1872 Porter from the Elland Brewery, West Yorkshire, has today been crowned the Supreme Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2010 by a panel of judges at the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester. 

The 6.5% abv porter is described in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide as a 'creamy, full-flavoured porter, with rich liquorice flavours with a hint of chocolate from roast malt, and a soft but satisfying aftertaste of bittersweet roast and malt.' 

Graham Donning, National Winter Ales Festival organiser, praised the Champion Winter beer for its quality. He said: 'A timeless classic well worthy of this accolade. It has won many awards at CAMRA beer festivals in the past, and it's great to see this small brewer achieving such success. A perfect winter warming remedy to the snowy weather in recent weeks!' 

Winning today is especially sweet for the brewer after finishing in Silver place overall in the 2009 competition. 
Dave Sanders, Head Brewer at Elland, was elated to hear of the brewery's success. He said: 'It absolutely brilliant; we came second last year and I am thrilled to finish on top in 2010. We originally started brewing this beer at the West Yorkshire brewery, so there's quite a history behind this Victorian recipe.' 
 

Old Ales and Strong Milds
Gold- Breconshire, Ramblers Ruin (Brecon, Powys) 
Silver- Leeds, Midnight Bell (Leeds, West Yorkshire) 
Bronze- Beartown, Black Bear (Congleton, Cheshire) 

Porters
Gold- Elland, 1872 Porter (Elland, West Yorkshire) 
Silver- Sulwath, Black Galloway (Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway) 
Bronze- RCH, Old Slug Porter (Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset) 

Stouts 
Gold- Acorn, Gorlovka Imperial Stout (Barnsley, South Yorkshire) 
Silver- Beowulf, Dragon Smoke Stout (Brownhills, Staffordshire) 
Bronze- Wapping, Stout (Liverpool, Merseyside) 

Barley Wines 
Gold- Robinsons, Old Tom (Stockport, Cheshire)
Silver- Kinver, Over the Edge (Kinver, Staffordshire)
Bronze- Otley, O8 (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan) 
 

More details on our Beer Festival 2010

The first Committee meeting for the new term was held at The Globe on Weds 21st October and the following were co-opted onto the Committee.

Treasurer: Phil Wain

Pubs Officer and Locale: Kelvyn Martin

Social Sectretary:  Gary Akiens

Committee Member: Andy Sales

Committee Member: Steve Compton

Committee Member and Young Members: Tracey Webb

Social Secretary Gary Akiens has announced his first trip will be November 28th to the Bristol area with a stop off at Tewksbury on the return. Details can be found on the Leicester CAMRA Website Diary page.

The successful Leicester Beer Festivals will continue in the hands of most of the previous Committee along with input from the new team. The first BF 2010 meeting will be at The Pub, New Walk on Mon 2nd Nov at 8pm. We need members' support and hope to see volunteers new and old coming on board to plan this flagship event in the Leicester area.

Our sincere thanks go to all of the departing Committee Members for their significant input in the past.

Updated Andy Sales 23rd Oct 2009

Bees Brewery of Queniborough has closed with Alec moving to Norfolk. Alec has relocacted to Plot 2, Coast Road, Walcott, Norfolk. NR12 0LS.

Rugby Brewing Co, Rugby and Wild Walker of Derby are both reported to have ceased trading.

Andy Sales Updated 24 Dec 2009

The pub boast 15 handpumps, 10 of which are expected to be in use from the opening day.

Leicester CAMRA wish Paul Summers and his staff all the very best with this new venture.

23 Sept 09.

Pubs in the Castle Rock Brewery group are to accept money off vouchers issued by a national pub chain.  The 50p per pint discount scheme, aimed specifically at members of CAMRA has been introduced to promote pubs run by J D Wetherspoon and sent to members as a series of dated cards worth £20 in total.  

“Castle Rock Brewery beers are not available in Wetherspoons” says Steve Bramley, Castle Rock’s operations director.  “And they are never likely to be as our brewery is producing at capacity with Harvest Pale, champion bitter of Britain in 2007, by far our most popular. 

“So, as you can’t get our ales in Wetherspoons, we invite CAMRA members to join us at all our pubs including Loughborough's Swan in the Rushes and The Crown at Old Dalby, where the 50p vouchers will be honoured on any of our own beers. Non CAMRA members aren't left out as they can still enjoy the benefit of our ‘one over the eight’ scheme which mounts up to an 11% discount of many popular ales,” says Steve. 

Castle Rock Brewery’s rival’s redemption scheme starts on 1 September and will operate in tandem with the national chain’s promotion.

Castle Rock pub list http://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/publist.html

Paul is interested to hear any ideas for a name for the pub which is less than 100yds from the current pub. The pub has been called Retro Bar, Pause, The Courthouse, De Montfort and The Wellington in recent years.

Vin IV will close on Sat 29th August with the new venue expected to open Sept 14th.

Andy Sales (updated) 20 Aug 2009

The pub has seen significant growth in real ale sales since Hugh returned a few weeks ago and Hugh firmly believes in rewarding CAMRA members for their loyalty in the pub.

The discount applies until the end of October 2009 - see the advert in Leicester Drinker No 65.

Andy Sales 12 Aug 2009.

Champion Beer of Britain - Rudgate, Ruby Mild (York, North Yorkshire)
 

Second - Oakham, Attila (Peterborough, Cambridgeshire)

Third - West Berkshire, Dr Hexter's Healer (Thatcham, Berkshire)

Mild category
Gold - Rudgate, Ruby Mild (York, North Yorkshire)
Silver - Bank Top, Dark Mild (Bolton, Lancashire)
Bronze - Highland, Dark Munro (Birsay, Orkney)

Bitter category
Gold - Surrey Hills, Ranmore Ale (Guildford, Surrey)
Silver - Butcombe, Bitter (Bristol, Avon)
Joint Bronze - Humpty Dumpty, Little Sharpie (Reedham, Norfolk)
Joint Bronze - Triple fff, Alton's Pride (Alton, Hampshire)

Best Bitter category
Gold - Southport, Golden Sands (Southport, Merseyside)
Silver - Buntingford, Britannia (Royston, Hertfordshire)
Joint Bronze - Evan Evans, Cwrw (Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire)
Joint Bronze - Thornbridge, Lord Marples (Bakewell, Derbyshire)
Joint Bronze - Vale, VPA (Brill, Buckinghamshire)

Golden Ale category
Gold - Dark Star, American Pale Ale (Ansty, West Sussex)
Joint Silver - Adnams, Explorer (Southwold, Suffolk)
Joint Silver - St Austell, Proper Job (St Austell, Cornwall)

Strong Bitter category
Gold - West Berkshire, Dr Hexter's Healer (Thatcham, Berkshire)
Silver - Thornbridge, Kipling (Bakewell, Derbyshire)
Bronze - Grain, Tamarind IPA (Harleston, Norfolk)

Speciality Beer category
Gold - Nethergate, Umbel Magna (Pentlow, Essex)
Silver - Wentworth, Bumble Beer (Wentworth, South Yorkshire)
Bronze - Amber, Chocolate Orange Stout (Ripley, Derbyshire)

Winter Beer of Britain winner (announced in January 2009)
Oakham, Attila (Cambridgshire)

Bottled Beer of Britain winners
Gold - Titanic, Stout (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire)
Silver - Great Gable, Yewbarrow (Gosforth, Cumbria)
Bronze - White Shield Brewery, White Shield (Coors, Burton-on-Trent)