Purity Brewing Co. is pleased to be sponsoring the Birmingham Comedy Festival 2010 and is passing on the benefit to their Facebook and Twitter friends.

The event takes place across Birmingham from 1^st to 10^th October with over 50 performances lined up so far. Any news such as added dates, venues, acts and competitions will be announced first on Purity’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

Headline acts this year include Armstrong and Miller and Ross Noble, but the festival also makes way for local acts such as Mrs Barbara Nice, the award-winning Shazia Mirza and Jo Enright, from Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights and Britain’s Got The Pop Factor. Other events taking place throughout the festival, like The Bad Film Club at The Electric Cinema, add a twist to the 2010 programme.

Purity will be holding beer tasting events at various shows throughout the festival. Even selected venues which do not usually stock Purity beers will be taking part by installing taps or stocking bottles of ales and offering free tasters to festival goers.

Paul Halsey, Managing Director of Purity says “The team is very excited to be involved with the Birmingham Comedy Festival this year. We continuously look for ways in which we can support local events and the arts in particular.

“We look forward to promoting our beers to a wider audience using the platform of comedy… who wouldn’t enjoy a stand up comedy performance while sipping on a great beer?”

Dave Freak from Birmingham Comedy Festival goes on to say “We’re very pleased indeed to be working with Purity – not only do they produce some fantastic beer, but they’re just as passionate about supporting local arts.

“We’re looking forward very much to working with them for what promises to be a great festival.”

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Click here for Loddon Brewery September news

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A brewery in Stone is toasting its own success after doubling sales in a year.

Owners of Lymestone Brewery have revealed their turnover has increased to around £200,000 in the past 12 months. The upturn in business follows a £30,000 deal with Wetherspoons to supply 400 of its pubs with Ein Stein ale at the end of last year.Now, director Ian Bradford said the company planned to venture into the pub trade - and could open their first boozer in Stone or Stafford.

“It’s really pleasing that we can say things are going so well, we’ve had several new accounts and are working very hard,” he said.

“We are a small family run business and a continued upturn in buiness can only mean more staff. However, how and when we do that has not been decided.

“We now want to open a pub. Titanic Brewery have shown the way forward with local pub ownership - and we want to follow in their footsteps.”

Read the full article in the Staffordshire newsletter

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Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, UK – On Tuesday 21st September 2010, Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, is to officially open the new Burton-based National Brewery Centre which includes the former Bass Museum and visitor attraction now re-opened as ‘The Brewing Experience’. The Centre celebrates the UK’s brewing heritage and the industry’s far-reaching influence on beer making techniques throughout the world.

Mike Stickland, chairman of Planning Solutions Ltd, the company responsible for the National Brewery Centre, said: “We are honoured and delighted that Her Royal Highness will be able to visit us on the 21st of September to officially open the Centre.”

“It’s fitting that The Princess Royal carries out this role, as I understand that she opened our first incarnation, The Bass Museum, on its inception in 1978.

“This Royal visit will mean a lot to the people of Burton and all of the team here that have worked so hard to re-open the facilities and create ‘The Brewing Experience’. This will certainly bring further awareness to this valuable heritage centre. I think that it’s fair to say that we are all rather excited and looking forward to next month’s visit.”

Situated in the heart of the town that is synonymous with the British brewing industry, Burton upon Trent, the site of the National Brewery Centre was originally home to the Bass Museum and more recently the Coors Visitor Centre, which closed during the summer of 2008.

Totally refurbished, it incorporates a great deal of the Bass family history and the heritage of brewing in the UK.

More details will be announced shortly. In the meantime, please visit the Centre’s website: www.nationalbrewerycentre.co.uk

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Copper Ale, at 4.8 per cent ABV, is a premium, dark red ale with a strong, dry and slightly spicy palate and aftertaste. It contains Maris Otter pale ale, aromatic, amber and enzymic malts together with a marvelous mix of Fuggles, Goldings and Challenger hops.

Hook Norton Managing Director James Clarke said: “Hook Norton’s Copper Ale is based on a recipe we used to create Celebration Ale which was brewed to commemorate the brewery’s 150 anniversary in 1999 and is now back in our 161st year. “Hook Norton Copper Ale, at 4.8 per cent is a strong, dry and slightly spicy beer with hints of citrus.

To place an order contact Telesales on 01608 730391 or 01608 730395.

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Chris Hearn, co-owner of The Loddon Brewery, today presented a cheque for £460 to All Saints Church in Dunsden. The Money was raised through sales of their Monthly special for May, Wilfred’s Mild, named after the famous WWI poet Wilfred Owen. Mr Owen worked as Lay Assistant to the vicar of All Saints Church (found in the field behind the brewery) from 1911-1913, shortly before he went to war. His parents, Mary and Tom and his sister are buried in the church yard.

