Category: News

Changing the tax system to better support pubs can help the Great British local thrive – but more pubs, breweries and drinkers should be able to benefit, say CAMRA 

Responding in full to yesterday’s Budget announcements, CAMRA National Chairman Nik Antona said: 

“The Chancellor has listened to thousands of CAMRA members who have long called for a change in the way alcohol is taxed. A new, lower rate of duty for draught beer and cider served in pubs and clubs establishes an important principle in the taxation system – that pubs are a force for good in our communities and should be supported to help them survive and compete with the likes of supermarkets. 

“Our task before this new duty rate is implemented in 2023 is to make sure that the new, lower draught duty rate applies to beer and cider served in smaller containers too, so that as many pubs, breweries and consumers as possible can benefit. We will be using the Government’s consultation on how this new system should operate in practice to make this case. 

“In the meantime, measures like duty freezes and a 50% cut in business rates in England for another year will be welcomed. Our pubs and breweries are still recovering from the pandemic, face rising bills and costs and will continue to need as much support as they can get so they can rebuild their businesses and thrive in the years to come. 

“Cutting tax for lower ABV drinks will incentivise lower strength alcoholic drinks, whilst new financial support for smaller producers – including cider producers – and continuing discussions around a 50% minimum juice content are encouraging news for both cider makers and consumers. These measures should help to improve quality and choice at the bar. CAMRA will continue to engage with the Government on the planned reforms to Small Brewers Relief and call for a solution that doesn’t require some of the smallest breweries to have to pay more tax.”

October being the time of year when the fruit is being harvested is one of the two months a year when CAMRA makes a little extra effort to champion real cider and perry that is made by fermenting freshly pressed apple or pear juice (as opposed to the more industrial brands manufactured from concentrate).

Sheffield isn’t exactly known for its cider – either the production or the drinking although there are a handful of small scale producers in nearby parts of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire and a small number of outlets that have been making an effort to bring you a choice of traditional cider with a wide range of options poured from bag-in-box or tubs at the Harlequin on Nursery Street and the New Barrack Tavern on Penistone Road whilst Hop Hideout in Kommune has a wide range of bottled options.

Also look out for a handpump that usually has something reasonable on in places like the Social on Snig Hill, Clubhouse on London Road and Guzzle in Killamarsh.

The newest kid on the block however is the Cider Hole at Shalesmoor, a shipping container size bar in the Krynkl development, which opened on the 17 September. This specialist bar has a carefully curated menu of interesting bottled ciders from around the world including a 3 part tasting flight option with the knowledgeable bar owners on hand to talk you through them. When you visit the bar you’ll notice some fermenting tanks in the corner as you walk in, they are planning to make their own cider on site in the near future (using juice pressed elsewhere).

Our branch cider champion is Sarah Mills, she is the one who normally arranges the cider bar at our Steel City Beer & Cider festival, as the branch gets back into the swing of things with meetings and socials following the easing of Coronavirus restrictions she is planning to organise and number of cider socials and surveys over the year ahead to get the cider enthusiasts of you more involved, raise the profile and interest in proper cider in Sheffield and hopefully encourage a few more pubs and bars to stock the real thing. Keep an eye on our website and in Beer Matters magazine for details!

CAMRA has produced a revised definition of real cider and perry to reflect the current practices and processes of cider and perry makers across the UK. Below you can find all the resources you need to make sure your cider and perry is #NotFromConcentrate.

So is it real?

In order to be real, cider and perry should never be concentrated then diluted – either in terms of the juice used, or the alcohol content.

We use #NotFromConcentrate for our online campaigning for real products, and you can find a map and list of producers online at camra.org.uk/cider.

The definition

CAMRA defines real cider or perry as being fermented from the whole juice of fresh pressed apples or pears, without the use of concentrated or chaptalised juices.

The word ‘chaptalised’ as used in the definition refers to a process where the alcohol level in a cider or perry is increased by the addition of sugar to an unnatural level for storage, before it is diluted with water to the desired alcohol content for sale.

Ok, technically we never went away as we’ve been doing a lot of campaign work behind the scenes online over the last year or so, however now the government has announced that the Covid risk is now low enough to lift restrictions on groups meeting and pubs are able to operate in a more normal fashion we are resuming our socials, meetings and other activities that you as a member can get involved with in person from next week. You can find all the details in the diary.

Socials

For summer/autumn 2021 we are running two types of monthly event, mostly on Saturdays:

• Beery day out to pubs (normally visiting pubs and brewery tap rooms by public transport) including a bus trip to Glossop on 14 August and a tour by tram on 25 September.
• RambAle – a nice walk in the countryside with a few real ale pubs along the way. These include Bents Green to Totley via Ringinglow on 31 July and the Hope Valley on 28 August

Additionally our Pub Heritage Officer Dave Pickersgill will be leading walking tours this September for the national Heritage Open Days with a choice of two heritage pub routes, one in the City Centre and one in Kelham Island/Neepsend. These need to be booked in advance.

Meetings

If you are interested in getting involved with how the branch operates, the campaigning side of things or simply catching up with us over a pint, the formal branch members meetings take place on the first Tuesday of each month. The venues change each month. The August meeting is at the soon to open Heist Brew Co and September is at the Chantry Inn (Handsworth), providing a great contrast between modern craft beer tap room and more traditional real ale pub between the two!

We are also looking for new committee members to get involved and take on specific roles that will help us operate more effectively as a branch.

