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

Pendle Beer Festival 2025

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!

Please note the date has changed (again) as it turned out it clashed with Mothering Sunday!

It is now a week earlier on Sunday 3rd March at 2pm in the Canine Club, Accrington