South East Essex Camra
About Camra
| What We Are We are the South East Essex branch of the CAMpaign for Real Ale, set up in 1974 to pursue CAMRA's objectives at a local level. We are made up of over 600 members living within our branch area, being a mixture of male and female, young and not-so-young, from different occupations and backgrounds, but all having one thing in common - the love of good quality cask conditioned beer. We hold monthly branch and committee meetings, where branch business is conducted, as well as a full calendar of social activities. We run the Rochford Beer Festival that is held annually at the Freight House in November and the Rochford Cider & Perry Festival at the Horse & Groom in September. Tell me about your branch meetings. Our branch meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month. Here we learn about what's happening within our branch area, for example, upcoming beer festivals, pub closures and refurbishments, and updates from CAMRA HQ on items of national interest such as changes to laws and current campaigns. We discuss and select entries for the "Good Beer Guide" and local awards such as "Pub of the Year", and organise campaigns on a local level when necessary. Everyone is encouraged to participate which often leads to lively debates. As these meetings are held in either a pub or club, there are many opportunities to sample the ales on offer during the frequent beer breaks. There may also be a real cider or perry available. You do not have to be a member to attend our branch meetings so why not come along to one. See our Branch Diary on the Events page for dates. What social activities do you run? Pub-crawls and coach trips form the mainstay of our activities. These can either be local or to places outside of our branch, and revolve around beer or cider and perry. Other activities that we hold are treasure hunts, social meetings at particular events such as the "Great British Beer Festival", the occasional quiz night and a Christmas social. For further information, please see our Branch Diary on the Events page or contact our Social Secretary using the address given under the "Branch Contact/Contact Us" section. What do you mean by CAMRA's objectives at a local level? There is a serious side to being a member. The threat of pub and brewery closure, the high rate of duty levied on beer, the reality that nine out of ten pints sold in Britain contain less than 100% liquid, all give cause for concern. They restrict drinkers' choice, affect consumer rights and can damage communities. CAMRA has often been described as Europe's most successful consumer organization. This is no coincidence. With over 85,000 members nationwide, all passionate about real ale, CAMRA is a formidable force to be reckoned with! We play our part by promoting and publicising good quality real ale and cider at every opportunity; by actively campaigning to save pubs and breweries from closure, both locally and nationally; by seeking to preserve the historical, cultural and architectural character of pubs in our area; and by protecting and improving consumer rights. If you would like further information or just a chat about our branch, please come along to any of our activities or contact one of our committee members using the details below. For more information about CAMRA, please see www.camra.org.uk Who We Are Mark Bullock - Chairman This is Mark's second stint as Chairman. He has also held the posts of Pubs Officer and Social Secretary. Mark is a life member. E-mail: chairman@seecamra.org.uk Brian Pinto - Secretary & Branch Contact A life member, he can often be seen cycling around the Essex countryside at weekends; Look out for a yellow and black outfit. Brian has held this post since April 2005. E-mail: secretary@seecamra.org.uk Mike Flack - Treasurer Mike has held this post since 1999, making him our longest serving committee member. A life member with over thirty years experience behind him, he previously held the position of Social Secretary. E-mail: treasurer@seecamra.org.uk Membership Secretary - Vacant E-mail: membership@seecamra.org.uk Stuart Rayment - Pubs Officer Stuart joined CAMRA over twenty years ago and holds life membership. His hobbies are drinking beer, travelling, music appreciation, and drinking more beer. E-mail: pubsofficer@seecamra.org.uk Cider Woman - Cider & Perry Rep "We must keep the ancient tradition of cider and perry making alive!" says Cider Woman. A committed, practising, Pagan, she has been a member since 1995. E-mail: ciderrep@seecamra.org.uk Jimmy Kebbell - Social Secretary Back as our Social Secretary and long term committee member. He brings a wealth of knowledge about pubs to