Author: Admin

It’s the time of year when you can get involved and influence things without leaving home (although you will need to sometimes leave the house and go to the pub!). Nominations for pubs to be entered into the Derbyshire Cider & Perry Pub of the Year competition have now closed, thanks for those who nominated pubs to be recognised for their outstanding range and promotion of proper cider and perry! We are now looking for local CAMRA members to nominate the best beers brewed regularly in Yorkshire and the East Midlands. This is done by voting online for your top 5 local beers in each category. The beers with the highest votes, along with beers reccommended by the network of official CAMRA tasting panels in the region will be put forward for judging at various beer festivals in our region with the beers winning at those festivals going forward into the Champion Beer of Britain (CBOB) competition. The finals of CBOB are judged at the National Winter Ales Festival or Great British Beer Festival depending on style. To vote log in with your membership number and password (default password is your postcode) at www.camrabreweryinfo.org.uk/cbobvoting/login.asp We have also started the process to select which pubs in the Sheffield & District branch area will get a listing in the Good Beer Guide’s 2015 edition. As there are more good pubs in our area than space in the guide we have to narrow it down to the best of the best. The guide is often used by visitors to the area who want recommendations of the pubs to visit where they are guaranteed good quality real ale and a nice atmosphere. The method of selecting entries in our area is by our members voting. A ballot paper will be available at the next branch meeting with a list of many pubs in our area that always serve real ale to choose from. The pubs with the most votes will then go forward for surveying to check they are still up to Good Beer Guide Standard and to gather information about the pubs to be published in the guide. As well as the survey visit to check the pubs voted for, we also take into account data from the National Beer Scoring System (NBSS). CAMRA members can rate the beer in the pubs they drink in and submit their scores to the NBSS via the WhatPub.com website – simply search for the pub then enter the scores on the form alongside the pub details.. These votes can alert us to pubs where the beer quality is inconsistent , it can potentially also alert us to good pubs that have somehow stayed off our radar! Talking of WhatPub.com we aim to make this website the most comprehensive and up to date free online guide to real ale pubs, to achieve this we need your help! If you find yourself visiting a pub where the WhatPub listing is out of date or incorrect please find out the new details and submit an update via the link on the website.

The Sheffield CAMRA younger members social group is making a comeback very soon thanks to our new Young members contacts on the committee, Jack Richardson and Mark Coxon, both students at the University of Sheffield. You will be reading more from these guys in the new year, however for now, Heather Peel of Manchester explains why and how CAMRA should make an effort in the recruitment and activation of younger members. “The branding on particular beers has a huge impact on who drinks it; I see this reflected in my peers’ choice of ale. My local brewery Robinsons based in Stockport has just produced bestselling ale Trooper endorsed by Iron Maiden, one of my personal favourites. Elbow also brought out a brew Build a Rocket Boys to appeal to the younger market. Real ale has increasingly become more fashionable with the help of some clever marketing and an increasing interest in drinking something often cheaper and more varied than other bigger brand alternatives. This switch in habits is evident all over Manchester, particularly in the Northern Quarter, where the age of drinkers has noticeably decreased to people under 30. The question is how do we recruit the new emerging group of youngsters? There has never been a better time to increase young members within CAMRA. The target audience is already interested in real ale and in turn supporting their local pubs. In order to both engage and maintain members, recruitment needs to be strategically co-ordinated. Having attended a vast array of local beer festivals, recruitment needs to be targeted at the younger based festivals, for example at Didsbury where more students and young professionals reside and also at Chorlton, with a similar demographic. Potential members need to be educated about the importance of pubs and their reduction in binge drinking. It would be beneficial to improve the discounts into beer festivals to increase membership. Alongside this, bring­ing a non-member for free admission to the festival can help to create further interest. Once more young members have been recruited the dynamics of the CAMRA meetings can gradually progress, with more meetings held at pubs with live music or a comedy venue. The use of twitter and facebook should also be increased to help young members become more active and to spread the hard work of CAMRA. Reminding people of celebrity involvement may help recruit more young members, for example Madonna’s favourite drink was once cited as Landlords. Maybe certain celebrities can be made honorary CAMRA members to develop the brand. Prior to becoming a young member of CAMRA, I too wondered, why did I need to? Not only is it worth the fee for the Wetherspoons vouchers but more importantly we need to sustain the amazing work that CAMRA has already done and help to maintain pubs and develop the brand. Thus ensuring that pubs can thrive and provide live music, comedy nights and band themed pints created just for people like you.” Heather Peel