LOCAL BREWERS (July 2009)

Bartram

Many congratulations to Marc Bartram and his family who recently celebrated 10 years of brewing. A brewery party was held in a large marquee at Rougham Airfield with plenty of beer and music on a warm and pleasant afternoon. Several local CAMRA members attended and enjoyed the party. The brewer was also pleased to receive a certificate from Chrisy Roden, festival organizer of the recent East Anglian Beer Festival CAMRA (in Bury St Edmunds) after their special beer “Barwells the Butcher” won the gold award at the festival (Crouch Vale Brewers’ Gold was second and Felstar Backstabber was third). Chrisy was also very pleased to present cheques for £2350 to representatives of both the local Citizens Advice Bureau and the local Volunteer Centre – West Suffolk branch chairman, Kevin Waterstone, officiated.

Green Jack

Owner Tim Dunford was very pleased to officially open his new brewery in Love St, Lowestoft recently. The site has taken about a year to refit as a brewery and offers a significant increase in brewing capacity for the popular local brewer. He also plans to retain the existing brewery behind the nearby Triangle Tavern for small batch production. Orange Wheat has also just scooped more 2 prizes, including the overall supreme Real Ale at the annual EDP & Evening News Sponsored traditional Ale and Food evening at the historic Masonic Rooms in Norwich. Also keep up to date with what’s going on at the brewery through their new website – see http://green-jack.com

Greene King

Rooney Anand, Chief Executive of the company has admitted some sympathy for minimum alcohol pricing proposed by the Scottish Government as his business posted double-digit profit gains north of the border. He also believes that they “are in a stronger position now than they were two years ago, when the initial warning signs of an impending slowdown appeared at the front line of the business." A recent acquisition of 11 managed Punch Taverns pubs for £30.4m, was evidence that their strategy would appear to be working. Despite coming through what he described as the “toughest trading period for many years”,

Anand’s bullish assessment of his company’s position came as the group announced pre-tax profits for the year to May 3, 2009, down 15% at £139.4m on turnover up of £942.3m, up 1.3%. Basic earnings per share came in at 72.6p, down 8.4%, while the group maintained its final dividend at 15.1p, making a 22.4p dividend per share for the full year, in line with 2007/08. Also bolstered by its recent rights issue, which generated more than £200m for the group, Greene King had “the best assets, brands and people to continue growing our share of the market”, he added.

Brewery support during the year has included £4m of financial help for tenants, though Anand warned the group was not a “charity”. Instead such help was conditional “on our licensees changing elements of their business to increase their consumer appeal”. However some local tenants have not been impressed with the support (or sympathy) they are getting and one in particular - Nick Irwin, landlord of the Sudbury Wagon & Horses for the past 25 years - said on BBC TV that he has had enough and is quitting as a GK tenant. He claims that trade is still down and the brewery is not helping him.

St Jude's

This brewery is located in an 18 th cent coach house in Cardigan St, Ipswich and was recently visited by two Mayor's of Ipswich - David Hale, the former Mayor and David Goldsmith the new Mayor. The brewery has established a good reputation for their range of bottled beers and presented the two mayors with their own personalised labelled bottled ale. Colleen Seymour runs the firm with her partner Frank Walsh and she was pleased to report that the 7 barrel brewery is currently going “from strength to strength”. Their bottled beers have particularly been going well with regular sales through the East of England Co-ops. Up to 13 local Co-ops are now stocking their beers and the list is still growing. They have also been recently featured in the Co-op staff news paper regarding the upgrades of all the stores and buying of local products. Also pictured is the local Co-op Sourcing manager, Kevin Warden at their Framlingham store. St Judes cask ale is also selling well in the recently reopened Crown on Felixstowe Road Ipswich and can be found in other off-licenses such as Memorable Cheeses in Ipswich.

Sticklegs
by Tom Trimby (Head Brewer) and Ken Brand (Sticklegs BLO)

I have been brewing at home for the past 25 years. Having tried a couple of homebrew kits and thrown the results away I started making full mash brews using a 5 gallon Baby Burco and various other plastic containers etc.

At one point I was making 5 gallons a week and I gained a lot of new friends. It occurred to me that in the time taken to brew 5 gallons I could make 10 so in the mid nineties I upgraded to a 10 gallon plant. Following numerous discussions with Richard (The Cross Inn) it was decided that it would be a good idea to set up a brewery at the back of the pub.

The first pints were on sale at the Cross Inn May Beer Festival 2008 and since then a number of modifications and improvements have been made to the plant and the beers. We currently supply beer to the Cross Inn almost exclusively but we have sent some to a couple of festivals most notably the Harlequin in Sheffield. They requested 9 gallons of Malt Shovel Mild for their Spring Beer Festival, which I was pleased to supply as I had a good stock. The Mild was duly tapped and spilled and went on sale, the good news is that not only did the 9 gallons sell out in 25 minutes, but it was also voted beer of the festival! Great news for the Cross Inn and the Brewery, but also for the Tendring Branch of CAMRA.

Malt Shovel Mild was also voted ‘Beer of the Festival’ at the CAMRA Colchester Real Ale & Cider Festival too.

The Sticklegs brewery is named after our dog whose real name is Sam. Being a rescue dog he was extremely thin when we first had him and Sticklegs was the nickname that I gave him. Sticklegs beer has now been around for a number of years so it seemed only right to continue using the name for our Brewery.

The brewery is made up of stainless steel vessels, electrically powered and is a half barrel capacity plant. I can currently produce just over 1 barrel per week. (A brewer’s barrel - 36 gallons).

At the present time I regularly brew 3 beers.

Malt Shovel Mild 3.4% This has proved to be very popular dispelling the myth that nobody wants mild.

Bitter 3.8%

Prize Fighter 4.0%

This is named in honor of the fact that a former British Heavyweight boxing champion was Landlord of the
Cross Inn during the fifties. You can visit us at www.sticklegs.co.uk

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