The Blackbeck Inn, near Calderbridge is installing a 5 barrel brewing plant. Once brewing starts the beer/s are likely to be available in a number of local outlets. More information on the brewery will be included in the next edition of What Ales.

Ann and Dave are aiming to have the Hardknott brewery at the Woolpack in Eskdale in full production by Easter, and are well on the way to achieving this. Two beers: Black Sail, a dark Mild (ABV 2.8%) and Tenacity (ABV 5.0%) a malty, strong mild ( old English ale?) were available on the bar on New Years Eve and Light Cas'cade (ABV 2.8%), Tenacious Casc'ade (ABV 3.3%), Woolpacker (ABV 3.8%) and a second brew of Tenacity (ABV 4.8%) have already or will very soon follow.

Loweswater’s Rannerdale Best was voted Beer of the Festival at CAMRA’s recent Whitehaven Beer Festival. Produced in the small brewhouse at the Kirkstile Inn it has an ABV of 4.0% and is a fruity dark beer made with Goldings hops. In second place came Beer O’Clock (3.9%), brewed by Beckstones brewery near Millom, and third place was awarded to Solway Sunset (4.3%), from Yates of Westnewton.

The Whitehaven Beer Festival presented a first beer from the new Ulverston Brewing Company, called Bad Medicine (6%). A second beer Lonesome Pine, a pale hoppy beer (4.3%) also featured at Furness Beer Festival. Experienced home brewers Paul Swann and Anita Garnett have found suitable premises at a farm in nearby Lindal in Furness and hope to hear soon whether the Environment Agency is satisfied with waste disposal arrangements. They will be using a five barrel brewplant from the Whitley Bridge Brewery near Wakefield. Until the brewery is operational they are using spare brewing capacity at Foxfield. Paul and Anita envisage three regular beers, plus seasonals; beer names are likely to have a Laurel and Hardy theme.

We hear that Brian Coulthwaite of the Watermill at Ings has now taken delivery of new brewplant; we expect to see the new micro next to the pub up and running early in the new year.

The Great Gable Brewery is experimenting with honey and gorse in the production of variations of their beer named Liar!

It looks as though the planned Keswick and Whitehaven breweries will be beaten to it by a new micro based at the Woolpack in Eskdale. Dave Bailey has bought a second hand two barrel plant and expects to brew on average three barrels a week, mainly to supply the Woolpack and other brewpubs. Rob Smart will do the brewing and hopes to start installation mid November. The Woolpack has a private fellwater supply which will make the beer unique but will require frequent water testing. Dave and Rob plan to have the first test brew ready early next year, or maybe even for Christmas, and be fully operational by Easter.

Best wishes for a full recovery go from all of us in the West Cumbria branch to Frank Smith of Derwent brewery; Frank suffered injuries in a road traffic accident in September and is currently still in hospital.

•The growth in Cumbrian breweries continues apace. In the recently published Cumbrian Real Ale Guide it was noted that the number of breweries has risen from five when the last Cumbria-wide guide was produced, to fifteen now, plus a sixteenth planned to open imminently at the Watermill at Ings near Windermere. Now we hear news of a seventeenth and eighteenth. Phil Harrison is progressing plans to start a 10 barrel plant on the premises of the old Keswick Brewery on, appropriately enough, Brewery Lane. Local CAMRA member Barrie Roberts is teaming up with Chris Webber to start a micro brewery in Whitehaven, which will be known as the Whitehaven Brewing Company Ltd.

•Cumbria may soon have eighteen breweries, but the county now has its own cider maker, Cock Robin, Abbeytown. Robin Barton has hit on the project as a way of using up surplus apples from orchards around West Cumbria. Robin built a cider press at his parents’ house in Abbeytown and the resulting cider, called Happy Apple and with a strength of 7.1%, made its debut at Keswick Beer Festival at the start of the summer. Robin is now using a mixture of local apples and some grown in Herefordshire, a more traditional cider making area. We hope to have some of Robin’s cider at Whitehaven Beer Festival.

•Jennings’ summer seasonal beer was Fish King (4.3%); a golden ale with malty undertones, it is named after the ospreys at Bassenthwaite Lake and some of the proceeds will be donated to the Lake District Osprey Project.

