Hinckley and Bosworth

Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

Hinckley Beer Festival 2017

THE 10th HINCKLEY BEER FESTIVAL 2017 – BEER FESTIVAL ORGANISER'S REPORT

The festival opened with 71 real ales and 20 ciders and perries. That is a total of 5288 pints of beer & 704 pints of cider. By Saturday night 4020 pints had been consumed, a decrease of 10% over last year and approximately 610 pints of cider, again a slight decrease on last year. Unfortunately we were unable to buck the national trend where consumption is down at most CAMRA festivals.

The first beer to sell out on Friday afternoon was, surprise surprise, Thornbridge Jaipur, a 5.9% IPA. Fortunately we had another barrel, although it didn’t last long. Other beers to zoom out on Friday evening were Buswells Best Bitter, Market Bosworth Parma Violet Porter and Titanic Plum Porter. As supplied by our meet and greet ‘clickers’ we had 1627 visitors through the door, similar to previous years coming from as far away as Surrey, West Sussex, London and Yorkshire. This included the champion “ticker” of Great Britain, Brian Moore of Sheffield, who had travelled to Hinckley to sample 20 beers that he had not tasted before to add to his collection of over 63000 beers! He doesn’t drink them all at the Festival he takes some home. After visiting our festival he was intending to follow our new, revised, Hinckley Ale Trail when I advised him of more new beers on offer in the towns pubs.

Champion beer of the festival was Market Bosworth Parma Violet Porter, a 5.0% Speciality Beer. Jon & Richard are absolutely delighted and look forward to welcoming us at the brewery to receive their certificate. Second was Buswells Best Bitter. So, quite an achievement for the two new local breweries in our area. We received nominations for 50 different beers. For the first time we accepted votes for Champion Cider of the Festival and received a total of 16 votes. Joint first with 3 votes each were Beard & Sabre Dark Raven from Cirencester and Pilton Tamoshanta from Shepton Mallet.

We had excellent sponsorship for this year for the glasses, programme, main bar and cider bar. In addition we had 74 casks and ciders sponsored. The branch is grateful to local businesses and individuals for their sponsorship and achievements in the festival programme.

On Thursday afternoon a team of 8 trained tasters, under the chairmanship of Norman, judged East Midlands Champion Beer of Britain 2017- Strong Bitters. Gold went to Blue Monkey Ape Ale at 5.4%, Silver to Dancing Duck Abduction 5.5% and Bronze that there to Thornbridge Jaipur 5.9%.

We received excellent media coverage from Hinckley Times and Radio Leicester. Our Facebook Page is full of illuminating material.

Louise and her staff did an amazing job at short notice to provide us with proper festival food. Set-up went extremely well with all but 2 beers delivered, racked and cooled by Monday evening. Lots of volunteers to carry out other tasks through the week and everything in place for opening Thursday at midday.

However, on a serious note, we were short of 6 helpers on Sunday morning take down compared to last year, every branch member cannot possibly be at church! My eternal thanks go to the Wallis’ and the Oakes’ who worked through to mid-afternoon with Gwill Smith and myself to make one trip to the lock up and to Norman, Adrian and Peter Scott who helped me complete the task by mid-afternoon on Monday.

My thanks go to my beer festival committee, who have carried out their specialist responsibilities and everyone who has helped at, and with the festival in any way over the last 5 years. I wish my successor good luck and any amount of assistance for the future.

Chris James - Beer Festival Organiser

GBG PRESENTATIONS

The Beer Festival Opening Ceremony coincided with the release of CAMRA's Good Beer Guide for 2018. The licensees of the pubs and clubs from Hinckley and Bosworth that have been included in the Good Beer Guide 2018 were presented with their GBG pack by Tim Page, CAMRA CEO.

The 2018 GBG entries for Hinckley and Bosworth are:-

The Rising Sun
The New Plough
The Pestle & Mortar
The Queen's Head, Hinckley
The Lime Kilns
The George & Dragon
The Elbow Room
Burbage & District Constitutional Club
[not available to receive the licensee GBG pack on the day]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR GBG LICENSEES!



Photos courtesy of Alan Cooke

SPONSORSHIP

As always, Hinckley and Bosworth CAMRA are delighted to involve our supporters in the beer festival by having a “sponsor a cask” scheme, where each cask provides a message along with a listing of the sponsor and their business details. Thanks go out to all of this year's cask sponsors for the 2017 Beer Festival.

