updated 18th November 2009 Anything underlined links to further information and all links out of this site open in a new window of your browser
The views expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the Campaign for Real Ale plc.
Whilst every effort is
made to ensure that the information on this site is accurate and up to date, no responsibility for errors and omissions
can be accepted.
Advance notice - get it in your diary now!!! : Cumbria Beer Lovers' Dinner - Nov 28th, with National Chair, Paula Waters, as guest speaker!
social sec - contact stevehebblethwaite1@btinternet.com or 07854 643 274 (mobile) for transport availability
Other events
20th - 21st Nov Whitehaven Beer Festival
Tasting panel dates:
No more coming up at the moment - please keep doing the cards!!
What does the branch do?
Click here for a look at our social and campaigning activities.
Branch and County pub awards
Branch Pub of the Year 2009 is The Kirkstile Inn, Loweswater.
Very close Runners up - the Brook, Cleator, the Strands, Nether Wasdale.
The four Cumbrian branch POTYs went head to head to produce a Cumbrian Pub of the Year.
The other three were Westmorland branch - Watermill, Ings;
Furness branch - Prince of Wales, Foxfield
and Solway branch- Cumberland Inn, Alston
And the Watermill won!
West Cumbria
Pub of the Year 2009
Kirkstile Inn, Loweswater
Branch members gathered to present the certificate
Pub of the Year Runner-up 2009
Delighted! Chris Lace, bar/cellarman of the Brook, Cleator, with the award info about the pub here
Pub of the Year Runner-up 2009
Stephen Walker presents the award to
Mark and Lesler Corr of the
Strands Hotel, Nether Wasdale info about the pub here
Pub of the Season, Summer 2009
Mary Cox presents the award to Paul and Helen Brown, of the
Globe Hensingham info about the pub here
Pub of the Season, Spring 2009
Chris de Cordova presents the award to
John Frangleton of the
Holly House, Ravenglass info about the pub here
The Quiz team that won their division and a knockout cup last season,
playing from the Vagabond in Whitehaven
Cumbria Campaigner of the Year
National Vice-chairman, Bob Stukins, presents a surprised Lynda Johnston with her award at the dinner on Feb 7th
how to join CAMRA Go to the national website where you can join one of the most successful
consumer organisations ever.
Contact us about the branch, website or about real ale in West Cumbria
Amateur photographers wanted!!
If you are willing to help out with images for What Ales, our branch newsletter, please contact
Andy or Denise on 01900 821939 or email info@smithplusbell.com
Oversized line measure glasses
Does your pub serve full pints of beer beer in oversized glasses? Let us know for contenders for a new award and for
inclusion on this page
Guest Beers
Pubs' guest beers can be publicised on here - you only need to send up-to-date details. And keep them up-to-date!
National Beer Scoring System
Join in this scheme to evaluate online the beer in the pubs you visit. Visit here and register as a new user. You need your CAMRA membership number and a password will be emailed to you to enable you to begin using the site.
Quick and easy to do, it helps branches know what pubs deserve to be in the Good Beer Guide and which are worth keeping an eye on.
This area of the branch home page will feature latest news, what beers have come on where, who has taken over which pub, and anything else
newsworthy. If you have anything to add,
News urgently awaited!!
Newest stuff is generally added to the top of this column.
Whitehaven Beer Festival is Nov 20th and 21st 2009. Details here
The beer choice is fantastic - this should be the best ever - Do not miss it!!! This coming Friday and Saturday!!!
Dinner Update: Beer Lovers' Dinner- Sat Nov 28th, £35. Fantastic food, prepared with local beers, Cumbrian beers on table, Champion beer of Cumbria awards,
Champion Beer of the Northwest awards (those brewed in Cumbria), after dinner address by National chairman of CAMRA - Paula Waters, other National
Executive members attending. Great company, great night. Menu here. Further details in branch magazines or here
To book please send payment in full to Chris de Cordova, 35 Thornton Rd, Whitehaven CA28 6UW. by Sat 21st, please. Still some places left.
Looking for that special Christmas present for ther beer lover in your family? Or just for yourself? The recently produced Cumbrian Breweries map is
a lovely thing to own! Printed A2 size on quality satin paper, softly laminated, anti-reflective, individually numbered limited edition, showing all
Cumbrian breweries as mail stations on an underground type map, with their main beers as smaller stations en route. They are £10 each,
available at the beer festival, or email the webmistress for some pubs where they are also on sale.