•Loweswater Brewery’s Grasmoor Dark Ale was voted best beer at the Keswick Beer Festival.

Great Gable's latest beer 'Liar!' has been brewed by barman and assistant brewer Mike Naylor since Christmas. It is described as 'a rarely seen light mild, gently hopped, with a sweet malty finish'. OG 1037, 3.4%ABV. A number of Great Gable beers are now being bottled by Brewlab: Yewbarrow, Scawfell & Illgill IPA. All are bottle conditioned.

Hawkshead beers have done well in the 2005 SIBA North champion beer competition, sponsored by fellow beers in the north of England. Hawkshead Gold won second place in in the overall championship, having won gold in the Best Bitters category, and Hawkshead Bitter gained third place in the Session Bitter group. Hesket Newmarket's Sca Fell was second in the Best Bitters group. Overall champion was Rudgate Dark Ruby Mild.

The Bitter End has been producing some new one-off beers: a honey wheat beer was produced for the Food and Drink festival in May, followed by Castlerigg Stone Circle, another wheat beer at 4.5% and Burning Man at 4.8% a nut brown ale.

Congratulations to Yates Brewery in Westnewton on winning the Beer of the Year Herdy for Sun Goddess. The results were announced at the end of January. Food and drink journalist Christian Dymond won a special award for his work organising last year's Cumbria and the Lake District Food and Drink Festival.

Jennings are brewing Golden Host again in time for Easter; the beer was extremely popular last year so try it while you can!

Hawkshead Brewery and The Head Of Steam pub company have gone into partnership to set up a new real ale pubco, called The Hawkshead Pub Company. It has just taken possession of its first pub, the Swan Inn in Ulverston. There will be cask beers from up and coming craft breweries, alongside several established Champion Beers of Britain.

Loweswater brewery has officially christened their third beer Rannerdale Best (4.0%). An earlier version brewed as Haven pride proved a hit at last year's Whitehaven Beer Festival.

The Head of Steam has also gone into partnership with Jennings Bros to buy the lease of Tilleys Bar at 105 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, next to the Journal Tyne Theatre. The pub will offer a range of at least four of Jennings excellent beers, including their Mild, as well as one or two guest beers, including beers from micro-breweries.

Hesket Newmarket has reported another year of rising sales with production up 11%. All 87 shareholders in the co-operative have received a dividend of £75 or 108 pints. New equipment is being installed to increase capacity.

And nationally.... Back in December the Spirit Group sold 360 of its managed pubs to a new company called Globe Pub Company. The estate will be managed by Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), and includes some of the pubs that Spirit bought from S&N back in November 2003. It increases the number of pubs run by S&N to around 1,500. The deal will also be a major boost to its brewing arm, Scottish Courage, which will supply all of the pubs' beer. Spirit decided to offload the pubs after a review of its estate concluded that certain sites would operate better under a tenanted business model. New owner, property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz also owns the 177 strong Hogshead and Laurel pub company, and is said to be contemplating a bid for Regent inns. Boddington's Strangeways brewery has finally closed despite protests from CAMRA, brewery workers, Manchester City Council and 44 MPs. However some contract brewing of Boddington's will be kept in Manchester at Hydes brewery.

Cumbria's popular Ale Trail leaflet has now been reprinted, sponsored by the Cumbrian breweries, and should be available from breweries, selected pubs and tourist information offices.

The Bitter End
The first beer has now been brewed in the new Bitter End brew plant. After a number of hold ups due to technical problems, the brewery was formally unveiled on 7th October, and customers were served a free pint in celebration. The first beer brewed was Cockermouth Pride, followed by Cuddylugs. Mike is also experimenting with a lager.

Beckstones
Beckstones have had two recent 'beer of the festival' successes. First at Furness Beer Festival in Ulverston with Bitta Clout and then at Westmorland CAMRA's Kendal Fest with their Festival Ale, a 'special Brew' for the event.

Hesket Newmarket
September's successful Solfest music festival at Tarns near Silloth featured a special beer from Hesket Newmarket. The organisers hadn?t bargained for the popularity of the beer and twice during the weekend had to send out for replenishment.

