Brighton & South Downs CAMRA

Welcome to our Website.

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. We are one of the five branches covering the combined area of East and West Sussex.

CONTENTS

 

2008 Branch Chairman
STEVE PARDOE
enjoying a visit to Dark Star Brewery, one of several of our Branch activities last year.

     

 

BRIGHTON & SOUTH DOWNS CAMpaign for Real Ale

Approximately 930 CAMRA members live in our area, which is Brighton & Hove, Lewes, Newhaven, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Shoreham-by-Sea and the areas 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 20 & Sat 21 June). See the events page for info. Tickets on sale from may 1st.
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 2007 winner is The Stanley Arms in Portslade, which goes forward to CAMRA's National contests. The 2008 all-Sussex winner 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 2009) which is in our Branch area.
6. Help with the publication and 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 five 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. Publish the occasional local Pubs Guide. The last was in 2001: sold out, but the pubs list has been revised in 2006, and can be viewed - see PUB GUIDE text .

 

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