our social scene. E-mail: social@seecamra.org.uk Without Portfolio - Trev Trevor has been a member for over fifteen years during which time he has been our Branch Secretary, Membership Secretary and Cider Rep. He has also held the post of Cider Representative for Essex. E-mail: trevandmin@live.co.uk Pub Campaigns Officer - Vacant E-mail: pubcampaigns@seecamra.org.uk Steve Dunham - Beer Festival Organiser An ardent Southend Utd supporter, he has previously held the posts of Publicity Officer and Social Secretary. E-mail: festivalorganiser@seecamra.org.uk Maggie Osborn - Publicity Officer This is Maggie's second stint as Publicity Officer. She has previously held the posts of Pubs Officer and Beer Festival Organiser. E-mail:publicity@seecamra.org.uk Ken Hill - Web Administrator E-mail: webadmin@seecamra.org.uk Where We Are 
The South East Essex Branch is for the most part, surrounded by water. To the East, between Shoeburyness and Foulness Point, lies the North Sea whilst to the North and South we are bounded by the rivers Crouch and Thames respectively. To the West our area encompasses the towns of Billericay, Wickford and Basildon. South East Essex branch map What is Real Ale? The brewing of beer started over a thousand years ago, the word "ale" coming to England with the Saxons. "Real Ale" is a modern term devised by CAMRA in the early 1970's and defined as a "name for draught (or bottled) beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed and served without the use of extraneous gas." Real Ale is often referred to as "Cask" or Cask-conditioned" beer. Ingredients Malt- Barley grain started into germination by a Maltster, who then halts this process by roasting the just-sprouted grain in a kiln. The temperature at which it is roasted governs the type of malt that is produced. Low heat produces pale malts whilst the highest results in black malt. Water - called "liquor" by brewers, this cannot be soft. Salts such as gypsum and magnesium may be added to harden it. Hops - added to provide aroma, flavour and bitterness. Yeast - converts sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Top-fermenting yeast is used to brew real ale and bottom-fermenting yeast to brew lager. The brewing process Malt is mixed with heated liquor in a vessel called a "mash tun". This allows the natural enzymes in the malt to convert starches into fermentable malt sugars. The mix of malts put into the mash tun determines the type of beer to be produced. When the mashing process is complete, the resulting liquid or "Wort" is drawn off from the spent malt into another vessel called a "Copper" where it is boiled along with hops, which add aroma, flavour and bitterness. At the end of this boil, the hopped wort is clarified in a vessel called a "Hop Back", before being cooled and pumped to a fermenter where yeast is added. This yeast feeds on any sugar present in the wort, converting it to alcohol, a process that takes several days. The resulting ale may then be stored for a few days in conditioning tanks before being drawn off into casks, where additional hops for aroma (called "dry-hopping") and sugar to encourage secondary fermentation, may be added before for delivery. For a more detailed description of the brewing process, please visit www.camra.org.uk/How is Beer Made? In the pub When the beer arrives at the pub, it needs to undergo its secondary fermentation before it can be served. The usual practice is for the casks to be placed in a cool, deep cellar. Some pubs keep their beer in a special cool room on the ground floor, a few keep their beer behind the bar, preferably with some modest external cooling system. Real ale is served at cellar temperature 13°C (54-57 F), which is somewhat cooler than room temperature. If real ale is too warm it is not appetizing, it loses its natural conditioning (the liveliness of the beer due to the dissolved carbon dioxide). On the other hand, if the beer is too cold it will kill off the subtle flavour. Unlike keg beer which has to be chilled, real ale has flavours you need to taste! Real ale is not warm, cloudy or flat. Real ale is served below room temperature and should be entirely clear. How long a beer needs to stand depends particularly on its alcoholic strength and how vigorously it ferments. Some modern beers have a weak fermentation and may clear within twenty four hours. That does not mean that these beers have conditioned sufficiently and to serve them as soon as they are clear is not necessarily to serve them at their best. The cask is wedged on its side, to encourage the sediment to sink into the belly. Every cask has two plugs where instruments can be knocked into it by force. The cellar person