Pub of the Month award scheme

Now pubs are open we have resumed the award scheme. Quite simply you can nominate and vote for pubs you think deserve recognition for serving well kept ale in a comfortable pub day in day out. All the pubs nominated before lockdown remain available to vote for and new nominations welcome too. Don’t forget this isn’t a competition between pubs, it is simply a way of celebrating good pubs. Voting forms are on our website and at branch meetings.

Beer Matters magazine

We are hoping to relaunch the printed edition from the September issue, with the magazines arriving from the printers for volunteers to distribute on 24 August (ahead of the bank holiday weekend). Articles and news from members to be included are most welcome, advertising space is now on sale and we are also looking for volunteers to deliver the magazines to pubs and other good beer venues.

Surveys

With the majority of pubs now open again we have the big challenge of getting CAMRA’s national online pub guide WhatPub up to date reflecting new openings, changes to opening hours etc and those pubs that have sadly closed. We’d appreciate it if you know of any changes to pubs you go in please let us know by visiting their page on WhatPub and use the submit updates link.

Beer & Cider Festival

We were hoping to resume our annual Steel City Beer & Cider Festival at Kelham Island Museum this year, to be open from 6 to 9 October, however CAMRA HQ is currently reviewing the new government guidance for events and due to the uncertainty of the financial implications it would mean promoting and organising the festival too last minute so we have reluctantly cancelled for this year. We’ll hopefully be back with a great event for 2022, however for 2021 we are looking at co-ordinating a replacement event across a number of pubs and breweries – watch this space!

Formal beer tastings

We are looking at getting together an official branch tasting panel. Volunteers will be trained then we will have a rolling programme of tasting the regularly brewed beers from local breweries to record tasting notes which will be used in the national Good Beer Guide. If you are interested, keep an eye out later in the year when we make a call for members to volunteer!

Learn & Discover

Don’t forget that as well as all the in person activity, your membership also gets you access to a lot of interesting content on the national CAMRA website including news from What’s Brewing and educational articles and videos from the Learn & Discover platform. Additionally the national Beer Magazine is published quarterly, printed editions are posted out to all members that have requested one (check your contact preferences online to see if you are down for one and change if necessary).

A note about pub going from 19 July

Whilst most legal Coronavirus restrictions are lifted from 19 July, government guidance is to continue with some caution and individual pubs have made their own decisions on how they will operate in a way that both brings back some normality and also maintains a safe environment for both staff and customers, particularly for the first month or so whilst the younger staff are not yet fully vaccinated. The industry is also being hard hit by staff shortages caused by staff being asked to self isolate after coming into contact with people that have tested positive.

A good number of pubs will not be offering bar stools and will be asking customers to move away from the bar area once served and also keeping doors and windows open for ventilation. Some pubs will be asking customers and staff to continue wearing face coverings when not seated.

We’ve not spotted any pubs planning on asking people to sign in to NHS Test & Trace after 19 July, however most will continue to display the QR code for those that still wish to.

We ask that you go out and support pubs but also respect any safety measures they feel they need to still have in place.

Two well known Sheffield DJs have been busy putting together a huge library of locally sourced music, recorded exclusively for local businesses

Sound Union is a brand new service created by Sheffield DJ/producers Andy H & Sandy Turnbull. This service will provide businesses with royalty free and locally sourced background music allowing them to avoid costly fees with PRS and PPL which must be paid for any business playing music on their premises to the public.

Andy H & Sandy Turnbull have both been prominent fixtures on the local DJ circuit for many years. Before the Covid pandemic you would be able to find both of them behind the decks of some of the city’s very best venues including The Foundry at the University of Sheffield, Soyo and Tramlines Festival. They also regularly play further afield with dates around the UK and Europe at events like Boomtown Festival, Kendal Calling and Outlook Festival in Croatia. Like many DJs, they also produce their own music, some of which is available to stream on this new platform.

Sadly back in March 2020 their usually busy diaries became empty as the events industry was put on hiatus dues to the pandemic. With a need to find a productive way to fill their time, Andy and Sandy created a brand new concept that would support Sheffield businesses at an especially tricky time. They started to build a library of exclusive music from local artists using their network of contacts and built a streaming platform to distribute this music.

Andy H Said; ‘There has always been a great community of DJs, musicians and producers in Sheffield, all of whom almost overnight found they were unable to work in the same way they had before. We believe we have found a way in which we could all work together and help out some of the many businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic.’

Initially they plan to offer access for businesses to this service at no cost until 2022, when they plan to introduce a very small monthly fee. As the music is all original and royalty free, businesses will not be required to pay any other music licences such as PRS or PPL which they would if they used a service like Spotify. This will save businesses hundreds of pounds a year in subscription and licensing fees.

Simon Brown who owns ‘Revue Hairdressing’ in Retford is an early adopter of the scheme and said, ‘the music is suitable to a wide range of customers’ and described the service as a ‘fabulous concept’.

Andy and Sandy have a wide range of acclaimed artists in many different genres to select from. The library will include music from James Atashroo of Renegade Brass Band, Copious Beats and Kilxz, the producer alias of seasoned veteran DJ, Jimmy the Gent.

Sandy Turnbull said, ‘This service will enable Sheffield businesses to both help the local music industry and save on running costs. We have tailored the music to be suitable for anywhere that needs background music and we have drawn on the talents of some of the best musicians the city has to offer.’

Head over to soundunion.co.uk to sign up, take advantage of the free trial period and to find more about the service.