The Solihull Beerhunter
is the Solihull Beerhunter, CAMRA's regular columnist for the Solihull Times. With his mighty pen in one hand and a cask-conditioned pint in the other, he fearlessly champions the cause of Real Ale and cider throughout the borough and beyond...
Think Local
by Toby Jugg, 12 July 2008
Television soaps come under a lot of fire for their hyperbolical slant on modern life - all sex, drugs and punch-ups - but there's one area where I actually wish life would imitate art.
Whenever the cast of Emmerdale, Coronation Street or Eastenders pop into their local pub (and there's only ever one, just as no one's allowed to move to any location where there isn't an existing set), they always ask for a pint of their local beer.
The Woolpack has Ephraim Monk on tap, the Rover's Return serves Newton & Ridley with Betty's hot pot and you'll probably earn yourself a "Walford kiss" from one of the Mitchell brothers if you ask for anything other than Churchills in the Queen Vic.
Even the longest-running soap in history - Radio 4's The Archers - has Shires Bitter for the folk of Ambridge to drown their sorrows down at the Bull.
But go into most real-life pubs and you'll be lucky to see anything beyond the national blands - sorry, brands - dished out in every other corner of the land.
This country has a fine brewing tradition stretching back several thousand years, hardly surprising when you consider the dangers posed by drinking the water back in the days when urban sanitation comprised of a bucket and an open window.
So next time you drop into an unfamiliar pub and spot a guest beer or cider behind the bar, look a little closer. If it tickles your tastebuds, all the better. I've began plenty of my happiest relationships with regional ales that very same way.
Festival Spirits Undampened
by Toby Jugg, 7 July 2007
It takes a lot to dampen the spirits of real ale enthusiasts, but last summer's appalling weather and widespread flooding left many a CAMRA member drowning their sorrows as pubs were shut down and events cancelled throughout the country.
One such casualty was the popular Worcester Beer Festival, called off when its venue – the city's famous racecourse – disappeared under several feet of water.
Twelve months on, however, the organisers are determined their ninth festival (14-16 August) will be the biggest yet. More than 10,000 visitors are expected to sample more than 200 ales, as well as 100 ciders and perries.
And appropriately for a racecourse, festival chair Bill Ottaway and his team are hedging their bets by arranging back-up sites should the weather take a turn for the worse. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that they aren't needed.
Meanwhile, Solihull CAMRA has launched full steam ahead with plans for our tenth beer festival, to be held on 3-4 October at the Royal British Legion in Union Road. Last year's, which coincided with the branch's silver jubilee, proved such a huge success we managed to drink the event dry a full two hours ahead of schedule.
As well as the 35 ales we've lined up, there'll be entertainment on tap as well: the White Hart Morris Dancers will be waving their hankies and bells about on Saturday lunchtime, with the laidback foursome Blues Basement slipping into a mellow groove on Saturday evening.
Can't wait that long? Well, you could always hop along to the Finstall Park football ground this weekend, for the sixth Bromsgrove Beer Festival. The organisers are promising "no amplified music", so you'll be able to enjoy your pick from 100 real ales and two dozen ciders in relative peace and quiet.
Rebels With a Coors
by Toby Jugg, 2 June 2008
Given the many social activities available to members of CAMRA's Solihull branch – not least our annual beer festival, which returns to the Royal British Legion in October – it's sometimes easy to forget that the "c" in our organisation's title stands for "campaign".
This coming Saturday, however, a delegation of our members is heading up to Burton-on-Trent, which has a history of brewing ale stretching back nearly a millennium and has been the home of the world-famous Bass brand for more than 230 years. Appropriately, the town's biggest tourist attraction is the former Bass Museum of Brewing, which first opened its doors in 1977 and attracts up to 200,000 visitors each year.
Now, any other museum this successful would face few doubts over its future, but back in 2000, Bass was purchased by the Belgian corporation InBev, which in turn sold its brewing capacity to the US heavyhitter Coors. With typical disregard for this country's heritage, Burton's tourist magnet was rebranded in 2003 as the Coors Visitor Centre and CAMRA's worst fears were finally confirmed earlier this year, when the new owners announced they was closing the museum due to falling global profits. Curiously, Coors still found the money for extensive investment in the museum maintained in its own home town in Colorado; what a surprise.
Solihull CAMRA is backing proposals to set up a registered charity and establish the Burton site as a National Brewing Museum, but that process is likely to take months – and Coors seems determined to lock the doors and dismiss the specialist staff in a matter of weeks. If you'd like to add your support to calls to keep this collection intact, there's a link to an online petition on this website; alternatively, you can forward your concerns to the company's representative, John Polglass, at Coors Brewers Ltd, 137 High Street, Burton-on-Trent, DE14 1JZ. Coors seems rather taken aback at the level of public opposition to its plans, so every letter and e-mail will make a difference.
You can find previously featured articles in the Beerhunter archive.
| 