MANY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CASK SPONSORS FOR 2017:-

Cask No Sponsor Address Town Telephone
11 7 Race Series C/o Trinity House Hinckley 01455 239900
33 A1 Taxi Booking Services Ltd 7A Church Walk Hinckley 01455 615161
41 All Hire (Sales) Ltd 8 Hawley Road Hinckley 01455 617949
32 Apollo Carpets 317 Coventry Road Hinckley 01455 635190
34 B Page & Son Cycles 3 Rugby Road Hinckley 01455 634014
9 Barbara Bowley
18 Baron of Hinckley 5 - 7 Regents Street Hinckley 01455 890169
54 Belvoir! 1 Wood Street Hinckley 01455 634735
30 Betty Ann 122 Castle Street Hinckley 01455 632733
67 Blacksmith’s Arms Chapel Street Barwell 01455 698485
5 Bond Street Trophies 4 Clifton Way Hinckley 01455 890007
51 Bray & Bray 33 Station Road Hinckley 01455 639900
50 Burbage Constitutional Club 64 Church Street Burbage 01455 616558
52 Chris Bennett The Barber 31 Trinity Lane Hinckley 07985418170
10 Citizens Club 81 Mount Road Hinckley 01455 615113
5 Contactus Framing 3 The Borough Hinckley 07970450384
38 Cross Keys Chapel Street Barwell 01455 843535
24 DOGS (Dadlington Old Gits Society) The Green Dadlington 07803166956
4 Dowsett Moore 17 Station Road Hinckley 01455 230537
22 Dowsett Moore 24A Coton Road Nuneaton 02476 374437
C Elbow Room & Ale House 26 Station Road Hinckley 07900191388
58 Elite Printing Dawsons Lane Barwell 01455 843296
65 Enterprise Workwear Units 1, 2 & 3 Dodwells Road Hinckley 01455 619402
62 Furnicraft Ltd George Street Hinckley 01455 632803
28 G S Tighe Carpentry 50 Woodland Ave Burbage 07553 511081
66 Gary Haigh 14 Edyth Road Wyken 07939904731
69 Geoffrey Hill Solicitors 11 Station Road Hinckley 01455 637715
61 GS Solicitors 23 Station Road Hinckley 01455 618763
C Hinckley BID 76 Castle Street Hinckley 01455 698494
56 Hinckley Fireplaces 80 Rugby Road Hinckley 01455 635050
49 Hinckley IT 65 Stockwell Head Hinckley 01455 619222
1 Hinckley RFC Leicester Road Hinckley 01455 615010
55 Hinckley Shoe Repairs 6 The Borough Hinckley 01455 637979
39 Hubbard's Toy Cupboard 29 Regent Street Hinckley 01455 618695
20 IPH Print Limestone Hall Lane Rugby 02476 543716
47 J T Tilley & Sons 3 Lutterworth Road Burbage 01455 239303
40 Jon Joseph Interiors 16 Newton Road Hinckley 07971174747
16 Keith Dream (GBBF) Olympia London
3 Mark Hammonds Nutts Lane Hinckley 07803232380
67 McMillan Motorsport Trinity House, Coventry Road Hinckley 01455 239900
12 Midsat 12 Lower Bond Street Hinckley 01455 250548
57 Mike B’s 4 - 8 Rugby Road Hinckley 01455 891046
31 Mortgage Advice Bureau 94 Castle Street Hinckley 07738221171
7 New Plough Inn 24 Leicester Road Hinckley 01455 615037
42 North Wilshire Carpets George Street Hinckley 07803613605
25 Onyx Windows Ltd 96 Factory Road Hinckley 01455 615588
14 Pat Barker Academy of Dance Unit 2, Holywell House Hinckley 01453 841166
8 Pestle & Mortar 81 Castle Street Hinckley 07715106876
27 Philip James 5 George Street Hinckley 01455 634323
24 Progress Windows 30 Westfield Road Hinckley 01455 632731
35 Richard III Society 29 McCaulay Road Coventry 07986321820
68 Romans Leisure Spa Sketchley Grange Hotel Burbage 01455 287111
64 Smart Vision 14 Blenheim Close Hinckley 01455 697411
19 Stormseal Roofing Unit 3, Oaks Industrial Estate Earl Shilton
C Swinton Aerial Ltd 60 Twycross Road Burbage 07590206643
21 The Boss Shop 14 Derby Road Hinckley 07434594661
29 The Greyhound 9 New Buildings Hinckley 01455 697575
60 The Lime Kilns Watling Street Burbage 01455 631158
15 The Lock Shop 69 Castle Street Hinckley 01455637270
6 The Lord Hop 38 Queens Road Nuneaton 02477 981869
59 The Queens Head 80 High Street Barwell 01455 843026
70 The Queens Head 40 Upper Bond Street Hinckley 07887770038
44 The Railway Station Road Hinckley 01455 612399
C The Rising Sun Church Road Shackerstone 01827 880215
C Tollg8 Garage 50 Coventry Road Burbage 01455 615785
37 Tom Payne, Goldsmiths 140 Castle Street Hinckley 01455 632642
36 TOPPS of Barwell 3 Chapel Street Barwell 01455 444703
43 Weavers Arms Derby Road Hinckley 07545107501

2016 BEER FESTIVAL
Last updated 2 October 2017