Forget Pancake Day – its full steam ahead for Oatcake celebration

Oatcake Day fun will be on the menu at Titanic Brewery Staffordshire pubs as the Potteries based brewery gives its backing to Oatcake Day 2012 on August 8.

The Stoke-on-Trent brewer has struck a deal to sponsor the special day in honour of the unique North Staffordshire delicacy.

Oatcake Day was founded by local DJ Terry Bossons in 2010 and has rapidly grown in popularity.

More than 8,000 people backed a campaign on Facebook after Terry, of Biddulph, suggested the North Staffordshire oatcake should have its own special day.

Terry organises a special music night every year to honour the oatcake and has become known for enticing music, tv and sports stars to pose with an “I Support Oatcake Day” placard.

Stars from rock guitarist Slash to comedian Ricky Gervais have been persuading to back Oatcake Day by Terry.

He said: “Support for Oatcake Day has grown rapidly since we first launched it in 2010. The community has really got behind the campaign and it is fantastic that we now have Titanic Brewery in place as a sponsor.

“It is a great fit – two great North Staffordshire products working together – and the promotion of Oatcake Day in the Titanic pubs will add a lot to the buzz surrounding Oatcake Day 2012.”

Keith Bott, Managing Director of Titanic Brewery, said: “Titanic Brewery is based on Burslem, the Mother Town of the Potteries, so throwing our support behind Oatcake Day seemed a natural thing to do.

“We will work with Terry and his team to promote the day and hold celebrations in our pubs in Stoke, Burslem, Newcastle , Leek, Stafford and Stone.”

On Sunday 27th May Paul Halsey and 5 other Purity colleagues will be doing a sponsored charity ride around the Warwickshire countryside.

Purity have set themselves a fundraising target at £150 ( although I know with your generous support they will smash this!). This equates to £1 for every mile cycled by the team. Donations will be split equally between Cyclists Fighting Cancer and The Shakespeare Hospice. If you want to get the sponsorship ball rolling please click the link below

http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/puritybrewingco

Any donation is gratefully received, whatever the amount – it all helps.

Thanks for your support,

Jill, Giles, Flo, Mark, Paul and Steff!

Feel free to pass on the link to anyone else you think might be willing to sponsor us!

They’ve done it again, Tring Brewery have produced another fine nectar to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Would Jubileve It is brewed using a combination of four malts and, as with all their Monthly Specials this year, UK-grown hops. This yields a 4.0% amber coloured beer with a hop characteristic that will offer a subtle bitterness and floral, herbal flavour and aroma characteristics and it has been crafted to be a very drinkable session beer, just in case of over-enthusiastic toasting to Her Majesty!

Demand is expected to be high, so if you want to order some for your Jubilee street party, you’d better get in quick! For parties you may want to order 9, 18, 36 or 72 pint containers.

The brewery shop will be open on the Friday before the Jubilee weekend until 7.30pm, normal hours on Saturday, then closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Tring Brewery, Dunsley Farm, London Road, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 6HA

Telephone 01442 890721

www.tringbrewery.co.uk

After launching their new branding and extended bottled beer range in February, The Loddon Brewery sent out their new bottles to a number of beer bloggers to ask their opinions. Marverine Cole (AKA Beer Beauty), journalist, presenter and Beer writer, enjoyed their bottled Ferryman’s Gold so much that when invited to do a beer tasting on ITV’s This Morning, she decided to feature it!

The focus of the tasting was beers that women would enjoy and presenter Holly Willoughby was certainly very impressed. Phillip Schofield also enjoyed the beer with both of them commenting on how ‘easy drinking’ it was and Holly remarked, ‘I really like that!’. Marverine Cole praised Loddon’s new branding and used the Ferryman’s Gold to make a beer Mojito which was also a hit. Other beer styles the ‘Beer Beauty’ featured were an imperial stout, a champagne beer and an IPA.

http://www.itv.com/thismorning/food/ladies-ales/

Thornbridge’s Raven wins Bronze in the largest global beer competition

Brewers from around the world received awards from an elite international panel of judges in the 2012 Brewers Association World Beer Cup. The ninth bi-annual competition boasted the strongest field of entrants on record, with 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 U.S. states entering 3,921 beers.  The entries were eligible for gold, silver and bronze awards in their respective categories. Judges presented a total of 284.

“It’s called ‘The Olympics of Beer Competition for good reason,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association, the U.S.-based trade association that has put on the competition every two years since 1996. “The event brings together great brewers from all corners of the globe. Plus, the awards are highly regarded. A brewer who wins a World Beer Cup gold award knows that their winning beer represents the best of that beer style in the world. Congratulations to all the winners of the 2012 World Beer Cup. The Brewers Association and the proud sponsors of our event thank all participating brewers for their involvement.”

