Events Organised by CAMRA Members' Investment Club

The first of the 2012 brewery visits has now been finalised - a trip to Hop Back.

The trip will take place on Wednesday 11 April with no cost to members. If you would like to reserve a place on this trip please contact Jannette at the admin office to have your name added to the list.

Saturday 7 July at 11:30 am is the date and time for the visit to Castle Rock Brewery, Queensbridge Road, Nottingham. NG2 1NB. Castle Rock are the brewers of Harvest Pale, the Champion Beer of Britain 2010.

Special price of £ 8 (instead of £ 10) payable on the day. The tour is conducted by the one and only "Robin Hood" (Nottingham's official Robin Hood, Tim Pollard). The trip includes samples of Castle Rock beers in the visitors' centre afterwards.

All attendees get the opportunity to pull their own beer and have a photo taken behind the bar - this will then be sent on to you by e-mail. As usual, contact Jannette at the office to book your place.

Further trips will be detailed here as soon as they have been finalised.

Youngs Hotel Vouchers

A supply of the latest Young's exclusive shareholder offer vouchers has now been received at the CMIC office.

The offer relates to their Hotels - from £ 55 B&B for one or two persons at selected Young's hotels on Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday evenings valid until 30 June 2012.

Adnams Offers

A small supply of Privilege Cards from Adnams offering 15% discount on goods and services purchased from Adnams has now been received at the office.

If any members would like a Card, please contact Jannette at the office. They are only valid until the end of May.

Hydes Privilege Cards

A small supply of Privilege Cards have been received from Hydes. These entitle you to 20% discount off meals at the following Hydes sites - The Coach & Four in Wilmslow, Jar Bar in Macclesfield, John Millington in Cheadle Hulme and Joshua Bradley in Hyde.

Thwaites Shareholder Offer

Members can now stay a night at any one of six Thwaites Inns and stay for a second night free - valid until 31 March 2012. Please contact Jannette at the office for further details.

2011 TRIP TO GERMANY

DIARY OF A CMIC TRIP TO GERMANY - by Neil Kellett and Chris Holmes

Well………let’s have a change from Belgium and have a visit to Germany to sample Alt in Düsseldorf and Kòlsch in Cologne.

A trip round a Kòlsch brewery was not possible so a booking for lunch in the Malzmühle Brauerei restaurant pub was organised for noon on Sunday 23 October 2011. A visit to Diebels Altbrauerei was fixed for noon the next day.

Friday 21 October – We met several other participants at St Pancras for a pre-Eurostar journey pint (or two) in the Betjeman Arms. 21:00 - arrive at Ibis Hotel, Hauptbahnhof, in Düsseldorf and then on to Schumacher on Oststrasse for an Alt or two.

Saturday 22 October – we catch the 05:17 train to the airport to catch the 06:50 plane to Birmingham, have a few breakfasts there and then on to Burton-on Trent for the CAMRA Awards Luncheon. Excellent event. Met up with CMIC Chairman, Chris Bruton, and many other stalwart CAMRA members and brewers.

We (which now includes Chris Bruton) depart Burton at 17:30 and arrive at the Red Lion at Ealing for a few pints of Fullers. Then on to overnight at Chris B’s in Ealing.

Sunday 23 October – taxi calls at 05:30 to go to Heathrow to catch the 07:20 plane to Düsseldorf.

Short shower stop at the Ibis and then on to Cologne for the 12:00 lunch at Malzmühle. The Kòlsch was very tasty and the food superb value. Then a tour of Cologne to, inter alia, Gaffel in the Marktplatz (where info was received of the 6-1 City win over United courtesy of Chris B’s Blackberry) and Päffgen.

Monday 24 October – Train and bus to Issum to visit Diebels Brauerei. Ingrid welcomed us and waived the “no alcohol before the visit” rule. Our guide Roland then arrived and gave us a very informative tour of the brewery. His English was excellent and his explanations were interspersed with some very good humour. After the visit, when the container of Alt ceased to function, a small cask miraculously appeared and was dispatched very quickly.

More good trade for Schumacher in the evening plus the one and only Uerige for more Alt and Im Füchschen for even more Alt and some food.

