2021 Events

 

 

Confirmed:

'CAMAL 35^TH Anniversary Meal' & 'Annual General Meeting' - 21^ST November, 2021

 

1.30pm (for 2.15pm) - The Regency Club, 19-21, Station Parade, Queensbury, Middlesex, HA8 5NR.

 

Due to the Flu Manchu pandemic precluding a 2020 AGM, this will be the first it's been possible to hold since 2019 and, as it coincides with a notable anniversary, it makes sense to combine the two events together even if it means splitting the business of the AGM either side of being able to take our table for a curry and dining thereon. 

 

Card-carrying (& badge-wearing) CAMAL members only at the AGM please. 

 

 

Proposed (short term):

 

 

'Specialist London Lager Microbreweries IV' - spring 2022

 

Noon - Antwerp Arms, 168-70, Church Road, Tottenham, N17 8AS then

 

1.30pm - True Craft (ex-West Green Tavern), 68, West Green Road, South Tottenham, N15 5NR, then

 

3pm - Bohem Brewery Tap Room, Unit 5, Littleline House, 41-3, West Road, Northumberland Park, N17 0RE then

 

4.30pm - One Mile End Brewery Tap Room, Unit 2, Compass West Estate, 32, West Road, Northumberland Park, N17 0XL then

 

6pm - Redemption Brewery Tap Room, Unit 16, Compass West Estate, 32, West Road, Northumberland Park, N17 0XL Closes 7pm

 

 

(All taprooms are adjacent to each other, One Mile End moving into Redemption's premises when the latter relocated and Bohem moving nearby to create a venue adjacent to their resited brewery additional to that at Bowes Park.)

 

 

Proposed (medium term):

 

'Yet More SE London Micropubs' - summer 2022

 

Further details

Times may vary and venues (as well as date!) tbc but will probably include a selection from:

 

 

 

Also:

 

'Bill English Memorial Trip to Amsterdam & Antwerp (possibly including Ypres) - tba

 

Further details will be posted here in due course. 

 

  

CAMAL badges should be worn by all participating members at every event. 

  

  ^ Proof of CAMAL's mediæval origins! 

 

You have missed:

 

 

Sunday, 26^TH September

 

 

'Ealing Brewing in Brentford'

 

2pm - Ealing Brewing Taproom, Unit 2, The Ham, Brentford, TW8 8EX then

 

5pm - Magpie & Crown, 128, High Street, Brentford, TW8 8EW then

 

6.30pm - Black Dog Alehouse, 17, Albany Road, Brentford, TW8 0EF.

 

The Ealing Brewery Taproom (an offshoot of Marko Paulo based at the Owl & Pussycat micropub in nearby Northfields) brew a wide range of beers specialising, in particular, in pale ales and dark beers, including a lager. True to form, they had two casks on tap and up to three kegs, including one dark beer and one sour as well.

 

As Sunday opening of the EBT was not intended to have extended into the autumn, the venue was going to be closed on the day of our visit. However, upon hearing that this event had been scheduled well in advance, Mark (of Marko Paulo) had agreed with James Bell to open the bar especially for CAMAL. An excellent turnout of 9 members, 1 ex-member and 5 guests in gratitude of his kind consideration, was rewarded with an additional bar-top cask - a lager - laid on for us! With just a few pints remaining at the 5pm closing time, a few lucky individuals were able to take 2-pint containers filled with Ealing Brewery's 4.9% ABV Nashorbräu Kellerbier home with them! 

 

[Given the lack of food availability here and the difficulty in finding the brewery, we had rendezvoused initially at the Express Hotel, 56, Kew Bridge Road, Kew Bridge, TW8 0EW beforehand from 12.30pm. As to be expected, this 'Big Smoke' pub sported a wide range of beers, available from eight handpumps, as well as some ciders/perries. At approximately 1.45pm, a 237 or 267 bus was taken from opposite the pub towards Brentford High Street where the group alighted at the Market Place stop prior to walking around the corner to find the EBT.]

 

At the Magpie & Crown, a couple of beers were on handpump, plus one cider and some foreign craft keg and bottled beers - an understandably reduced range, perhaps, given that the pub is currently in the midst of a redevelopment site all around it! An additional CAMAL member joined us here. 