Great Gable Brewery is moving, temporarily, to Bridgend Industrial Estate in Egremont.
Beers - now two handpumps - at the Globe, Hensingham (18tn November) Adnams Old Ale and something from Derwent!
Stanley Arms special promotion: From Friday 20th November, and for all Fridays till the end of the year, all cask ale will be £2 per pint! Fab deal - go for it folks!
Real ale back on again at The Old Ginns, Great Clifton. Coniston Bluebird at the moment.
Sunny Hill now open , being run by the McNicholases,
who also run the Whittington Cat in Whitehaven. They plan to do their tasty and good value food up there,
and there are currently 3 real ales: one Jennings and two Ennerdale, flying out!!.
The Vagabond now has CLA Loweswater Gold 4.3% on permanently.
The Whittington Cat, Whitehaven
Guest beer: Jennings or Marstons seasonals. Whittington Cat beers are always in superb
condition and the pub is a new entry in the 2010 Good Beer Guide
From a contributor: 'at a pub in Beckermet recently, the bar person made a big issue over being asked to change a pint of a guest
beer, that had obviously been resting in the pipes for far too long, the first one of three being warm and slightly hazy, the rest bright and chilled.
It is apparently a big problem wasting beer. Not a problem selling poor quality stuff to real ale lovers who might not have had the front to object .....
The subsequent pints, pulled from the barrel, were delicious.'
The CAMRA quiz team, in the Whitehaven area, now back playing from the Vagabond for the Winter League, won the 2nd
division cup in the Summer league and get promoted to first divison, and also won the Ann Kewin trophy in the knockout competitions.
Congratulations to the Candlestick, Whitehaven, on becoming our next Pub of the Season (Winter 2009)
Well done to Great Gable for their Champion Beer of Britain Silver Medal award for Yewbarrow in the
'Real Ale in a bottle' section!
Other Cumbrian brewed beers in the finals were: Dent Rambrau (Speciality beers) Jennings Bitter (Bitters) and Cumbrian Legendary Ales Loweswater
Gold (Golden Ales)
These were not placed in the finals, but were Regional winners (NorthWest) in their categories, and therefore amongst the top nine in the country.
Congratulations to the Globe, Hensingham, on becoming West Cumbria CAMRA's Summer Pub of the Season!!! (Article by Ros Berry here)
The Bitter End brewery has relocated to new premises on the Derwent Mills Commercial Park in Cockermouth. Greater output then possible,
including bottles. The arrow in the pub still points, misleadingly now, to the ex-on-site brewery with a sign saying 'brewed here'!
The Ewe and Lamb at High Padstow, nr Keekle, is now selling real ale again, after many years of being keg only. The regulars are really enjoying Blackbeck beers!!
The West Pennines PUB of the Year 2009 has again gone to the Taps at Lytham - a very worthy winner!!
Our awards are so much appreciated!!
Not just a rumour ....: a new brewery, in a fire engine ( to get past National Park planning laws) in a pub in Mardale .... using redundant kit from the Kirkstile Inn
First beer to be called Emergency Ale. Watch for further news!!!
The new issue of our branch newsletter – What Ales? – will be appearing in pubs around the area soon. It’s a big issue (36 pages) and we’ve printed
4,000 of them! You can download it to read on your computer now – from the column on the right hand side. Many thanks to all our contributors and
advertisers.
Get your personal copy of What Ales? delivered to your door. Please send details of your name and address accompanied by a cheque or postal order,
made payable to “CAMRA West Cumbria Branch” for £3.00 (to cover post and packaging) to Jim Chapple, 33 Castlegate Drive, Cockermouth CA13 9HD, to
receive a personal copy of the next four issues by post. Your copies will receive priority over normal distribution. (Offer available to United
Kingdom addresses only. For overseas please contact Jim Chapple for rate. )
The Candlestick, Whitehaven - special offer for CAMRA members!!
