My passage above about CAMRA trying to stand up for smoking in pubs
This was a thing ?
I’ve not imagined it have I ?
I can’t remember that part of it. I do remember that our branch went and celebrated at a village pub that day. I do remember that a number of members who used to smoke complained but that was pretty much the same as all smokers.
Getting rid of smoking in pubs was and has been a great success imo. One of the few things that the government of the day did well as far as pub goers are concerned.
I’ll take the bait! I’ve been a CAMRA member for donkey’s years, and active with the local branch for nearly ten of them - most of the meetings are turgid (think that’s a word), some of their campaigns are woeful, there’s plenty of boring old twig-types, but there are a good many lovely folk, the research trips (pub crawls, remember them?) are fun and I love working the beer festival. Did hope the revitalisation thingy would pull it more into modern times, and there’s signs it has a bit. But with an ageing membership it will wither away before too long. Regarding their stance on the smoking ban, I honestly can’t remember!
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I actually recall when I joined CAMRA now … would have been the spring of '94.
I joined up to the Aston University real ale society who had somehow (in the more formative or mid years of CAMRA … not sure it would be a thing now) had some big discount for their members to affiliate and become CAMRA members.
The best £3 I ever spent (joining Aston Uni real ale society)
We ran a beer festival on the last or penultimate Wednesday of term.
For those of you who know modern (ish) Uni life, Wednesday was sports day, which typically meant no lectures in the afternoon which is when the various football, rugby and hockey fixtures against other regional universities and college sports clubs would take place.
This also meant an extension to the bar hours until 0200 on a Wednesday night!
So my £3 got me into the planning meeting at the Turks Head, tucked away behind the Aston Expressway in the back streets. This involved a free chicken curry and a lock in till about 1am which was supplemented by Dermot Reeve, the then Warwickshire captain joining our lock in and playing guitar and singing !!!
Festival day came around and it was a good set up … the blokes who did all the work were 3 or 4 40 something mature students … all the ordering and set up etc … I just did a few shifts behind the bar.
There were a good 40 to 50 beers on gravity including a festival special from Aston Manor by the ominous name of “High Gravity”. No one knew the actual ABV but it was alleged to be anywhere between 9 and 14 % !!! It was terrible … like a ramped up special brew !
Opening hours for this legendary ‘one off’ festival (the only one in the 90’s I believe, I think the 40 somethings had run some in the mid / late 70’s when they were first time students) were 1100 - 1600 then 1800 - 0200 … yes … full on and I had 3 x 2 hour shifts behind the bar and all I could drink for free !!! Plus another meal in the interval … a big vat of chilli and rice.
So at 1100 doors open to a solid queue of maybe 50 or more folks … basically the hockey and rugby team and the football team, first and seconds.
Everyone wanted the High Gravity so it flew off the bar … all 72 pints had gone within half an hour … like a plague of locusts. As I said, it was fowl stuff and I think I only saw perhaps 3 or 4 pints get finished (with a grimace) and most was tipped away or left scattered about the hall 3/4 drunk wounded soldier style.
Around 1215/30 some of the local CAMRA mob showed up on their lunchbreak including the legendary Mick The Tick but to their horror, the main attraction for them - the festival special, had long sold out !
The evening was a blur but I lasted until 0200 and I recall the older guys had put the younger lads on the early shifts … fair play … so I was done working by 2300.
Not that I really needed it but the following Thursday lunchtime / afternoon was mop, clear up and drink up time.
So for my £3 I got 2 hot meals and I don’t exaggerate when I say something like 25 pints across the 2 days.
Good old days … god bless CAMRA !
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90 Hertfordshire ratings so that puts me tied at 14/15. I think the only time I have actually been to this county is to visit Mr. Frog! Most of my ratings for the country come from Tring, Pope’s Yard, Mad Squirrel, McMullen, Millwhites, Tesco.
Been a CAMRA member since I moved to the UK in 2010. I support the broader mission of preserving and promoting cask but their tactics and stubbornness don’t always help them. The economic incentives associated with membership used to be more of a factor for me, when the discounts to festivals would usually more than offset the cost of membership. I don’t get to as many festivals now but don’t think I’ll cancel the membership in the near term.
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I think the topci of CAMRA needs its own thread ?
Yea good point, however it is clear that there was an obvious Hertfordshire, or more precisely St Albans CAMRA connection that got this started.
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Missed this one.
80 ticks from 20 breweries putting me at 3 on that list.
Like a lot of the home counties it’s generally a place you pass through going somewhere more interesting for beer.
St Albans is great with a good few pubs and bottle shops. The Hitchin beer shop is also cracking.
I’ve had 25 Tring and 18 Mad Squirrel beers.
Last trip I think was St Albans chasing Cloudwater cask ale. Now that’s dedication!
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47 beer ratings from just 4 breweries. Managed to get into the top 50 with a reasonable buffer but it cannot be done from this remote distance without the Mad Squirrel online shop and help from friends. Virtually no Herts beer makes it up here either on cask or bottle/can.
One beer merited a 4.0 for me - a strong ale from Tring called Death And Glory.
One of my best mates from uni lives in St Albans. I’ll eventually visit him one day.
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