Traveller's Joy Number 1 Again!
The Traveller's Joy at Northwood has won Pub of the Year once again. The pub has either won or been runner up ever since the Isle of Wight branch of CAMRA started the competition. Well done, Ruth and Derek.
The runner up was a brand new pub - The Newport Ale House, proving that all you need is good beer and a nice atmosphere.
Dave Yates' Yule Be Sorry was Beer of the Year. Yates also picked up third place with Undercliff Experience. Goddard's Fuggle Dee Dum was runner up. Island Ales came forth with Yachtsman's Ale (they also came fifth and sixth with Wight Gold and Earls RDA respectively)
Jay's Back
Tour Planned - Venues Wanted
We have had a request to help with a planned pub tour....
THE MAD CYRIL TOUR
Island poetry band Ecurbrekal, which performs Transconscient poetry to original music, having released their second ep, Banned Not Bland, which has quite adult material on it, and features a new line up, better music, six tracks, booklet and a DVD filmed and recorded live at the King Lud, Ryde, in August 2010, have a cunning plan!
They seek to tour Island pubs, doing one pub per night, over one week, performing for upwards of two hours, tracks from both their EP.s and some cover songs, along with the running comedy caberet that tends spontantiously to go with their act. So, they are seeking pubs willing to hire them for the night for what they are calling The Mad Cyril Tour. What they want to do, is travel in a circle from Ryde, Westerly to Freshwater and back again, doing one pub per evening, for a fee of up to and including £180 (purpose, to a) pay three members of the band who actualy have lives, b) raise funds for the album).
Ecurbrekal is a Very unusual entertainment, often imitated, never equalled,. led by Gender Transient Miss Phaedra J.Kelly (Phaedie to friends), lead poet, with Sendy (a Transsexual honey from Planet Ventnor) on keyboards, Jason Emo Boy Ely co singer with Tasha and Rob who have also their own band, Gunner Kade, already well known in pubs, and Stuart Willmott on lead guitar. For those old enough to know this reference, think D.Moore and P.Cook's Dereck and Clive meets Viv Stanshall's Bonzo Dog Doodah Band in a 21st century setting...only Ecubrekal are slightly more dangerous and unpredictable than that.
They are, however, a very professionaly minded, good quality if very adult, entertainment band. As Phaedie puts it; "its poetry...but not as you know it".
Pub landlords interested can contact the band through www.myspace.com/ecurbrekal and any who wish to buy the EP can get it through www.wight-trash.co.uk with some profit going to John Cattle's ceaseless work for Island skaters.
New Website for the Princess
New landlords, Nigel and Christine Lichauco-Sharp have set up a new website for the Princess Royal. One of the pages traces former landlords back to George Dennett who ran the pub in 1857. There are a few gaps in the list. If you can fill them in, please let Nigel and Christine know.
The address of the new website is www.theprincessroyaliow.co.uk
Goddards Goes Super Regional
Goddard's award winning Fuggle-Dee-Dum is now being distributed all across the South and East of England by Greene King.
Wightwash Accolade
Wightwash magazine, the newsletter of the Isle of Wight branch of the Campaign for Real Ale has won Regional Newsletter of the Year.
The award was presented to editor Tim Marshall by Regional Director John Buckley during the regional meeting at Ringwood Brewery on Saturday 19th February.
The magazine was praised its layout and its varied articles. The Police Page was specifically mentioned.
Important change to Licensing Act 2003 Imminent
On Monday 31st January 2011, licensing minister John Penrose suggested that a government announcement about entertainment licensing reform was imminent when he said "The Government are currently considering options to remove red tape from live music and other entertainment. I hope to be able to announce our conclusions, including the timetable for reform, shortly."
"Fastcask On Trial" - Results
Customers of the Chequers Inn, Rookley were invited to compare two versions of Marton's Pedigree, a conventional version and a fastcask version.
fastcask is the revolutionary method of secondary fermentation that enables beer to drop bright in a matter of seconds.
There is no doubt that it is convenient but does it effect the flavour. Our test seems to indicate that it does. Out of 32 surveys, only one returned an entry of "No Difference".
The two barrels were tapped on Monday 15th Nov and a "blind tasting" survey ran until lunchtime on 22nd Nov.
At the start, results were fairly balanced but as time went on, the fastcask became less popular with many commenting on the lack of condition.
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| Overall result | First 2 days | Last 4 days |
New Labels for Yates
Yates' bottles have a new look. Russell Ince of Wax Crayon has come up with some new eye catching designs for all of the range.
Here is Haley's favourite - the nice pink one!
Look out for this year's bottling of Yule Be Sorry (7.6% abv). It has been quietly been fermenting away for the last 12 months and is now ready to be unleashed.
National News
MP Backs Pubs with Parliamentary Motion
One of the first motions of the new Parliamentary session, Colchester MP Bob Russell (Lib Dem), put forward the motion which outlined the difficulties facing the beer and pub industry.
The full motion reads:
EDM 42 Policy on Public Houses
That this House recognises the vital importance of British pubs to the social and economic life of local communities and urges the Government, beer and pub industry and others to work together to do all they can to protect and promote them; notes that pubs have been hit hard by beer duty increases of more than 26 per cent. in the last two years, with dozens of pubs closing every week; calls on the Government to support pubs by reforming the way beer is taxed to reflect its place as the national drink and as a lower strength drink, which is the bedrock of community pubs; and further calls on the Government to ensure that should there be any value added tax rise in the forthcoming budget it is offset by a parallel reduction in duty as a targeted measure to help community pubs.
For more details see the "I'm Backing the Pub" website.