The Bitter End The Bitter End has taken delivery of new brewplant, specially shipped from the United States. Mike and Sue Askey saw this type of plant in a number of brewpubs while on holiday in America. Built in Canada, it was bought from a brewpub in New Jersey, which Mike found on the internet. It had not been used for about three years and he waited in some trepidation until the equipment had all safely arrived! The end wall of the brewery has had to be knocked down to get the new equipment in.

The new plant has just over a two barrel capacity, compared with one barrel in the old brewery. It saves on space, with the hot liquor tank, mash tun and copper combined in one vessel. There are two fermenting/ conditioning tanks. One beer can be fermenting in the top of the vessel while another conditions in the lower half. Mike says that the extra flexibility will allow him to brew more often, and also produce a more varied range of beers. He aims to have four Bitter End beers on the bar at any time; a real lager style beer or German bock are possibilities. The shiny copper vessels will be on view from the pub by the end of August and Mike hopes to be brewing again by the beginning of September. The old Bitter End plant has been sold on to the Masons Arms in Oxford.

Booths and Bottled Beers North-western supermarket Booths have been featuring tastings of bottled Northern beers during August and early September: customers have been able to try Jennings Cumberland, Crag Rat and Snecklifter, Dent Ramsbottom, Hawkshead Red and Gold, amongst others.

Budweiser Anheuser Busch, maker of the American ‘Bud’, are up to their old tricks again. Not content with trying to stop Budweiser Budvar from using the name ‘Budweiser’ (which is the German for ‘from Budejovice’, so only beers brewed there should be able to use the name!) they are now trying to stop Belgian brewery Dubuisson Freres (founded 1769) from using the name ‘Bush’ beer for its UK sales (Bush being the translation of buisson, a name it has used since 1933). Its beers have been renamed Scaldis since July. The European Beer Consumers Union is launching a petition to the European Union to protect Europe’s brewing heritage against such bully-boy tactics. Budvar have cocked a snook at A-B by calling their new 7.6% bottled beer (available from Booths) just ‘Bud’.

Abraham Thompson
We have a new brewery in Cumbria! The first brewery in Barrow for over thirty years, Abraham Thompsons's Brewing Company, is about to commence operations, courtesy of CAMRA member John Mulholland. This is definitely now the smallest brewery in Cumbria with a capacity of just half a barrel.

The Ship at Greenodd
The Ship at Greenodd has also been brewing with beer on sale at its sister pub the Kirkstone Pass Inn, although it is too early say whether this will be a permanent venture.

Hesket Newmarket
Hesket Newmarket brewery launched a new beer, Volunteers Gold (3.8%), to celebrate 50 years of the Lake District national park voluntary wardens service. The first pint of this refreshingly aromatic and flavoursome, almost floral beer, was pulled at the Old Crown by Simon Yates, of Touching the Void fame. The Old Crown was also the setting for the recent launch by HRH the Prince of Wales of the new ?Saving your Local Pub? initiative.

Jennings
Jennings Bros are collaborating with the rebranded Maryport Bitter and Blues Festival at the end of July, and are sponsoring the stage in the Civic Hall. We hope that this will lead to an increased presence for real ale in the town.
Golden Host (4.3%), Jennings’ new beer brewed to mark the 200th anniversary of Wordsworth’s famous poem, has proved very popular. As the name suggests it’s a golden bitter with a fruity hop flavour.

Loweswater
Loweswater brewery’s second beer, Grasmoor, (ABV 4.3%) a dark ale, is proving very successful. A new beer with a strength of about 4% is in the pipeline, planned to be launched at Rheged at the beginning of May.

Jennings
Jennings Bros of Cockermouth have announced that they are starting to brew Wards beers. They also plan to spend £5m on buying and upgrading pubs in the next year. The brewery now has over 120 pubs across Northern England. It has changed all its managed houses to the Innventures lease and tenancy programme. There has been speculation for some time that Robinsons of Stockport is planning a bid for Jennings, and its shareholding in the Cockermouth brewery has now increased to just under 24%. A share of 30% could trigger a bid. Robinsons is remembered in Cumbria for buying and then closing the Hartleys brewery in Ulverston

Jennings is launching a new beer at the Rheged Food and Drink Fair (May 1st - 3rd) to be called Golden Host, celebrating Wordsworth and his daffodils.

