Oakham Ales, the acclaimed innovative ale brewery based in the East Midlands, has appointed Steve Fuller as an Area Sales Manager for the ‘East Region’. The sales team has grown from three to five since 2010, reflecting the strong sales growth for the Oakham Ales range of draught and bottled beers.

Steve Fuller, who previously worked for Middleton Wholesale, will cover an area to include Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, North-East Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and East Riding of Yorkshire. He will be responsible for developing Oakham’s direct supplied free-trade customers as well distributor and wholesaler supplied outlets within this area.

Adrian Posnett, Oakham Ales Managing Director comments: “It’s great to have Steve on board. With a rapidly growing number (currently 208) of ‘Oakademy of Excellence’ member outlets nationally – that’s venues that serve Oakham Ales on a permanent basis – as well as an increasing number of regular stockists of our beers supplied through our network of distributors, we needed to strengthen our sales team to meet this growing demand. Steve brings with him a wealth of experience in the trade and his genial manner will make him a great asset to our team”

Congratulations to Wibblers who have taken the title of  Best Drink  product in the Essex Food and Drink Awards.

Nigel Sadler will be speaking to BBC Essex Radio at 3.30 today. To listen to the interview tune in to listen to the Etholle George Program  click here

You can view all the winners of the Essex Food and Drink Awards here

Congratulations to all winners.  To view the full results click here

DATE OF JUDGING                                         21st September 2011

Beers available at the festival this weekend.  yourround BeerCAM

Overall Champion of the Competition Sponsored by Crisp Malting Group Ltd

Richard and Pauline Smith aboard their new narrow boat – Bishops Farewell

When Pauline and Richard Smith of Yaxley, Peterborough, purchased their first boat they were considering what to name it. The fifty-two foot narrow boat, based in Yarwell, will be regularly cruising the River Nene. Richard said: “We have three beautiful grand-daughters, the name of any one of which would look really good on the side of the cabin – but how could we possibly pay homage to one without offending the sensibilities of the others?” As Pauline and Richard are both enthusiastic consumers of the beers of the local brewer – Oakham Ales – they settled upon one of their favourite beer’s and decided to name their boat – ‘Bishops Farewell’.

Richard continues: “I’m a great believer in supporting local businesses but this isn’t the reason we always return to Oakham’s products – in our opinion they really do stand head and shoulders above their rivals. Bishops Farewell has a strong link to Peterborough, something else I like to promote whenever anyone will listen (we’ve both lived here all our lives) and we also love the Brewery Tap as a place to chill out at the weekend – it’s ever so slightly quirky and the staff are quite exceptional.

Richard continues: “It does bring a smile to the face of those that cotton-on when they see it for the first time. But as often as not it causes some quizzical looks among passing boaters and you can see them thinking, “I wonder what…..” I’m sure some of them think I’m a retired clergyman! So in the quieter moments, such as when we are waiting to go through a lock, we take great pride in bringing some enlightenment to the curious.”

Adrian Posnett, managing director of Oakham Ales comments: “We feel honoured that Richard and Pauline chose one of our ales to name their narrow boat. The team at Oakham wish them many hours of happy boating and I will keep my eyes peeled for our ‘namesake’ next time I’m passing the River”.

The team at Oakham Ales has developed quite a reputation for ‘living’ the launch of the beer that is unveiled at the Peterborough Beer Festival (23rd-27th August). This year, the introduction of Dreamcatcher, a deep paprika red beer, bursting with blackberry, blackcurrant and black cherry flavours and a hearty 6.9% A.B.V. has led to the Oakham Ales office-based team dressing up as Native Americans. The Squaws walked from Europe’s largest brew pub – the Brewery Tap – to the Peterborough Beer Festival, with guests of the Brewery hard on their trail.

Adrian Posnett, Oakham Ales Managing Director comments: “We have developed quite a reputation for creating an atmosphere for the launch of our festival beer, and this year visitors won’t be disappointed. Our head brewer Alex Kean, came up with the name, and the team in the office have been working hard creating their Native American outfits. Dreamcatcher is a lovely smooth beer that I’m confident will be a festival favourite.”

Dreamcatcher will be available on draught from the 23rd August through the free trade and via selected distributors. For further sales information contact Oakham Ales on telephone: 01733 370500 or e-mail: sales@oakhamales.com

Jamie Hookham

Oakham Ales distribution supervisor, Jamie Hookham, sadly learned the tragic consequences of undetected ovarian cancer last year when his mother died aged just sixty. He decided that he wanted to raise awareness of the disease as well as for Ovacome, the UK’s only nationwide support group for those affected by ovarian cancer. He is embarking on a four-day, 450 mile bike ride on the 9th July 2011. It will start in Forfar, Scotland and end at the Brewery, based in Peterborough. Oakham Ales have provided Jamie with the bike and the cycling kit and he aims to raise £3,000 for the charity.

“Some 90% of women do not know the symptoms of ovarian cancer, despite it hitting 6,800 women in the UK every year,” says Ovacome’s chief executive Louise Bayne. “We rely on fundraising to help us warn women against the main symptoms of the disease – persistent bloating, eating less and feeling fuller and abdominal pain – because if caught at the earliest stage, patients have a 90% survival rate beyond five years,” she says.

