Dronfield branch bits
Our next branch meeting is on Tuesday 12th July at the Barrack in Apperknowle.
Voting for our Summer Pub of the Season is now underway, the form can be found online at www.dronfieldcamra.org.uk.
Talking of awards, we are pleased to announce that our branch Pub of the Year – the Miners Arms in Hundall – has been judged the North Derbyshire Pub of the Year and is now being judged in the East Midlands regional competition.
Some sad news – One of our founder members – Tim Johnson (also known in the pubs at pink Tim due to the colour of many of his shirts) – recently passed away after a short illness. His enthusiasm, commitment and sense of humour will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with his family.
I read the Sheffield Beer Report while on Eurostar en route for a few days with a ‘Podge’s Tour’ in LambicLand (Belgium). It generated considerable discussion with both colleagues on the tour and also a number of local Brewers. The initial Belgian reaction was ‘Sheffield?’ However, they were impressed by both the numbers and our enthusiasm.
Despite their well-deserved international beer reputation, the Belgium top-seller is Jupiler, a 5.2% Pils brewed by international giant, Anheuser-Busch InBev (this lists maize as one of the main ingredients). This illustrates the variety of the Belgian beer scene: some unique, and excellent, practice, but also a high level of mediocrity.
For example, we visited the internationally known, biannual lambic beer festival known as ‘The Night of the Great Thirst International Geuze and Kriek Festival of the Pajottenland’ at Itterbeek. This consisted of a marquee, about a dozen Brewers and 40 or so beers, mostly only available in bottles. There was no programme or tasting notes, prices were not low and abvs were only available by asking to look at the bottle label. All the Brewers were local with the single exception of Allagash from Maine (USA). The event needed more organisation and information. By contrast, the vast majority of CAMRA Beer Festivals have a larger beer choice and are a model of customer-friendly information and assistance. We were not impressed.
This lack of information was also apparent in many bars. A chalkboard and/or printed menu often listed the beers available, in bottle and on tap, but the detail is lacking: style? Brewery? abv? One notable exception was the Molenhof Café in Oostvleteren which serves a selection of draught De Struise Brouwerij beers from the brewery across the road. Their chalkboard included both ABV and beer style. Sadly, this level of information seems to be the exception, not the rule. Many Sheffield pubs, by contrast, display such detail and often more.
We also visited the Brabanthal venue just outside Leuven for a visit to the Belgium equivalence of the GBBF, the Zythos Beer Festival with 88 brewers offering over 500 beers. This was a total contrast to the previous evening: lots of staff, a programme available in English, detailed information and even a free beer token for CAMRA members. In short, an excellent event. The provision of free bread at each stand was welcomed, an innovation which UK festivals could take on.
Belgium has a large a number of fine long-established Brewers and blenders (many of which we visited, for example: Rodenbach, Oud Beersels) with excellent beers, including some world classics which simply could not be brewed elsewhere (think Lambic and Geuze). They also have a growing number of recently established innovative enterprises: for example, Urthel. Their impressive range now includes, ‘Bassets,’ a 24.4% abv freeze-distilled beer which was matured in oak barrels.
The Sheffield Region also has its World classics, but focusses on a different style and market. The vast majority of beers from the Sheffield region are cask-conditioned and sold relatively locally whereas the bottled outputs from Belgium hit the export market, many breweries exporting over 50% of their production.
The Sheffield region needs to up its game regarding exports – the potential is there, as Thornbridge have shown. The Sheffield Beer Report suggests that a local canning/bottling plant is an essential. Anyone care to invest?
It’s also worth noting that at Itterbeek, we had a long beer-related conversation with the Flanders Region Minister of Culture. He expressed more interest in the Sheffield beer scene than seems to emanate from Sheffield Town Hall. The presence of such a high-ranking politician at a beer festival indicates the level of local political support for beer tourism. It would be positive to see similar political representation at both the forthcoming SCBF42 and SIBA BeerX 2017.
In short, an excellent few days away – two contrasting beer scenes:
Finally, for all the people who did respond there was a raffle for 12 bottles of beer donated by Hop Hideout. The winner was (drum roll…) Simon Wood, seen here collecting what looks like a fabulous selection of beer.
Congratulations to Simon, and thanks again to Jules and Will at Hop Hideout for providing the prize. 
![Three Tuns [216482]](https://sheffield.camra.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Three-Tuns-216482-300x552.jpg)
We note that the official SCC response considers that the Three Tuns ‘ offers such events to encompass a large area that could conceivably encompass all of Sheffield itself. … the Property and its stated uses attract the local working community who consider the Property as their local meeting place as well as users from further afield.’
We believe that these statements are significant as it indicates that Sheffield City Council has moved away from seeing ACV status as something which only concerns the geographically-local residential community. The ‘community’ for a pub can extend for many miles – prime examples are pubs located at railway stations. For example; the Sheffield Tap ‘community’ encompasses many who live geographically distant.
Sheffield CAMRA have submitted 15 applications to Sheffield CC – ten were submitted in late July 2015, nine (rejection) decisions were received just before Christmas 2015, almost 5 months since the original Applications. The 2011 Localism Act states that Council have 8 weeks to determine ACV applications.
In our opinion the all our applications to SCC clearly reached the statutory test outlined by the Government and showed how the pubs furthered the social wellbeing and social interests of the community. This was confirmed by our colleagues at CAMRA HQ who compared our documentation to successful applications in other parts of the country. It was also confirmed by conversations at the recent CAMRA Members Weekend in Liverpool.
At the time of writing we have had no decision for the Castle Inn (Bradway). The delay is over eight months. We believe that this delay is a record – no other council has had an application for so long and not made a decision.
We have made a formal complaint to the SCC Monitoring Officer who has responded: ‘I have asked for a review to understand the cause of the delays. Changes will be made shortly to ensure the Council is meeting the statutory timescales.’
Sheffield CAMRA will be making further ACV applications to SCC in the near future.
Dave Pickersgill
Pub Heritage Officer, Sheffield and District CAMRA 
