Welcome to Cheltenham CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. We are a voluntary organisation campaigning for real ale, community pubs and consumer rights.The Cheltenham Branch has around 850 members in the GL50, GL51, GL52 and GL53 postcode areas.
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Battledown Brewery have been proactive in advance of Manchester City’s arrival in Cheltenham on Saturday 23rd January for an F.A. Cup match against The Robins by offering free, local delivery and a discount of 15% for orders until 23:59 that day.
https://www.battledownbrewery.com/shop
The discount code is FACUP; don’t forget to click the promotion button before payment.
The beer range has been extended particularly since the 10-barrel plant was installed and the arrival of a Belgian brewer.
As of Wednesday 6th January England has been placed under national covid lockdown restrictions. These restrictions have a significant impact on the hospitality industry as they no longer permit pubs and clubs of offer takeaway alcohol for collection. Alcohol can only be sold for delivery. This will help supermarkets and off-licenses, while yet again disadvantaging pubs and clubs. Please support the pubs, clubs and licensees that are at the heart of our communities and email your MP at https://camra.e-activist.com/page/73809/action/1 asking them to revise the guidance.
Several local pubs will continue to offer food only takeaway and we are still listing details of the details we know of these venues on our website under the lockdown tab.
Following the success of the first Cheltenham Virtual Beer Festival back in June 2020, the Friends of Cheltenham & District Samaritans have decided to follow it up with a ‘Virtual Winter Beer Festival’ to be held on Saturday 20th February
For the bargain price of £20, beer drinkers in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury can get a box of seasonal beers delivered straight to their door by one of our team (following strict social distancing of course). Within the box will be a selection of 5 outstanding Craft Beers from local breweries (Bristol Beer Factory, Good Chemistry, DEYA Brewing Co., Goffs Brewery and Stroud Brewery). Additionally, we have teamed up with the fabulous ‘Woozy Pig’ to offer options for a small range of ‘heat up at home’ food options to perfectly complement the beer.
As with the summer festival, as well as the home-delivered beer and food options we have some fantastic online features that you can watch on our YouTube channel on the day. For each of the beers in your box, there will be a scheduled video’ tutored beer tasting’ by local celebrities and/or beer experts, we also hope to have bespoke video clips from each of the breweries and just like the summer festival, these will be interspersed with online video sets from various local musicians/bands, comedy sketches and quiz’s.
Tickets for this event are limited to just under 200 and will be allocated on a First Come, First Served basis, so don’t delay getting your order in. Unfortunately, we will only be able to deliver beer boxes and Woozy Pig food packs to Cheltenham Postcodes (GL50, GL51, GL52 and GL53 as far as Severn Springs) and to Tewkesbury (including Mitton, Priors Park, Northway and Ashchurch). Note: You will need to be at home to take delivery of the packs – especially any food orders which will need to be chilled.
All proceeds raised from this event are going to the ‘Cheltenham and District Samaritans’ and thanks to the support and generosity of the brewers and Woozy Pig, we are hoping to get close to matching the amazing £5000 raised in the summer.
Tickets are available from Eventbrite at: Virtual Winter Beer Festival Tickets
Even if you cannot join in with the festival directly (i.e. if you are not in Cheltenham and we cannot get the beers to you, or even if you don’t drink beer!), you can still watch the proceedings on our YouTube channel from 6.00pm on the day and if you would like to support us you can donate to our ‘Just Giving’ page (see link below).
First Virtual Cheltenham Craft Beer Festival – YouTube Channel
To donate via our ‘Just Giving’ page please go to:
Friends of The Samaritans Just Giving Page
Following the announcement that from December 31st, Gloucestershire will be placed under Tier 4 restrictions, all pubs and clubs will only be able to operate on a takeaway basis. Our Covid tab “Lockdown 2“, will be updated to detail those places we know that are open for takeaways.
The UK Government have announced that when the current Lockdown ends on December 2nd Gloucestershire will be placed into Tier 2. This is not good news for our local pubs and clubs as it means they can only serve alcohol when purchased with a substantial meal. We are awaiting the impact this will have on individual establishments but once we are aware of their plans we will publish revised opening hours on the Covid-19 page of the website.
The Government is set to increase the tax paid by some small independent breweries in the UK. This could lead to brewery closures, and less choice at the bar for you. The Treasury has announced changes to Small Brewers Relief (SBR) – the progressive tax system that has revolutionised UK brewing. These changes will reduce the 50% duty threshold from 5,000hl to 2,100hl: small breweries will have to pay more duty, whilst larger breweries could pay the same or less.
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CAMRA has joined calls for the Government to think again – we need your help to persuade them that this is bad for UK brewing and bad for consumers.
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You can help by signing the petition on the Parliament website HERE. If we get 100,000 signatures, a debate will automatically be triggered in Parliament.
Tonight’s announcement from the government of a 4 week lockdown from Thursday 5th November means that all pubs and clubs will have to close unless they are offering take away services. This is devastating news for our local pubs, clubs and breweries. As with the previous lockdown in March we will publicise details of the venues we know are offering takeaway food and drink. Details will be listed under the Lockdown 2 tab.
PLEASE NOTE UPDATED ARRANGEMENTS
We will be in the Moon Under Water from 2pm until 6pm on Thursday 29th October to distribute copies of the new Good Beer Guide to members. We will then be moving to both Whittle Taps and Cheltenham Motor Club from 7pm onwards.
The members price is just £11 per copy. We are happy to accept cash and cheques.
Social distancing and other Covid compliance measures will be observed.
If you haven’t yet pre-ordered, but would like a copy, please contact chair {at} cheltenhamcamra.org.uk.
As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic the Good Beer Guide is being published slightly later this year with the 2021 edition being published on 29th October 2020. As usual the branch will have copies available to sell to members at a discounted price of £11 per copy. (The Recommended Retail Price is £15.99).
Subject to government guidance at the time we hope to organise a launch event to celebrate the publication of the Guide and distribute copies.
If you would like to order a copy please contact the branch chairman chair [at] cheltenhamcamra.org.uk
