Dear friends,

Welcome to the October newsletter from Westmorland CAMRA! As the evenings draw in there is lots happening in our Branch that you are invited to get involved with.

Autumn Pub of the Season

Autumn 2018 Pub of the Season Award - those who attended our September Branch Meeting will be aware that the Brackenrigg Inn, Watermillock has been elected our Pub of the Season Award for this autumn. Our October social event will take place at the Brackenrigg and will include presentation of the award certificate. This will take place on Friday 19th October at around 7pm. Please reply to this email to let us know if you plan to attend so we can ask the Brackenrigg to keep space for us.

Volunteers Needed!

The Factory Tap in Kendal are again holding their autumn beer festival between Thursday 25th and Sunday October. As a Branch we committed three years ago to offering volunteer support to this event for the 2016, 2017 and 2018 festivals. This year we are asked if we can help during the afternoon sessions only throughout the four days of this event. Please contact Colin Ashton at moc.tenretnitb@451nothsa.j if you are able and willing to help. This event will also include the judging of the Best of Westmorland competition for the breweries within our branch area at the trade session on Wednesday 24th October. Marilyn Molloy, Tasting Panel Chair, will be in touch with members of the panel for the judging of this competition.

Cumbria Tasting Panel

The next meeting of the Tasting Panel will be held jointly with the panels from other Cumbria branches at the Prince of Wales at Foxfield on Saturday 27th October. Please contact Marilyn Molloy for more information.

Branch trip to Carlisle Beer Festival

Members of our branch will be attending the Carlisle Beer Festival organised by by our neighbouring branch in Solway on Saturday 3rd November. The festival runs between Thursday 1st and Saturday 3rd November at The Venue, Carlisle. Admission is £4 for the general public and £2 for CAMRA members. Members will be travelling to Carlisle on the train departing Oxenholme at 1108 and Appleby at 1119 on Saturday 3rd November. Please be aware that this is a turn up and attend event and we are not asking people to book for this ahead of time.

Next Branch Meeting

Our next Branch Meeting will take place on Tuesday 6th November at 7.30pm for an 8pm at the recently reopened Greyhound at Shap. This meeting will include shortlisting pubs to be surveyed for the 2020 edition of the Good Beer Guide and appointment of surveyors. The committee have also recently realised that our process for electing the Pub of the Year does not follow the guidelines given by CAMRA HQ so will be presenting proposals about how we do this task in the future. This is an important meeting in our calendar so please attend this if you can. More information about this will be sent out in a separate email ahead of the meeting. We are aware that this meeting does not follow our usual branch meeting pattern (i.e. second Monday evening of the month), and apologise for this, however due to work and other commitments neither the branch chair or vice-chair are available on that date. If you are not able to attend the meeting and would like to submit comments either about which pubs should be surveyed with a view to inclusion in the Good Beer Guide or indeed those which should not, please feel free to do so by email.

Branch Christmas Social

This will take place on Friday 7th December at the Watermill, Ings from 7.30pm. The branch committee have chosen to return to the Watermill following successful branch Christmas socials over many years, the beer ranch is exemplary, and the pub are able to offer us a top notch buffet at a reasonable price! It is likely that the buffet will cost between £15-20 per head. Look out for more information about this event in the November branch email.

New members drinks

A gathering for new members - those who have joined the branch in 2018 - will take place on Sunday 21st October at 6pm in the New Union, Kendal. This is primarily a social but will include information about how the branch works and opportunities to get more involved in CAMRA campaigning and activities.

Young members (aged under 30)

Our neighbouring branch in Furness is organising a small number of events for young members. Young members of Westmorland CAMRA are invited to join these events and details will be shared when we receive more information.

And finally...

I look forward to seeing you at an event sometime soon. Please do not hesitate to be in touch if you have any queries or suggestions for branch activities, or if you would like to organise a social event and invite other members.

Best wishes

Sarah Moore

Chair of Westmorland CAMRA