Jennings
Jennings Brothers reported profits of £1.79million for the six months up to the end of August. The hot summer helped by giving the tourist industry a boost and leading to bumper beer sales. Jennings also announced that turnover was up 2.4 per cent to just over £9million. A pub buying programme, in which the company has been acquiring bars across the North of England, focusing particularly on Cumbria, has been credited with boosting the turnover. The profits are in contrast with the situation more than a year ago when the firm announced a loss of £6.1million.

Jennings are launching a new seasonal beer from November called Redbreast (ABV 4.5%), brewed with two classic English whole cone hops and natural coloured malt to give a full flavour and chestnut hue to the beer.

Yates

Graeme Baxter has recently increased the capacity at Yates brewery with the installation of new fermenting vessels.

Hawkshead

Hawkshead brewery won Furness CAMRA¹s Beer of the Festival award with Hawkshead Gold. Alex brewed a Festival Premium ale for Westmorland CAMRA's Beer Festival in Kendal.

Yates

Yates' Old Slapper was voted Beer of the Festival at the recent Boot Beer Festival and Fever Pitch was Beer of the Festival at Keswick. Graeme is brewing a range of beers at about 4.5% in strength, including Sun Goddess which uses a Californian lager yeast, and Bees Knees which is flavoured with Cumbrian honey. Yates is in the vanguard of a new campaign by CAMRA to encourage pub chains to allow licensees to source their beer direct from local breweries rather than have it delivered by a distributor, having been half way round the country before it gets to the pub cellar. Yates is already a Scottish and Newcastle 'Local hero' and supplies direct to the Dog and Gun in Keswick and other S&N pubs in the area.

Loweswater

Matt Webster at the Loweswater brewery, having completed three test brews tagged MB ('Matt¹s brew') 1, 2 and 3, is now happy with his recipe. The beer at 3.7% is badged Melbreak, after the nearby fell which dominates the pub.

Bitter End

Canadian brewer Dave Woodward has now joined the team at the Bitter End; he is helping to upgrade the brewing plant and develop some new seasonal brews such as strawberry and heather beers. New beers include Cockermouth Pride (4.5%) a best bitter, and a stout to be brewed shortly.

Jennings

Cockermouth Double Mills Youth Hostel is offering YHA members a free Jennings brewery tour with two nights accommodation. Contact warden Ray Milner on 01900 822561.

Yates

Jennings

Kirkstile

We welcome another new microbrewery onto the Cumbria scene as brewing starts at the Kirkstile. See Pub of the Year article for more detail.

Great Gable

After an incredibly busy Easter the Great Gable Brewing Company at the Wasdale Head Inn goes from strength to strength. Now brewing a total of seven beers, the new three are: Yew Barrow - 5.5% a dark stout with an unusual hint of fruit, Burnmoor P'Ale at 4.2% and Ill Gill a 5.0% IPA. The increased demand for the beers, not just from the Wasdale Head Inn but from the Free Trade and beer festivals around the country, has required more staff and Giles now has an assistant, his wife Antje, helping in all aspects of the brewery.

Scottish and Newcastle

S/N was planning to sell off its 600-700 pubs to Nomura in a 'sale and manage back' deal. S/N is struggling with debts of over £3 billion and the sale arrangement would help with the debt although would reduce earnings. However following a decision to buy Bulmer the struggling cider maker, S/N has now decided to put its entire 1,450 strong pub and restaurant estate, worth £2 billion, up for auction. The move will enable S/N to focus on brewing: it is already a multinational not only owning the Newcastle Brown Ale brand, Theakston's and John smith's beers, brewing and distributing Fosters, Kronenbourg and Beck's beers in the UK but also owning 49% of Central de Cervejas a Portuguese brewing group and a last year acquired a half share in Russia's biggest brewer by buying Finland's Hartwell. Licensees and beer drinkers will be apprehensive as to the changes the planned pub disposal will bring; many S/N licensees such as Bev Kivell at the Black Bull in Cockermouth enjoy considerable freedom in the beers they can stock.

