The branch has produced two Ale Trail guides with more to follow as we look cover each of the sub branch areas

The second one was launched at Pendle Beer Festival 2025 was the first Ale Trail guide for the Pendle area

PENDLE ALE TRAIL Colne & West Craven

A Bewitching Tour of East Lancashire

Designed to let the bus take the strain, this is the first of two Real Ale Trails around the district of Pendle. Renowned for the Pendle Witch Trials, many of the towns and surrounding villages have their roots steeped in history. From Colne to Earby and Barnoldswick you will find some very old and some very young real ale establishments to wet your whistle. Colne also hosts many events including both the Pendle Beer Festival in February and the Blues Festival in August. Barnoldswick hosts it’s famous Bands on the Square in May.

Click below to download a pdf version
Pendle Real Ale Trail - Colne & West Craven (Issue 1 2025)

Cask Beer and Cider Preview List 1

It's less than 2 weeks to the 18th Pendle Beer Festival 2025 so let's whet your appetites with a preview of what's on offer

Cask Beer:-
Rudgate York Chocolate Stout
Whitworth Valley Shake A Pale Feather
Carleton Brewing Chloe
Theakstons Old Peculiar
Purple Moose Elderflower
Three Brothers Trilogy Blonde Gluten Free
Harveys Sussex Best
Mighty Oak Saxon Strong
Roosters Red Rock
Salopian Oracle
Facers Plum Porter
Byatts Mahana NZ IPA
Acorn Gorlovka Imperial Stout
Vocation Bread & Butter
Craven Victorian Imperial Porter

Ciders:-
Newton Court Panting Partridge Dry Perry
Snails Bank Vintage
Snails Bank Rhubarb
Ampleforth Abbey Medium Dry
Sandfords Devon Scrumpy

More to be announced soon

Here's to a prosperous 2025!

Have you been thinking about your best beers and the pubs that serve them?

Our area organisers would love to hear from you.

Their emails are shown below.

Just to remind you we need a list of the top pubs in your area.

Please send a list of between 5 and 10 pubs , listing the very best one first.

For example:

1. The old Goat Gap Inn
2. Chunkies Bar
3. The Old Swan
4. The Poachers Arms
5. The Tut and Shive
6. The Bitter End

It's as simple as that.

Please send your list of pubs by the end of December to your local area organiser

Blackburn with Darwen Chris Dickinson
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@newradhtiwnrubkcalb.oa

Burnley John Ingham
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@yelnrub.oa

Hyndburn John Sharples & Julie Major Smith
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@nrubdnyh.oa

Pendle Peter Carroll
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@eldnep.oa

Ribble Valley Martin Snelling
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@yellavelbbir.oa

Rossendale Tom Fishwick
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@eladnessor.oa

If you're not sure who to contact then email back to me at ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@pihsrebmem and I will send your info onto the right person.

Cheers

Martyn Pashley
Membership Team
East Lancashire

Hi

Yes - it's not a typo we did say 2026!

As an East Lancs CAMRA member we would like to encourage you to tell us about the best beer in our branch.

Between now and the end of December please email your local area organiser direct and tell them which pubs are serving consistently cracking beer and we will consider them for entry into the Good Beer Guide 2026.

Just arrange your pubs with the very best listed first.

Your local area organiser email details are

Blackburn with Darwen Chris Dickinson
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@newradhtiwnrubkcalb.oa

Burnley John Ingham
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@yelnrub.oa

Hyndburn John Sharples & Julie Major Smith
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@nrubdnyh.oa

Pendle Peter Carroll
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@eldnep.oa

Ribble Valley Martin Snelling
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@yellavelbbir.oa

Rossendale Tom Fishwick
ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@eladnessor.oa

Why so early?

Well, after we've sifted through your suggestions we have a team of people who spend January surveying each of the pubs using strict guidelines set out by CAMRA and then it takes another 8 months until it goes to press.

If you're not sure who to contact then email back to me at ku.gro.armac.scnaltsae@pihsrebmem and I will send your info onto the right person.

Cheers

Martyn Pashley
Membership Team
East Lancashire

We are delighted to announce that Pendle Beer Festival will return in 2024 to the recently refurbished Muni Theatre in Colne.

This will be the 18th edition of the festival and we hope you will join us to enjoy a wide range of real ales, craft beers and ciders from all around the country – there's sure to be something that hits the spot!

Over 90 real ales will be available to sample, and judging by our regular excellent attendance, people certainly appreciate the care and attention CAMRA volunteers give to serving beer in tip top form. We'll have our usual range of real ciders and perries, a fine selection of KeyKeg craft beer for your delectation, plus a gin bar complemented with Prosecco!

Locals and visitors alike will be pleased to know The Muni is once again available following extensive renovation and it now looks resplendent! We hope to ensure that everyone who comes enjoys the event and also supports our charity, Pendleside Hospice.

Check our website www.pendlebeerfestival.co.uk for the latest information, contact details and links to social media.
(These will be updated very shortly).