knocks a small wooden peg into one. A hard wood peg seals the cask; a soft wood peg allows carbon dioxide to escape. By alternating hard and soft pegs as needed, the cellar person carefully controls the natural carbonation of the beer. Too high a carbonation and the beer will have a nasty bite, too little and the beer will be flat. When the fermentation is about right, a tap is knocked into the cask at the other entry point. The cellar person will check that the beer is clear, has the right level of carbonation, and has lost the unpleasant flavours associated with beer that is "too young". When the beer is ready to serve, the tap is connected to the dispense system. How long the beer lasts depends on its strength. Stronger beers are more robust, and may last for weeks whilst weaker ones should be consumed within a few days. How can you be sure you are buying Real Ale? Hand-pumps, electric pumps or beer from the cask ("gravity dispense") are the best bets, but there are snags. Beers on top or blanket pressure can be served by a traditional hand-pump; an electric pump that is indistinguishable from a keg dispenser can serve a real beer. If the bar-person pulls the handle and leaves it back while the beer continues to run into the glass, it is a fake hand-pump, used by some unscrupulous breweries and publicans to give the impression they are serving real beer when it is in fact on some type of gas pressure. Thankfully, these contraptions are quite rare and in most cases, a hand-pump is a good sign of a pint of real ale. One final point about the beer's journey to the glass. Serving beer through any hand-pump agitates the beer to some extent and aerates it. Some dispense systems deliberately maximise this agitation. A sparkler is a tight nozzle, normally fitted to the end of a long 'swan-neck' tube, having tight holes through which the beer must be forced, often requiring several strokes of the hand-pump. This agitation produces a thick creamy head; it also removes much of the natural carbonation from the body of the beer, and drives much of the hop bitterness into the head of the pint. Such dispense is traditional in some parts of the North, where beers are brewed with this in mind, but used on other beers it leads to a different flavour balance to that intended by the brewer. You can request that the sparkler be removed prior to dispensing your pint. Top What about bottled or canned beers? Most bottled beer and all canned beer is keg-filtered, pasteurized and artificially carbonated. It may contain the same brand as you find in a pub but it is not real ale. However, some beers are "Bottle Conditioned" and should say so on the label. These are real ale. In August 2004, CAMRA launched an accreditation scheme for Real Ale in a Bottle. All breweries that produce bottle conditioned beers have the option of using the adjacent logo on their bottle labels. The purpose of the logo is to identify those beers that CAMRA considers to be real ale in a bottle and show the diverse range available. For more information visit Real Ale in a Bottle What are the different beer styles? Barley Wine Bitter Golden IPA Mild Old Ale Porter & Stout Scottish What isn't Real Ale? With brewery conditioned or keg beer, the aim is to produce a product with a long shelf life which is ready to drink as soon as it leaves the brewery. When conditioning in the brewery is completed, the beer is chilled and filtered to remove all the yeast, pasteurized to make a sterile product, and put into a sealed metal container called a keg. These processes have a profound effect on the beer. Filtration and pasteurization remove flavour and character from the product, whilst pasteurization adds distinctive flavours of its own. Natural carbon dioxide is also removed. This is then dispensed in the pub using carbon dioxide or a mixture of gases under pressure. Part of the carbon dioxide dissolves in the liquid, while the pressure is also used to force the stuff up to a font on the bar, from which an artificially fizzy, brownish liquid gushes into the glass for the undiscerning customer to drink. Nitrokeg beers (smoothflow, creamflow, etc.) use nitrogen which produces a creamier, less fizzy beer, often with a distinctive head, but tends to eliminate bitterness, making for a blander product still. Not content with taking all the yeasty goodness out of the beer, some brewers further degrade it by the use of "adjuncts", materials such as rice and sugar, which are cheaper than malt, produce alcohol when fermented, but contribute nothing to its flavour. The problem of flavour (or lack of it) is often overcome by serving the (alleged) beer at such a low temperature that the drinkers' taste