"After a conversation with a few members who visited after the tasting day that was held last week we are delighted to announce that for camra
members our real ale will be reduced from £2.50 down to £2.30, this will be redeemable on presentation of badge or similar. We feel that we
needed to give something back to the camra members who have supported us in our early months and would like to give a special thanks to
Tom (our thomas) Hall for not only sticking by us but for helping us choose our real ales.
At present the ales we stock, which can change on a daily basis, sometimes with choice of 2, range from Double Hop 5% ,Dizzy Blonde 3.8%, Nosey Parker
3.8%, and current seasonal ale 'Tit for Tat' 3.8%.
NEWS!!
Cumbria Pub of the Year is the Watermill at Ings. Congratulations to them, and we are still proud of the Kirkstile, a runner up!!!
So this is what Marston's think of us.... 'It’s hard to keep the gobby hobbits happy'
* By Stephen Oliver, MD of Marstons'
"You’d think that the beardy weirdies of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) ... according to the malcontents of Camra’s sandal-clad, whisker-stroking
stormtroopers a guest ale’s not a guest ale unless it comes from some oddball brewery down a country lane and is served with bits in it under a name
like Knackered Old Cripplecock .... the itinerant Camra bunch that go promiscuously from pub to pub, looking for their next eclectic pint brewed
in a cupboard with the dubious benefit of progressive beer duty. They’re a gobby lot, the beardies.
Holding up the glass, opining on the beer before them, more often than not talking rubbish about ingredients and how it’s brewed. Licensees
should be aware of kowtowing to them.... to enjoy cask ale you don’t have to have mislaid
your razor, wear socks with your sandals or to have a beer gut the size of Rotherham.
"
Stephen Oliver is managing director of Marston's Beer Company
Congratulations to all who contributed to the new edition of the Cumbria Real Ale Guide, last
year. It was finally acknowledged by CAMRA at the Members' Weekend when it received the Best Local Guide of 2008 award.
Please support efforts your local landlords are making in these hard times!
Punchbowl, Great Broughton - the specialist for guest beers!! His guest beer is one you have almost certainly have never had - or heard of before!!!
Even the Beer Monster was impressed at the collection of pump clips!!!
With usually three on each week, this is probably the best in the west!!
Another sad case of a pub not doing well enough ...
The New Victoria in Cleator Moor, a real ale free house, still not sold
Please support efforts your local landlords are making in these hard times!
Ever wondered...?
Our branch newsletter has started, what we hope will be, a regular column,'frequently asked questions', about the wonders of real ale. The first
column, in our latest issue (read it via the download, right), included queries about the difference between real ale and other beers, whether lager
is the "enemy" and what makes a "good cellar". If you've got a question, email it to the editorial team at whatales@westcumbriacamra.org.uk or
info@smithplusbell.com
Pubs by bus
Workington to Penrith, (X4 and X5)
Cleator Moor to Cockermouth, (219)
Whitehaven to Ravenglass (6)
About the Breweries
There are 26 breweries and 2 cider makers in Cumbria, now, and this page
gives mini descriptions, links to our articles from What Ales and links to their own websites.
CAMRA publications:
The 2010 Good Beer Guide listing the very best sources of quality real ale, both in our
area and across the whole country, with a wealth of useful detail such as beers sold, opening times, phone numbers, food available,
public transport, accommodation, kids allowed, etc.
Click here to order or for further details
CRAG
CAMRA'S AWARD-WINNING - BEST LOCAL GUIDE 2008 - guide to Real Ale pubs and Breweries in Cumbria.
Whether you experience a light-bulb moment while downing a swift half or think you have discovered the meaning of life
while imbibing your favourite beer, this book is packed full of smart ideas, fully-formed theories, unanswered questions
and complete rubbish; the perfect gift for the intellectual in your life!
click here to purchase
CAMRA's new Beer Bed and Breakfast Guide, - the pick of the country's finest pubs serving real ale with good accommodation.
Click
here for details or to purchase
CAMRA's new Good Pub Food Guide, by Susan Nowak and Jill Adam, our definitive guide to fine cuisine and excellent beer.
This unique guide contains over 600 of the best food and real ale pubs in the UK. Click
here for details or to purchase
Other CAMRA publications: click here to go to the CAMRA publications webpages for a great range of
beer guides, pub guides, local real ale guides and historic pub guides.
Especially useful if you are going on holiday and want to find the best real ale!!