Tuesday 25 October – Chris B off to LHR early in the morning and we sampled more Alt before flying home to Manchester.

Yes – we were rather shattered after this (very pleasurable) ordeal.

Roland, Neil, Chris H, Cask of Diebels, Ingrid

The 2011 AGM was successfully held once again at the Victoria in Beeston, Nottingham. Members enjoyed the fabulous buffet lunch and a pint of real ale.

Members were then addressed by Paul Theakston of Black Sheep Brewery. Paul gave us his detailed thoughts of where the brewing industry is and is likely to go in the future. Many thanks to Paul for taking time to be the guest at our AGM.

Guest speaker Paul Theakston entertains the members at this year's AGM.

Club Chairman Chris Bruton addressing the AGM with Paul Theakston alongside. Also (left to right) Committee members Neil Kellett, Iain Loe, Chris Holmes, Ann Mace and Sean Murphy.

The 2010 AGM was once again be held at the Victoria in Beeston, on Saturday 19 June.

Once again the AGM was followed by the excellent lunch prepared by Neil Kelso and his team - accompanied by some splendid beers, sponsored by Castle Rock Brewery - as always, our sincere thanks again to managing director Chris Holmes.

The speaker was Hamish Champ of The Publican. He gave a fascinating and humorous insight into the financial world of various companies involved in real ale and the like.

(l-r) CMIC Chairman Chris Bruton, speaker Hamish Champ, committee members Iain Loe, Neil Kellett & Chris Holmes, Neil Kelso of The Victoria.

The weekend of 29 - 31 October 2010 saw the annual pilgrimage of some 50 members to Belgium including 3 committee members, Neil Kellett, Iain Loe and Colin Bodimeade, plus member no 1, Iain Dobson.

On the 30th we visited Oudenaarde, an hour away from Brussels by train - cost €18 (€5 for those over 65!), and took the long walk through the town to Liefmans. Liefmans is part of Duvel Moortgat in which the club has shares valued at £85,000. The brewery was, in effect, a museum as it is only used, at present, for the fermentation of beer brewed at Duvel's brewery, addition of tons of Belgian cherries to turn the beer into kriek and then for storage. The brewery has passed through many hands in the last few years, including Vaux of Sunderland, but would now appear to be in safe, caring and proactive hands.

The gueuze brewery Cantillon was our destination on the 31st. We were well received (well, we own 2.5% of the company) and a very detailed and informative tour was followed by a sampling of lambic, gueuze, kriek and faro beers accompanied by cheeses and other local delicacies.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing beer research in Brussels and elsewhere. One frequently visited hostelry was the new Moeder Lambic at Place Fontainas, a splendid establishment that specialises in Belgiums's small breweries, including 48 on draught.

Neil Kellett - CMIC Committee - checks his Liefman's list

Lambic beer stored for up to 3 years in oak barrels at Cantillon

Donation to CAMRA

At the Cheltenham Festival held last year, a number of the CMIC Committee were guests of the Chairman Chris Bruton. As a result of a number of Tote winning tickets purchased by Dr. Bruton, winnings of £123 were donated to CAMRA.

On 25 January 2010 a small contingent of CMIC committee and members visited Brussels to exchange contracts to purchase 10 shares (2.5%) in Brasserie Cantillon, the traditional family brewers of the famous Belgian beer style, gueuze, since 1900. The brewery is situated in the centre of Brussels just a short walk from Midi Station. The Cantillon/van Roy familes wish to re-arrange the family's shareholdings and 100 of the 400 shares have been offered to interested parties. After the formalities M. Jean-Pierre van Roy invited the group to toast the deal with a 1976 vintage gueuze - all are pleased to report that it had stood the test of time! Details of Cantillon and of the gueuze beer style can be found at http://www.cantillon.be/ and also in Tim Webb's "Good Beer Guide to Belgium". A members' visit to Cantillon has been arranged for Saturday 30 October 2010 as part of the Club's annual trip to Belgium which this year will include a visit to Liefmans kriek brewery and to the Poperinge Beer Festival. Further information will be on this page in due course.

