Presentations
During our monthly Branch meeting on 6th October 2022 two presentations were made.
Our Chairman handed over a cheque to Tim Benson from the Alzheimer Society for £261, a sum raised at the Amber Valley beer festival by donations from our generous visitors.
Following this CAMRA National Executive, Gillian Hough, presented a certificate to Paul Eyden of RuRad; this CAMRA 50th Anniversary Golden Award was to recognise the sterling work done by producing ‘In the Sticks’ a monthly newsletter to publicise local beer news and readers’ tales from around the country.
Good Beer Guide 2020
Our Branch is allocated 12 entries and it’s always a tough job choosing entrants from the wide array of fantastic pubs we have in Amber Valley – Congratulations to all our entrants!!
Angels, Belper
Arkwrights, Belper
Beehive Inn, Ripley
Black Bulls Head, Openwoodgate
Holly Bush, Makeney
Old Oak, Horsley
Red Lion, Ripley
Steam packet Inn, Swanwick
Talbot, Ripley
White Hart, Bargate
Good Beer Guide 2019
Our Branch is allocated 12 entries and it’s always a tough job choosing entrants from the wide array of fantastic pubs we have in Amber Valley – Congratulations to all our entrants!!
Steampacket Inn, Swanwick
Talbot Taphouse, Ripley
Thorn Tree, Ripley
Holly Bush, Makeney
Spotted Cow, Holbrook
Angels, Belper
Arkwright, Belper
White Hart, Bargate
Black Bulls Head, Openwoodgate
Old Oak, Horsley Woodhouse
Brewery Day – Lincoln Green brewing ‘Owd Tom’
Not only were Lincoln Green Brewery kind enough to sponsor our glasses this year, they also offered to brew a festival “special” and invited some of our branch members to get involved in a brew day at their brewery in Hucknall. Brewery owner, Anthony Hughes, discovered a recipe for a brown stout dating from 1820, in keeping with our festival theme of the bicentenary of the Pentrich Revolution. Not only did he find this unique recipe for a heritage brew, he also managed to borrow a number of oak casks from one of the country’s four remaining coopers to brew it in.
Under the watchful and expert eye of head brewer Martin, four Amber Valley CAMRA members helped to carefully measure out the ingredients used and to add them at the appropriate points in the process. The traditional English brew consists of three malts, including a dark malt specially obtained for this brew, Fuggles hops, a traditional English variety, and a strain of Nottingham Ale Yeast. Cleanliness being a vital part of brewing, we also helped with the cleaning up. Shovelling the spent grain out of the mash tun was a little messy, particularly for “volunteer” Sean who had to climb inside to wash out the remains with a hosepipe!
We left our brew to ferment in its casks and advised by Anthony a week later that it had resulted in a very assertively flavoured brown stout with highly intense malt flavours of treacle, molasses and chicory likely to be around 6.2% ABV. Whilst this Revolutionist’s Brown Stout (by now named “Owd Tom”) would be a very tasty ale in its original format, and certainly interesting as a one-off festival special, Lincoln Green decided to experiment further by blending it with two of their existing beers, Tuck and Hood. This has produced two more unique Revolutionist’s Brown Stouts of lower strength (5.3%-5.5%) and limited amounts of these will also be available at the Festival. They have been named “Brandreth, Ludlam and Turner” (Tuck Blend) and “Hangman’s Noose” (Hood Blend).
