Hinckley Beer Festival 2017
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