buds are paralysed and all they get is the alcohol. British lager is weak in flavour, weaker in strength than their foreign counterparts, and usually overpriced. Most lagers available in the UK are brewed here; despite the names and advertising which imply that they are imported. They are not given the lengthy conditioning necessary to bring out the flavour of the lager style because it costs money. There are one or two notable exceptions from independent brewers that are cask conditioned, such as Harviestoun Schiehallion and Cains Lager, but otherwise, all draught lagers undergo the above processes. Thinking About Joining? Then See Below. As a member of CAMRA you will receive the following benefits: "What's Brewing" and "Beer" Exclusive monthly colour newspaper and quarterly magazine informing you of beer and pub news and detailing events and beer festivals from around the country. Branch social activities CAMRA is organised into 200 branches that cover the UK. Each branch running a variety of socials events for its members. Free / Discounted entry to beer festivals Free / Discounted entry to over 150 beer festivals that CAMRA organise, including the Great British Beer Festival. Discounted membership of the CAMRA Beer Club Set up to provide a home delivery service to enthusiasts. You will receive a £5 discount on each mixed case of 20 beers. See CAMRA Beer Club for further information. Active campaigning Have the chance to save pubs and breweries under threat of closure, for the right to receive a Full Pint and a reduction in beer duty that will help Britain's brewing industry survive. Discounts on books CAMRA produce a variety of books every year and as a member you are entitled to discounts on them including the best-selling, Good Beer Guide. Visit the shop to see what's available. Membership to complimentary clubs Membership to a number of complimentary clubs including Fuller's and Woodfordes. JD Wetherspoon Vouchers £20 worth of JD Wetherspoon real ale vouchers that can be used in any of their pubs. Cottage holiday discount 10% discount on all cottages4you holidays. Just visit the cottages4you website or call 0845 268 1573. "Holiday Service" discount 6% discount from the Holiday Service operated by Thomas cook. Can only be claimed by calling 0870 750 0202. Canalboat holiday discount 5% off any available short breaks or holidays of up to 13 nights with www.hireacanalboat.co.uk. Enter CAMRA in the promotional box of the online booking form. CAMRA is always looking to improve the benefits that our members receive. To join, click here Membership Rates - Listed prices are for annual membership UK and EU Countries: Full Membership Full Single Full Joint £20 (£22 non-Direct Debit) £25 (£27 non-Direct Debit) Concessionary Rates Under 26 membership Joint Under 26 membership* £11 (£13 non-Direct Debit) £14 (£16 non-Direct Debit) Over 60 membership Joint Over 60 membership* £11 (£13 non-Direct Debit) £14 (£16 non-Direct Debit) Student membership £5 Only if your University Real Ale Society is affiliated to CAMRA. See here to find out how to do this. Life Membership £360 - Full Life membership £450 - Full Joint Life membership * Both members must be eligible to receive concessionary membership and in the same concessionary category to apply for Joint Concessionary membership. i.e. both members have to be under 26 or both members have to be over 60. Why join by Direct Debit? Join CAMRA today by Direct Debit and receive a £2 discount and 3 months' membership FREE. That's 15 months' membership for the price of 12! Joining CAMRA by Direct Debit helps reduce administration costs and therefore more funds are available for campaigning. To join, click here  E-mail me If you have any thoughts, queries or concerns, please contact the Web Administrator at webadmin@seecamra.org.uk E-mail me CAMRA.org.uk Join Us Axe the Beer Tax campaign logo National Beer Scoring Scheme CAMRA Beer Club Real Ale in a Bottle Cover of the Good Beer Guide 2009 Tap Room Basildon Trading Standards Essex Trading Standards Southend Trading Standards Tr The views expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the Campaign for Real Ale Ltd, the South East Essex branch of CAMRA or the Webmaster. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information on this site is accurate and up to date, no responsibility for errors and omissions can be accepted. Links to external servers do not imply any official CAMRA endorsement of the opinions or ideas expressed therein, or guarantee the validity of the information provided. Links to commercial sites are in no way an endorsement of any vendor's products or services. ©2009 Camra South East Essex All Rights Reserved. |