Luke Hearn, Sales Manager at The Loddon Brewery, contacted the Wilfred Owen Association who then put him in touch with Peter Owen, Wilfed’s nephew who gave him permission to use his uncle’s name for one of their beers. Due to Wilfred Owen’s close link with All Saints Church, Chris and Vanessa Hearn, owners of The Loddon Brewery decided to donate 10p of every pint sold to the church to help with the up-keep of this beautiful 19th century church.

Peter Owen has since been to visit the Brewery and enjoyed one or two pints of Wilfred’s Mild!

Chris Hearn of the Loddon Brewery said,

“As a company we are always looking to support the local community and therefore we are delighted to be able to donate this sum of money to All Saints Church, which will help them keep this lovely church looking so beautiful. We’d like to say and big thank you to everybody who has helped make Wilfred’s Mild such a success, and in particular the Owen family. We’ve really enjoyed learning so much about this incredibly talented poet and look forward to a great relationship with the Church for many years to come”

Christine Bland, Warden of All Saints Church said,

“We are really pleased that The Loddon Brewery has been so generous and decided to donate this money to our Church; it will go a long way to help us with our on-going maintenance costs.”

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What next for Castle Rock Brewery, winner of the Champion Beer of Britain award at the Great British Beer Festival?

Seven years ago in the East Midlands, all the local breweries were challenged to create a special beer for the Nottingham beer festival. It was 2003 – the year that the new tram system came in and the same tram system sponsored the celebrations.

For the festival, Castle Rock Brewery produced Trammy Dodger – a 4.3 per cent ABV beer brewed that ended up winning the title of Beer of the Festival. The decision to carry on brewing the award-winning ale was an easy one.

So, with a reduced ABV of 3.8 per cent, the resulting blonde beer was renamed ‘Harvest Pale’ to suit its appearance. Last week, Harvest Pale was crowned CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain 2010. Since then, Castle Rock has been celebrating a busy couple of weeks.

So, has the recipe changed since its Trammy Dodger days? Castle Rock’s head brewer Adrian Redgrove says: “My input was to slightly adapt the recipe. I’ve changed the hop grists and the balance and toned down the bitterness and given more balance to the beer. I’d like to think that people trying it would be able to appreciate the citrus hoppy character and want to drink another and another.”

And how did it feel winning Champion Beer of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival? “It was a bit of a whirlwind day at the GBBF,” admits Adrian. “My feet haven’t touched the ground.”

Read the full story in The Publican

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Derby-based Bespoke Inns has opened its sixth pub.

The company was set up little more than a year ago by former Marston’s and Hardys & Hansons executive Alan Shepherd.

It has just re-opened the Cross Keys Inn, in Turnditch, Derbyshire, following an £80,000 revamp.

The pub was bought from Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company — and there are plans to buy two more this year and expand to around 20. The company is scheduling at least two more outlets within the next 12 months.

Shepherd said: “The problem with the Cross Keys is that it had not changed for 15 years and needed a fresh start. Because we are a small pub company, there’s more freedom to give the pubs individuality and choose the beers and wines they stock.

“The industry is moving to a more traditional way of doing things, which involves locally-owned pubs.”

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Swapping from wine to beer for just one week would save as many calories as a jog

Good news for beer drinkers as new research shows people can enjoy their favourite Hooky Norton ale without putting on weight. In fact, swapping from wine to beer for just one week would save as many calories as a half-hour jog.*

The research, published by CAMRA during last week’s annual Great British Beer Festival in London shows that around one-third of men and women wrongly believe that beer has more calories than other alcoholic drinks. In fact, the opposite is true and, when drunk in moderation, beer can help you to lose weight, cut your alcohol consumption and, more generally, supplement a healthy lifestyle.

CAMRA’s research is based on a groundbreaking report entitled “Beer, the natural choice?”, by leading health journalist Isla Whitcroft. The report examined the health properties of beer and its calorie content, compared to other alcoholic drinks:

Hook Norton Managing Director James Clarke said: “It is great to see the myth of the beer belly finally laid to rest. Too many consumers, particularly women, have been discouraged from drinking beer because of worries that it is fattening or unhealthy, and now we have proof positive that the opposite is true. We hope this research makes more people realise that beer is low in alcohol and calories - but still packed with a fantastic amount of flavour.”

Professor Charlie Bamforth, renowned technical brewing expert, also welcomed the report’s findings. He said: “The major source of calories in any alcoholic drink is the alcohol itself, and because beer is the drinks category with the lowest average alcohol content it is also lowest in calories. Beer also contains no fat or cholesterol and very few free sugars. So for someone looking to lose weight, swapping their glass of wine for a beer every day would not only reduce their weekly alcohol intake by seven units – but also cut out more calories than are burned off during a typical 30 minute jog.”

*Based on Food Standards Agency Calorie Calculator-www.eatwell.gov.uk

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