ale pubs anywhere and maybe pick up a few Christmas presents

·           BREWERY LIAISON OFFICER REPORTS

Double Top – Wayne Cadman the owner of The Double Top brewery and the Mallard attended the meeting and gave a personal report on recent successes. He said we have had an incredible month, The Mallard has recently been awarded Nottinghamshire ‘Pub of the Year’ which culminates various previous seasonal awards gained over the last 15 years. The Double Top brewery won the East Midlands Champion Mild award, and has now been entered in the Mild category for national champion beer. This accolade has now resulted in being invited to supply beers for the GBBF in August. The brewery now has the capacity to produce 2000 pints each week. The brewery is currently being rebranded and has a new website, for more information visit www.doubletopbrewery.com or www.doubletopbrewery.co.uk

Dukeries – Recently we have introduced new products including Bess of Hardwick  5.7%,   Farmers Branch 5%, Castle Hill 4.2% and a Vanilla Gunsmoke 5.5%. It’s the time of year where we are involved in many local beer festivals. Just gone was Carlton in Lindrick WMC which went great for their first ever beer festival. Wortley WMC 17^th 18^th 19^th July. Over 60 real ale and cider. UK Club of the Year.  Blue Bell Ranskill 31th July – 2^nd August.

The Pebley 14^th 15^th 16^th August. Great Northern Newton on Trent Inn 14^th 15^th 16^th August

White Horse Inn Barnby Moor 28^th 29^th 30^th August. Also we shall be staging a beer festival at the Osberton International Horse Trails 1^st week in October.

Grafton – The brewery tap at the Grafton Hotel is just getting stronger with sales up on last year. Getting visitors from all over. Busy preparing for the upcoming beer festival at the Grafton which is happening on the 10/11/12th  July. The brewery is exceptionally busy having taken on a part time member of staff to work alongside the current 2 full time staff. Have set on a Sales Rep for 3 days a week. Have just purchased 2x5 barrel FV Conditioning tanks to prepare for a new project at the end of August. Also preparing for the Great British Beer Festival in August with Apricot Jungle to appear in the Champions Bar.    

Hales -Things are going very well. Sales are very strong and have secured contracts until after Christmas. Busy brewing seasonal beers at the moment along side ‘The Punk Collection’ Getting lots of repeat custom and a new business venture has been launched with another in the wings, just waiting to finalize details.

Idle - Idle Brewery is still going strong with Idle Bee & Idle Bodger going really well. The stronger beers like Black Abbot & Idle Landlord are also selling. The brewery tap which is The White Hart at West Stockwith is very busy at all times with drinkers & diners. 

Idle Valley - The brewery continues to run at full capacity and will soon need upgrading to meet with anticipated demand. The newly constructed warm room has been completed. The on line store selling bottled beers and essential brewing ingredients and equipment, continues to be developed and the home brew shop is now well stocked and open for business.

Pheasantry – no report.

Springhead – The report is basically the same as last months, but with the following additions. The Ginger Pig is ready to open but has met with a rather unusual problem in as much as the external pub sign has been questioned by the authorities. This has now escalated to involve both the Local Council and the County Heritage department. It looks therefore that the sign will have to be redesigned and remanufactured. To make matters worse the request to erect a temporary banner type sign was refused permission, “watch this space”. The brewery was recently awarded a silver medal by East Midlands CAMRA. A new brew called Double Jeopardy abv 7.5% which is described as an american pale ale, is now in production. The brewery would like north notts members to let them or Roger Smith know if they should visit a pub which is selling Springhead beers in locations other than the usual.

Welbeck – Clare Monk the head brewer attended the meeting and personally announced the following news: We have an exciting new partnership on our hands! The Roman   Southwell      Archaeology Community Project was established in January 2014 and  since then has quickly gathered pace. They have not only conducted field walking and aerial surveys, but are now well on their way to conducting an excavation.To help raise awareness of this project, and perhaps a little cash too, we are teaming up to brew a Roman-style beer. The community group have researched the style of beer which would have been brewed back then, and we have formulated a recipe. We will be brewing a 3.8%  British barley focused pale ale using the aptly named British Boadicea hops. The beer is to be called ‘Roman Southwell Gladiator’. These hops are named after the famous Queen of the Iceni tribe, who led a rebellion against the Romans in the 1st century AD. They have a distinctively fresh British meadow aroma of herb and fresh grass - a truly Romano-British beer!  The beer will be brewed on Monday 8^th June at Welbeck with the help of the volunteer archaeologists. They will be able to measure out all the raw ingredients and add them to the brewing process, just as our ancestors have done for centuries. We will be launching this beer at the Hearty Goodfellow in Southwell on Thursday 25th June at 7pm. Please join us on the day for a taster and to meet the group.The beer will be available to purchase in most of the Southwell pubs after this date. If you miss it on cask, or would like to try the bottled version, the group will be retailing the beer at all their events from the start of July.For further details about the project please contact Matt Beresford
matt@mbarchaeology.co.uk

·           ANY OTHER BUSINESS

The committee are to discuss at the next committee meeting the level of subsidy to be allocated to social outings involving coach hire, the first subsidised trip is to be the Welbeck Brewery tour.  

·           DATE & VENUE OF NEXT MEETING

The Bees Knees Laneham Wed 5^th August 8:30