Signing the share register L to R Neil Kellett, Jean-Pierre van Roy, Chris Holmes and Iain Dobson

The Brewery

The full group L to R Neil Kellett, Jean-Pierre van Roy, Chris Holmes, Iain Loe, Peter Dyer, Iain Dobson and Jean van Roy (son of Jean-Pierre and MD of Cantillon)

Chris Holmes with the 1976 bottle of gueuze

Please contact Jannette at the office if you are interested in ay of the above offers - vouchers, letters and cards will be issued on a first come, first served basis.

The 2009 AGM, was held once again at the Victoria at Beeston on Saturday 20 June.

The AGM was then once again followed by an excellent lunch - our thanks again to Neil Kelso and his team - accompanied by some splendid beers, sponsored by Castle Rock Brewery - our sincere thanks again to managing director Chris Holmes.

After lunch the guest speaker was Ralph Findlay, MD of Marstons, who spoke very entertainingly and openly about the company, the industry and the recently announced rights issue.

(l-r) Guest Speaker and Marstons MD Ralph Findlay with CMIC Chairman Chris Bruton.

Chris Homes (Castle Rock Brewery), Neil Kellett (CMIC Committee), Chris Bruton (Chairman CMIC), Neil Kelso (The Victoria), Ralph Findlay (Marstons) and Neil Harding (Brewin Dolphin)

Photos courtesy of Graham Percy @ Hotspur PR

Trip to Rodenbach, Belgium

43 members visited the Rodenbach Brewery – home of the most Flemish of West Flanders beers. It’s a great sour, sharp beer which comes from the ageing for up to 2 years in the 234 huge tuns at the brewery. The total capacity of the tuns is 9 million litres!

The visit was arranged by Chris (Podge) Pollard – famous for Podge’s Beer Tours of Belgium. The tour was efficiently conducted by our guide Belinda (see picture) followed by a superb meal among the tuns.

Chris and his wife Siobhan, are authors of “Around Bruges in 80 Beers”. As most of the party stayed in Bruges this became the bible for the weekend. CMIC founder, Neil Kellett managed to tick off 20 during the weekend!

On Saturday 17 October a number of the group tested the “Kusttram” pub crawl – by tram along the Belgian Coast from the Dutch to the French border. A well recommended way to spend a day getting to know good Belgian pubs and its amazing variety of beers.

A date for your diaries – same weekend in 2010 for a trip to Liefman’s, near Ghent.

NK – October 2009

Rodenbach tour guide Belinda addressing the members

Neil Kellett addresses the CMIC members at the visit to Rodenbach

CMIC members dining amongst the tuns at Rodenbach

Trip to Fuller Smith & Turner - Chiswick

31 members of the Club were guests of Fullers on Tuesday 28 April 2009 and were well looked after.

Members had travelled from all over the UK - committee member Neil Kellett arrived via Adnams AGM in Southwold, Suffolk which he had attended the previous day.

Neil is seen here in the Hock Cellar addressing the members during his vote of thanks to guides Dave and Tim who are also pictured below dispensing Fuller’s excellent ales.

Based on the comprehensive guided tours given to us by Dave and Tim it would appear that our million pounds+ investment in Fullers is in good hands.

This visit and the one in December 2008 were organised by Committee member Steve Williams who also provided the photos below.

A visit to Wells & Youngs Brewery in Bedford went ahead as planned 18 May.

Brewery Visits - 2008

Last years CMIC trip abroad was to the de Koninck Brewery in Antwerp, Belgium.

Trip to Fullers

The visit to Fullers went ahead on Tuesday 2 December.

Brewery Visits - 2007 DUVEL MOORTGAT (Belgium)

Monday 22nd October 2007.

Over 40 members of the CAMRA Members' Investment Club visited the Duvel Moortgat Brewery in Breendonk near Brussels, on Monday 22 October 2007. The trip was very successful and we were well looked after by the brewery guides. Neil Kellett, Committee member and organiser of the trip, pictured here with head guide Brigitte, made a short speech of thanks in Flemish after the visit.

Some of the CMIC members who visited the Duvel Moortgat Brewery in October.

AGM and LUNCHEON