Thornbridge’s Raven was awarded a bronze medal in the American Style Black Ale category. “With 71 breweries from the UK entering the competition and only 2 wining awards this highlights the intensity of the competition” says Simon Webster, Thornbridge’s Chief Operating Officer.  “We are obviously delighted that Raven was successful as it is winning a growing number of fans in the UK, the US and in Europe”.

The Bath - Brian Johnson (left) and Mike Pidgeon (right)

Thornbridge Brewery have just announced that they have signed a 10 year leasehold agreement to take over the running of the Bath Hotel, Victoria Street, Sheffield. The Bath’s current owner Brian Johnson has run the pub for the last 12 years maintaining  the pub’s reputation as one of the most iconic pubs in Sheffield serving great beer.  “It’s been great fun running The Bath and I want to thank all the valued customers we have had” says Brian “but it’s time to spend more time with my wife and family. We were  delighted when we found out that Thornbridge would be interested in the pub as I know it is going to be in great hands”.

Simon Webster, Thornbridge’s Chief Operating Officer, says “The Bath has been recognised in Sheffield and also nationally, it is a CAMRA heritage listed pub, as well as a great place to drink beer.  We understand its history and the affection people have for it and we will honour this in the minimal changes we will make to the pub, but rest assured we will enhance what is there and continue to make the pub a credit to the city. With it being Free of Tie it will also give us an opportunity to showcase beers from some of the other great breweries from around the UK”.

Thornbridge was recently judged best pub operating micro brewery by The Publican magazine and the new agreement with The Bath takes to 12 the number of pubs, bars and restaurants they now run in conjunction with sister company BrewKitchen.

The Bath will be managed by Thornbridge’s  Pubs Operations Manager Mike Pidgeon and on a daily basis by Edd Entwistle  -   one of  the management team from Thornbridge that took over the run down Highlife Hotel and reopened it as the Greystones which has had great success over the past 2 years.

The final word on the change of management goes to Brian – “ It’s great to see Sheffield become a national centre for beer and pubs – I often felt that we were an outpost fighting a lost cause but now see that things have turned around with more and more people enjoying  the ever increasing variety of beers now available and as always a great place to drink it – I’ll certainly be visiting the Bath to enjoy both”.

The Chiltern Brewery in Buckinghamshire were thrilled when a customer sent in a photo of their recent wedding cake. The cake was made out of different cheeses, decorated beautifully and crowned with a round of The Chiltern Brewery’s Terrick Truckle Cheese.

This award winning cheese is specially made for The Chiltern Brewery using Chiltern Ale and garlic mustard as ingredients. It is clearly just the right size and ideal for the top tier of your cheese wedding cake with a nice pint of Chiltern Ale to wash it down with!

Wednesday 4th April in the Farmers’ Bar in The King’s Head in Market Square, Aylesbury saw the momentous ‘uncorking’ of the first bottle of The Chiltern Brewery’s fabulous bottle conditioned Jubilee commemorative sparkling ales.

The first sip of the first bottle of this truly prestigious beer was tasted by Susanna Forbes, the freelance journalist and inspiration behind DrinkBritain.com a new website dedicated to her passionate love of great British drinks.

Susanna said “It was a pleasure to meet Tom and George Jenkinson – and also their pioneering father Richard. It’s wonderful to see a brewery established when craft breweries were such a rarity continuing to not only thrive but also remain ahead with tasty new brews like the Jubilee Sparkling Ale. The flavours in this beer are rich and satisfying, with honeyed apricots, peaches and raisins on the palate, and lots of texture. The gentle sparkle really adds to the food friendliness of it all, but I do also like your suggestion of serving it in Champagne flutes.”

“What a great occasion” said brewer George Jenkinson. “We were so pleased that Susanna could come here to help us celebrate in true style. It’s a real honour. Both my brother Tom and myself have the greatest respect for Susanna’s growing reputation as an authority on British beer and to receive her endorsement for our new bottled ale was very special.”

This latest in the line of limited edition beers from The Chiltern Brewery has been brewed as a commemorative ale for the landmark royal occasion of Her Majesty the Queen’s 60th year on the throne. It is a prestigious champagne-style rich amber ale of 6% vol, limited to just one thousand numbered 750 ml bottles, with creamy honey notes and hints of citrus. It is unfiltered, unpasteurised and bottled with its original yeast to create a connoisseur’s delight. The bottles are available from the brewery shop in Terrick and on the website www.chilternbrewery.co.uk between now and the 4th June.

Draught Jubilee ale at 3.9% vol will be launched on 29th April and will be similarly available.

Cheers!