Jamie, aged thirty-four, has worked for Oakham Ales for the past six years and is engaged to be married to his long-term partner. The couple have two children. He says: “Ovacome were so helpful to us last year and supported us through a very difficult time. I don’t think many people know enough about the symptoms of ovarian cancer. I wanted to do something to help raise awareness of the charity and the disease.”

The charity offers its services free of charge to sufferers, family, friends and health professionals. For £20 Ovacome can pay for a place at its annual members’ day in which women can hear about the latest medical advances and meet other women in their position. For £2,500 the charity can pay for a nurse to work on its helpline for a month. £10 allows the charity to send out its information pack to a newly-diagnosed woman.

If you wish to donate to Ovacome or to Jamie’s bike ride you can do so by visting: www.justgiving.com/jamie-hookham. For more information on Ovacome visit http://www.ovacome.org.uk/

For more information on Oakham Ales visit www.oakhamales.com

Oakham Ales, the acclaimed innovative ale brewery based in the East Midlands, is supplying M&S with its new ‘M&S Cambridgeshire Summer Ale’ from the first week of May until the end of September 2011. The new refreshing beer with an A.B.V. of 4.2% will feature in the retailer’s real-ale bottled beer range. It will be available throughout 250 Southern based and nationally larger M&S stores priced at approximately £2.19 per bottle.

This new listing builds on the success of Oakham’s new bottled beer range introduction, which includes: JHB, Inferno, Bishops Farewell and the recently added Citra. Waitrose and Tesco stock JHB throughout their stores within a fifty mile radius of Peterborough and Waitrose has recently taken Citra, in the East Anglia region since the beginning of April 2011.

Adrian Posnett, Managing Director of Oakham Ales said: “As part of our current growth plan and the development of the Oakham Ales brands, we have now put resources in place to enable us to give the required focus to the take-home side of our business. We are really encouraged with the early response”.

“Gaining profile in prestigious retailers such as M&S, Waitrose and Tesco is fantastic. It will introduce new drinkers to our beers that may not have had the opportunity to try our products on draught which is excellent news for us”.

For further sales information contact Oakham Ales on telephone: 01733 370500 or e-mail: sales@oakhamales.com

Bishops Farewell, brewed by Oakham Ales based in Peterborough, has been honoured in the Brewing Industry International Awards, widely dubbed the ‘Brewing Oscars’. The beer won the silver medal for the third consecutive time in the international cask ales competition (4.4%-4.8% A.B.V.) category.

Alex Kean, Head Brewer of Oakham Ales, collected the silver medal on behalf of the Brewery. He commented: “Regularly winning a medal in the Brewing Awards is a great honour. We are passionate about brewing and enormously proud of our beers. It’s great to have this recognition from the brewing industry in an increasingly competitive market.”

Some 800 beers from over 40 countries entered the Brewing Awards, which were judged in February this year in Burton-upon-Trent. Judging took three days and was carried out by a panel of highly respected brewers from around the world; uniquely, judges in the Brewing Awards are required to be currently working brewers, ensuring that the beers are assessed by experts with up to date brewing knowledge.

Ruth Evans, chief executive of competition organisers Brewing Technology Services, said:

“The Brewing Awards are highly respected around the world. Bishops Farewell has been judged by experts to be one of the finest of its type found anywhere in the world and Oakham Ales should be very proud of their achievement.”

Bishops Farewell (4.6% A.B.V. on draught and 5.0% A.B.V. in bottle) is a strong premium beer dominated by elaborate fruity hop notes. It is one of Oakham Ales’ core range of ales and is available all year. For further information on Bishops Farewell and other Oakham beers visit: http://www.oakhamales.com/bishopsfarewell.asp

For further information on the International Brewing Awards visit: www.brewingawards.org

Adrian Posnett, Managing Director of Peterborough based brewery, Oakham Ales, has been appointed partner in the acclaimed ale brewery. He will be the third partner joining Paul Hook, Senior Partner and John Bryan, Production Director.

Posnett joined Oakham Ales in January 2010 and became Managing Director during May of the same year. He has spent his entire career working in the licensed trade, initially within the family business, soft drinks wholesaler Adcocks, which was sold to The Beer Seller, a leading national drinks wholesale company (later to become WaverleyTBS) where he became a Regional Trading Director.

He intends to use his wealth of experience within the industry to continue to build on the great success of his first 12 months at the helm of the multi-award winning brewery. Posnett plans to drive sales and boost production to ensure that the plant fulfils its potential capability. These plans will be underpinned in a number of ways: by working closely with partner distributors and other regional brewers to increase national distribution, introducing an appealing bottled beer range to establish the ‘Take Home’ side of the business, increasing membership of the ‘Oakademy of Excellence’ (currently at 175 members nationally) and gaining profile for the brands implementing additional marketing and public relations support.

Paul Hook, Senior Partner at Oakham Ales said: “Adrian has already proved himself an asset to the business, since he took over at the helm last year. We are delighted to appoint him a partner, as his experience and easy manner, coupled with his ability to make things happen, make him the right person to grow Oakham Ales and help establish our beer brands nationally.”