Yates

Bitter End

Jennings

Jennings is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year and has adopted Macmillan Cancer Relief as its chosen charity for the year. A new beer called 1828 (ABV 3.8%) has been brewed to mark the anniversary as well as a bottled beer called 175 (ABV 5.5%).(br) A special Cumberland pumpclip lapel badge incorporating the Macmillan Ribbon is available from the Jennings shop. A number of events are being organised including a walk up 175 Cumbrian fells. Jennings is also hoping to publish a history of the brewery and its pubs.

Beckstone's

We are pleased to welcome Dave Beckstone onto the Cumbrian brewing scene. He has converted part of an old mill at the Green, Millom, using the brewing plant previously in High Force brewery (which was founded by Graeme and Caroline Baxter before they took over Yates'. Small world!). Dave is producing a bitter (ABV about 3.9%) and a best bitter (ABV about 4.9%) The Bitter was on sale at the High Cross in Broughton in Furness and the best bitter at the Prince of Wales in Foxfield in February and was well received. Beckstone's brewery is happy to take orders from the free trade.

Hesket Newmarket

Hesket Newmarket has had a more profitable year partly due to the impact of progressive beer duty (PBD), turning a £4000 loss into a £5000 profit, and was able to give its shareholders a dividend of 36 pints! It now looks as though there will be a community buy-out for the Old Crown pub next to the brewery. Over 100 people have pledged a stake of £1,500 to buy the pub from retiring owner Kim Mathews, to ensure that it does not fall into the hands of a pub chain or someone wishing to turn it into a private house. This is good news for the brewery, as the pub accounts for some 40% of its sales.

Foxfield

The Prince of Wales and Foxfield brewery have a new web address and revamped website; it's www.princeofwalesfoxfield.co.uk.

Derwent

Derwent are now producing ten seasonal beers: for January to March we are getting Winter Gold (ABV 4.1%). Carlisle State Bitter has recently been on sale in the bar of the House of Commons, thanks to the efforts of Workington MP Tony Cunningham in promoting local breweries.

Jennings reported a healthy profit in its latest half year figures. This is mainly due to its policy of selling off managed pubs or converting them to new lease tenancies. Sales of Jennings beers also increased by 5%. Major investment in new brewery plant is now complete including computer controlled recipe management, bulk malt handling, malt crushing, automatic mashing equipment and state-of-the-art yeast recovery plant.

Great Gable have produced their fourth beer, a malty brew at about 4.8% called Scawfell.

Yates brewery's website is now up and running, visit it at www.yatesbrewery.co.uk

Derwent have produced a new brew for the autumn, Harvester has an ABV of 4.3% and is golden ale with a nice combination of fruit and malt flavours with a very slight astringent finish. Jennings have introduced a new range of pump clips as part of a national image re-branding programme. They have increased their advertising with a 'Taste of the Lake District' theme in the trade press alongside posters, beer mats and door stickers. The pump clips are high quality cast brass and enamel which stress the heritage of the Castle brewery. The advertising campaign will run to December. CAMRA West Cumbria welcome this evidence of Jennings' continuing commitment to brewing.

Foxfield brewery won Beer of the Festival at the Wasdale Head La'al Cumbrian Beer Festival in June with Nets Pacific – a variation of Knots Pacific which was available at last year's Cockermouth beer festival, but with the addition of nettles, a traditional alternative to hops.

Former BBC Foreign Correspondent Alex Brodie has set up a new brewery at Hawkshead. His Hawkshead Best Bitter (ABV 4.2%) was on sale at the Prince of Wales' Summer Beer Festival on 9th – 11th August.

Derwent brewery launched another new beer, Jubilee Stout (ABV 4.7%) for the Jubilee weekend at the Golf Hotel in Silloth. A new summer beer, Summer Rose (ABV 4.2%) has also been on sale.

Tirril Brewery has now moved to its new premises in Brougham Hall and production in the Queen's Head has stopped. The new Brougham Hall Bitter (ABV 3.9%) was on sale at the recent Beer and Sausage Festival and all four beers will be on sale in the pub from now on.

The Bitter End brewery have produced a Pilsener style beer called Czechumberland (ABV 4.5%) and a Wheat Beer (ABV 4.1%)

Yates' new Summer Fever has proved so popular they have decided to brew it all year round, and re-name it Fever Pitch.

and previous news from the breweries - in case you missed it!