 

The Black Dog (formerly the Albany ph), having reopened in 2019 after a few years' closure, had around a ½ dozen beers on handpump and, in addition, eight craft keg beers on the wall, including an example of their own beer brewed from the on-site brewery in the garden. 

 

Despite various public transport issues, the limited Sunday services on the Hounslow Loop Line and that the Overground and Underground route along the Richmond branch line was closed for the day, the overall total of 16 attendees at this Social was remarkable! 

 

 

Sunday, 15^TH August 

 

'Specialist London Lager Microbreweries III'

 

1pm - Forest Road Brewing Co. Taproom, 355, Westgate Street, London, E8 3RL then

 

3pm - London Fields Brewing Co. Taproom, 365/6, Warburton Street, London, E8 3RR then

 

5pm - Hackney Church Brewery Taproom, 17/8, Bohemia Place, London, E8 1DU.

 

Forest Road's specialism is in craft draught or craft keg pale & sour Ales, including a lager called POSH, and was established in 2015.

 

Nearby, London Fields, established in 2015, has recovered from a long period of closure and, although now owned by Carlsberg, has resumed brewing - craft keg beers only now, such a brown ale, with the 6 handpumps for serving craught draught brews having been removed - on site.

 

Only established in 2018, The Hackney Church Brewpub is home to the St. John's Chapel brewers, so-named from the church diagonally opposite Hackney Central Station and adjacent to Clapton bus garage. It produces a lager called Lazy Days together a full portfolio of other beer styles including a Bourbon barrel-aged stout. 

 

Unfortunately, Five Points had decided to close for the day, 'due to unforseen circumstances', so we weren't able to visit it as originally intended. 

 

Also, Forest Road's intended relocation to within the 'Walthamstow Beer Mile' during the pandemic didn't happen so remained, along with the other two visited, 'underneath the arches' of the various railway lines that intersect the E8 postcode.  

 

With the first two situated between Cambridge Heath and London Fields Overground stations on the Liverpool Street to Cheshunt/Chingford/Enfield lines, the suggested train was the 1249 ex-Liverpool Street which took 7 minutes to reach London Fields from which it was a 5-minute walk to the Forest Road site.

 

The opportunity was taken to visit other pubs in this eclectic area, such as The Chesham Arms and The Pembury Tavern, afterwards. 

 

The return was made from Hackney Downs Station - the original site of the Five Points brewery (named after the adjacent road junction) - on the same line not far from our final venue. 

 

 

Friday, 2^ND July

 

'A Rural Lager Sojourn & more'

 

1.20pm - Bell, The Street, Waltham St. Lawrence, Berkshire, RG10 0JJ Closed 3pm then

 

4pm - Shurlock Inn, The Street, Shurlock Row, Berkshire, RG10 0PS

 

The Bell offered Œchsner Vier, a 4% ABV Pilsner, Rothaus Pils, a 5.1% Lager, Rothaus Hefeweizen, a Wheat Beer at 5.4%, and Rothaus Märzen (5.6%) amongst various real ales and ciders. It is both the Reading & mid-Berks CAMRA branch's Pub of the Year and Cider Pub of the Year for 2020 (no awards having been made for 2021 - yet!).

 

The Shurlock Inn was formerly The White Hart prior to being rescued by a community buy-out. Now commercially-run, it had both a locale Rebellion (Marlow) beer for sale alongside an even-more-locale Stardust brewery (at White Waltham) beer on handpump plus a couple more changing ales. It also offered both the Stardust Saaz Pilsner (4.5%) and Windsor & Eton's Republika (4.8%). 

 

Travel was aboard the 234 Thames Valley/Courteney bus from Frascati Way (Teapot Café), about ⅓ mile north of Maidenhead railway station for the 32-minute journey to Waltham St. Lawrence at 1245. To connect with this, the TfL train from London Paddington at 1143 (Ealing Broadway, 1151, Southall, 1157), arriving Maidenhead at 1224 was used by most. The return 234 bus departed from outside The Shurlock Inn at 1749 (The Bell at 1756) with the TfL London-bound train at 1835 used by the majority from Maidenhead. 

 

 

Public Transport was required to the first and from the last venue with a walk (c. 1½ miles) between the two undertaken.