Cheers!

Paul Brown
Festival Organiser

In Summer 2024 East Lancs CAMRA branch produced it's first Real Ale Trail guide

CLITHEROE
A Paradise for beer drinkers

Clitheroe has become a terrific place for lovers of good beer. There is a splendid selection of traditional pubs and a growing number of micropubs and bars, selling a wide range of cask ales and craft beer. This new real guide to Clitheroe has been produced to let visitors find out for themselves why Clitheroe and the surrounding area is one of the best destinations for beer in Lancashire.

Paper copies of the guide have been dropped of at Ale House, Beer Shack, New Inn and also the Tourist Information Centre next to the railway station

Click Clitheroe Real Ale Trail (Issue 1 2024) to download a pdf version

We are pleased to announce that Pendle Beer Festival will return to the Muni next February!

Following substantial delays and a huge amount of work, the newly refurbished Muni looks resplendent and is now fully open, so we will be back at our home venue for the 18th Pendle Beer Festival.

Planning for this is about to get underway as we hold our 1rst meeting in the Wallace Hartley, Colne, at 7.30pm this Sunday 22nd September.

Since the last festival a few members of the organising committee have stepped down, so we are looking to the wider East Lancs Branch for some additional support.

If you would like to get involved, please let me know via email to ku.oc.lavitsefreebeldnep@ofni

We are in particular seeking a new Secretary to plan and attend meetings, take minutes, and ensure we remain on track with everything, so if you like the sound of this we would welcome your help!

Here's to another successful event in 2025!

Cheers,

Paul Brown
Festival Organiser

Get fired up for the Great British Beer Festival Winter 2025 at the iconic Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham! This former steelworks provides a perfect backdrop for an incredible selection of cask ales, craft beers, traditional ciders, and perries. Don’t miss out on what promises to be the hottest beer festival this Winter - tickets on sale now!

The Great British Beer Festival Winter is organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and staffed by beer loving volunteers. This annual festival brings hundreds of UK beers, international beers and real ciders and perries to different venues every few years.

This years festival will also be home to the prestigious Champion Winter Beer of Britain award, with the winners announced during the trade and press session. As well as a dedicated Champion Winter Beer of Britain Bar where you can sample all the competition entries.

Magna Science Adventure Centre
Magna Way
Templeborough
Rotherham
S60 1FD

Visit winter.gbbf.org.uk for more information and to buy tickets

Long standing chairman John Sandiford has brought it to the committees attention the inaugural meeting of East Lancs CAMRA was held on December 10th 1974 at the George Hotel in Blackburn.

Sadly the pub no longer exists but we will celebrate it.

A venue and date will be announced in due course.

In the meantime Alan leach has collated some information about the pub from the internet. Enjoy reading it!

George Inn, Blackburn - Birthplace of East Lancs CAMRA branch

The Whitworth & Healy Band Club are the Lancashire Area Club of the Year 2024 award.

They are also the West Pennines Regional Club of the Year award winners beating competition from Cumbria and the Isle of Man.

This will be the LAST ever West Pennines Regional award as from next year we will become part of the newly created North West Region.

The presentations will take place on Saturday 3rd August 2024 at 4 pm.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Cheers!

And that’s a wrap for 2024. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to work there anytime during the week. Thanks to everyone who came and tried the beers, we hope you found something you really liked or something you found interesting.

The leading UK consumer group has reported the Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) ‘Fresh Ale’ concept for potentially breaching consumer protection legislation.

Reacting to the launch of the ‘Fresh Ale’ concept by CMBC, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has asked for investigations into whether the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations have been breached.

The Campaign has written to National Trading Standards and Trading Standards Scotland asking for an investigation into the products, which use a cask handpump to serve the beer, which is kegged rather than cask conditioned.

This is the start of the ‘Handpump Hijack’ campaign to raise awareness of misleading beer dispense, and make sure that the handpump remains a signifier of cask-conditioned beer.

In the letters, Gillian Hough, National Director and Chair of CAMRA’s Real Ale, Cider and Perry Campaigns Committee, said:

“CAMRA believes that these practices come under the scope of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, as the average consumer may choose to buy the product on the basis that they believe it to be cask conditioned beer, which in this case it is not.  

“We believe that this falls foul of the Order’s provisions in Section 2 to protect consumers from presentation which is likely to deceive the average consumer or cause the average consumers to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.”  

Nik Antona, CAMRA National Chairman said:

“Misleading dispense is particularly detrimental to beer drinkers, as hijacking a handpump to serve a keg beer removes a genuine cask product from the bar, reducing choice of different formats for consumers.

“Unfortunately, Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company have a track record on potentially misleading marketing, having already badged Wainwright as ‘A Lake District Original’, despite it being brewed over 100 miles away in Wolverhampton.

“We hope that Trading Standards bodies across Great Britain will take swiftly coordinated national action to address misleading beer dispense and safeguard the handpump as an indicator of cask beer.”

We are pleased to announce the Pub and Club of the Year 2024 winners!