Presentations
During our monthly Branch meeting on 6th October 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.
Pub of the Year 2022
The results of the Amber Valley CAMRA Pub of the Year 2022 competition were announced at the AGM as follows –
First place – The Talbot, Ripley
Second place – Dead Poets, Holbrook
Cider Pub of the Year 2022
The results of the Amber Valley CAMRA Cider Pub of the Year 2022 competition were announced at the AGM as follows –
First place – The Beehive, Ripley
Second place – Dead Poets, Holbrook
Pub of the Year 2020
The results of the Amber Valley CAMRA Pub of the Year 2020 competition were announced at the AGM as follows –
First place – White Hart, Bargate
Second place – Dead Poets, Holbrook
Third place – Old Oak, Horsley
Congratulations to Sean and the team at the White Hart and thanks to all members who nominated pubs to go into the competition and all those who judged the eight finalists.
THE FIVE BRANCHES WINTER ALE TRAIL 2020
The Amber Valley CAMRA Winter Ale Trail top three placed pubs are –
1st Hunters Arms, Kilburn
2nd Codnor Inn, Codnor
3rd George and Dragon, Belper
Cider Pub of the Year 2020
Winner Angels Bar, Belper
Runner-up Dead Poets Inn, Holbrook
Angels Bar, as Amber Valley Cider Pub of the Year 2020, will go forward to the East Midlands Cider Pub of the Year Competition, judged in March 2020.
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
Amber Valley Mild Trail 2019
During May Amber Valley, in conjunction with Derby, ran a mild trail. The Amber Valley winner was Angels Bar, Belper and the runner up was the Red Lion, Ripley. In Derby the winner was the Smithfield with the Flowerpot as runner up.
We presented the winners certificate to Angels Bar on Friday June 21st and a runner-up certificate to the Red Lion on Thursday 27th June.
Presentation of Certificates
The award winners below were presented with their certificates during March see our Awards page for pictures.
Talbot, Ripley (Pub of the Year Winner)
White Hart, Bargate (Pub of the Year Runner-up)
Thorn Tree, Belper (Winter Ales Trail Winner)
What’s your Poison, Alfreton (Winter Ales Trail Runner-up)
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
South Derbyshire Pub of the Year
The accolades keep on coming for our very own Amber Valley Pub of the year, with it also picking up the South Derbyshire Pub of the year title 2018.
Below, Gareth Stead, Area organiser did the honours, with the White Hart Bargate going through to the East Midlands Round (Which includes the 5 area winners), with judging closing today 5th August.
The next stage, if successful is where the 16 regional finalists, will be whittled down to 4 nationally’
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).
Pub and Club of The Year
We are pleased to announce that our Pub of the Year for 2017 is the White Hart, Bargate
Runner Up is the Holly Bush at Makeney.
East Midlands Pub of the Year
Following on from their recent award of Derbyshire South Pub Of The Year, we are delighted to announce that our Pub of the Year, the Old Oak at Horsley Woodhouse, has now won East Midlands Pub Of The Year. They now progress to the next round of judging, competing for one of the four super-regional crowns. Congratulations to Tracey and her team for winning another award and being the first Amber Valley pub to get past the County and Regional judging stages. We wish them the best of luck in the next round.
