Brighton & South Downs CAMRA

Brighton & South Downs CAMRA

CAMRA stands for The Campaign for Real Ale, a British consumer organisation founded 1973 to campaign for the quality of traditional British beers. It has local branches all over Britain and the Brighton & South Downs Branch is one of the five branches covering the County of 'Sussex' (i.e. East & West Sussex).

BRANCH COMMITTEE 2012

Chairman Roger Coton chairman@brightoncamra.org.uk

Secretary Paul Free secretary@brightoncamra.org.uk

Treasurer John Kirkland treasurer@brightoncamra.org.uk

President Pete Coppard president@brightoncamra.org.uk

Webmaster Adrian Towler

CURRENT CAMPAIGNS - SAVE YOUR PINT!

As you are probably aware by now, CAMRA is backing a national e-petition calling for the end of the beer duty escalator. We need 100,000 signatures to trigger a high profile Parliamentary debate and put pressure on the Government to scrap the escalator at Budget 2013. This is not going to be easy so we really need your help in reaching as many people as possible in the hope of hitting 100,000. Go straight to www.saveyourpint.co.uk for all the info

CONTENTS & LINKS

EVENTS List – Festivals, Socials, Trips & Meetings.
PUB NEWS by our Branch President – a collection of news and views on pubs in our Branch Area.
YOUNG MEMBERS' PAGE for the under 35-ish reader.
BREWERIES in Sussex, almost 30 of them.
SUSSEX CAMRA BRANCHES – The four other CAMRA Branches' websites in Sussex: Arun & Adur, North Sussex, South East Sussex and Western Sussex.
SUSSEX DRINKER – our local CAMRA magazine for Sussex. The link takes you to the Western Sussex website where you can download it as a PDF. Spring 2012 edition.
ALE TRAIL – Our Summer Ale Trail, themed 'Ale of Two Cities' due to Charles Dickens' anniversary starts in May 28th.
National CAMRA Website

Our 2012 Branch Chairman is
ROGER COTON

BRIGHTON & SOUTH DOWNS CAMpaign for Real Ale

Over 1,200 CAMRA members live in our area, which is Brighton & Hove, Lewes, Newhaven, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Shoreham-by-Sea and the area in between. So what do we do, apart from drink beer and run this website?

1. Organise the annual South Downs Beer Festival in The Old Town Hall & Corn Exchange, Lewes, Fri 15 and Sat 16 June 2012. Events page has details: here

2. Select the pubs from our area for inclusion in CAMRA's annual Good Beer Guide (normally 36 entries).

3. Choose one as our Pub of The Year. Our 2011 winner is The Evening Star, Brighton. Runner-up is The Brewers Arms, Lewes and our Country Pub of the Year is The Horns Lodge Inn, South Street, South Chailey nr. Lewes. The 2012 one is being selected now.

4. Organise weekly socials, usually on a Thursday or Friday night, in pubs that serve good real ale, run surveying and recruiting trips locally by minibus, and visits to breweries.

5. Assist in organising the Sussex Beer & Cider Festival at Hove Town Hall, March 2013, which is in our Branch area.

6. Help with the distribution of Sussex Drinker, quarterly newsletter about real ale, available free in lots of Sussex pubs.

7. Represent CAMRA and campaign on CAMRA issues in our area, minibus trips to pubs with literature, stalls at festivals, etc.

8. Liaise with and report on the three Breweries on our patch to CAMRA headquarters, and put their news in the 'Bru News' section of Sussex Drinker.

9. Run a Summer ALE TRAIL and its associated 'Cider Rider' - from May to October around our area, with prizes for visiting 20, 30 or 40 pubs.

10. And occasionally, publish a local Pubs Guide. The last one was in 2001. As there are many interesting pub websites generally available now we have given up listing 'good' pubs in our Branch Area. The Ale Trail page lists 40 participating real ale pubs which you may like to try, otherwise for recommendations please see CAMRA's current Good Beer Guide.

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