Beer Festival returns to Andover

The joint beer festival by the Andover Tap at the Lamb and the local Campaign for Real Ale returns this year and will be held over the first weekend of April (Friday 4th – Sunday 6th April).

With around 20 cask and craft ales, along with a selection of traditional ciders, this friendly event caters for all. There will be traditional bitters, IPAs, porters, stouts as well as modern keg styles to enjoy over the three days. 

There will be a selection of food to purchase and music on Sunday afternoon.

Entry to the festival is free.

The festival opens on Friday April 4th April at 11.00am and runs through until early Sunday evening on the 6th.

The Andover Tap has also won the local Cider Pub of the Year Award for its selection of real traditionally produced ciders. A Presentation is to be made on the Saturday afternoon of this event.

Beer Festival in Andover

A beer festival featuring a wide range of traditional cask beers, flavoursome keg beers and a selection of real ciders is to be held over three days in March.

Click to enlarge

A joint initiative
The Andover Tap at the Lamb is hosting this special joint venture with the North Hampshire Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale over the weekend of Friday 8th March to Sunday 10th March. 

A leading beer venue
The 'Tap', in Winchester Street, is the town's leading venue for beers from local and regional independent breweries and always has a range of styles from traditional bitters, IPAs and craft lagers through to stouts, porters, and even sour ales. 

Beers are served from cask, keg or in cans and bottles. In addition there is a range of various ciders with differing tastes from traditional hazy styles to fruity varieties.

The Campaign for Real Ale
CAMRA is one of the most successful consumer organisations, dating back to 1971 and has Branches throughout the country.
This Festival will see members of the North Hampshire Branch providing an increased selection of traditional beers which will be served direct from the cask, ie by gravity, supplementing the Tap's range, making this an event not to miss.
Around eight beers will be served this way with others on handpump and craft keg fonts.

A full range
There is also a full bar available including top quality gins from the neighbouring on-site distillery of Wessex Spirit's Gin Palace as well as some food to supplement the drinks.

The doors open at 11.00am on both Friday and Saturday and the event runs to 10.30pm each day, while on Sunday it opens at noon and continues through to around 6.00pm, although the beers on gravity dispense may finish before or around mid-afternoon.

This will be a weekend to savour all those wonderful tastes and enjoy the hospitality and friendship of this community pub.

Entry is FREE – just turn up. 😄

 

Whitchurch Pub Race – Will it return?

The question has been asked: 

Will the famous Whitchurch Pub Race return in 2024?

The 'Beer Race', 'latterly the 'Pub Race', is part of Whitchurch folklore, having first been arranged – um – long before anyone can remember. Historically, teams of around six, attired in fancy dress and linked together with a rope, would race from pub to pub enjoying a beer at each.

Crowds came out to support those running – or staggering – and filled the buckets, raising funds for local good causes. The fun was massive and continued into the evenings with music in the local pubs. 

In more recent years it has been organised more intermittently and as more than half the original pubs have closed different strategies and routes have had to be developed, often using pop-up drinking stops. Covid also put the event on hold but is it now to make a return? 

Posting on a local Facebook page, a local Whitchurch resident, asked

"...who wants the Pub Race next year?"

The strength of support for the event was soon apparent with several offers of help, and early ideas of provisional teams started to appear. 

So ... is it time to start planning those costumes? 

For now its a case of watch this space, but with the question asked there is a growing hope for a 2024 return.

Wouldn't it be amazing to have this event back on the calendar.

SUMMER OF PUB

The annual Summer of Pub campaign, promoted by CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale), has been launched.

Events will be organised over the summer months by pubs, breweries and CAMRA groups – including open mic nights, ale trails, pub quizzes and tap takeovers.

Happy Pint is supporting this by listing a large number of local events over the Summer.
See: 
FREE LOCAL EVENTS CALENDAR

Events can be added by using the Contact Form on this Page.

The past few years have presented an enormous challenge for the pub and brewing industry as venues have faced skyrocketing energy and business costs.
The Summer of Pub campaign aims to support and promote pub and club-going throughout the summer and there’s plenty to celebrate.

CAMRA is encouraging its network of members to get their locals involved in the campaign and host events of their own. 

CAMRA’s national campaigns director Nick Boley said:

“I think we’re all looking forward to summer after a tough winter that has seen the pub trade, brewers, and consumers hit hard by parallel cost-of-living and cost-of-business crises.

“The Coronation bank holiday was the perfect time to start Summer of Pub celebrations with a visit to the pub, to enjoy the community spirit that only a pint of real ale or cider down the local can bring.

“I encourage everyone to head to their local and start their Summer of Pub.”

ARE PUB CRAWLS FINISHED?

The press has been awash recently with the news that CAMRA has advised its members not to use terms like ‘pub crawls’, ‘joining the lads for a swift few’, or even ‘happy hours’.

The organisation which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary hopes that by avoiding these terms it will be seen as more welcoming. CAMRA claims these terms are alienating to many and promote out-dated stereotypes.

Instead it is suggested that terms such as ‘pub tour’ or to ‘treat your colleagues to a drink after work’ are used as they are more inclusive.
Earlier in 2022 CAMRA launched a ‘Diversity and Inclusivity’ survey as part of an aim to attract more women, gay people and ethnic minorities and to be seen as a less pale, male and stale organisation.

But there has been a backlash to the ‘guidelines’ with claims that the organisation has ‘lost its way’ and is promoting a woke culture that is out-of-touch with reality. Others see it as a positive way to be more inclusive in its dealing with the public.
With an ageing and falling mainly male membership it may continue to be a hard uphill struggle as such terms are ingrained into UK drinking culture.

One drinker at the bar said he would be going out on a pub crawl around town with the lads and every hour would be a happy hour, whatever the CAMRA diehards might wish. maybe its all just one of those molehills.

The local CAMRA group has been asked for a comment.