News from our Social Meeting held at the Fruiterers Rodmersham.

 Further to our last update and with suggestion from Amanda and Smutley at The Flying Sheep in Sheerness we are pleased to confirm the next branch social will be held at The Fruiterers Arms at Rodmersham Green just outside Sittingbourne. The pub has been run for the past three months by Chris & Keisha, formally of The Queens Head in Sheerness and I can confirm three cask beers in very good form are currently available. London Pride is full time and two rotating guest beers are usually on offer.  All members and guests are welcome from 7.30 pm on Tuesday 22^nd March at the pub in Bottles Lane Rodmersham, just over from the green.

Webmaster Keith Johnson has been hard at work and has produced a new version of the Kent CAMRA webpage which is now available to view. Howard Gates is currently on the case for our branch and it will be updated shortly.

Thanks to Chris Excell who has advised Boutilliers are planning to re open the former Hopstuff Taproom in Ashford. As far as Chris is aware this will be tap only with no cask available.

We are still awaiting the feedback from the Faversham Hop Festival committee after their meeting on Feb 22^nd. As soon as we know more all will be advised . Gary Holness is waiting in the wings to get cracking on this and will keep us up to date as and when things happen.

Information on branch magazines has been posted on CAMRA discourse and this may strike a not with many of us especially Matt Deller who has responsibility for Swale Ale, our magazine. Why not let us have your thoughts on the subject.

From - Ian Monteith      -Preston Group Members

We self-published our branch magazine pre pandemic. (Quarterly edition, approx. 3000 copies distributed). In recent years we’ve struggled to get sufficient paid advertisers so needed to subsidise publication. During lockdown & at present we’re producing an online only version once a month. (Advert free). We want to restart a printed edition but have been unsuccessful getting most of our existing advertisers back on board & almost nil success attracting new!

One option we’re considering is to find a CAMRA approved outsourcer to provide the advertising & printing. We’d like to continue having control content & as much design as possible, also distribution.

We’re keen to hear from any magazine editors using the outsourced model especially post lockdown. Can we hear of your positive & negative experiences? What advice do you give before we approach an outsourcer & which one do you recommend?

We assume the outsourcer will still allow us to publish a copy of each edition on our website as a pdf for our online readers?

Concern exists regarding the suitability of the adverts provided by the outsourcer for a CAMRA publication. Does anyone have experience of what was considered “unsuitable” adverts & how was the issue resolved?

Any links to recent issues with adverts outsourcer provided would be welcome.

Thanks for the input Ian

Finally, the branch are looking to come into line with most other branches in respect of e mail address and communications. This will make things easier and more seemless for all going forward. The example would look like this       @swale.camra.org.uk. Keep an ear out for the confirmation of changes.

That’s it for the moment. Go make that diary date for Tuesday 22^nd at The Fruiterers right now.

John and the team.

Firstly, as per our Facebook post recently, monthly branch socials are back!! We recommence with a visit to The Three Hats in Milton Regis High Street. ME10 2AR from 7.30pm on Tuesday 22^nd February. It would be lovely to see as many of you as possible. From March onwards we shall try our best to rotate the main towns around the branch getting out into the country as the weather improves. The committee will meet separately and can then update everyone on branch activity and news.

Treasurer. Talking of news, Howard Gates kindly offered to take over the post of treasurer for the branch and having put this to the committee, all were in favour as we had no votes to the contrary. We congratulate Howard on his new role and he is already hard at work trying to sort out the first issue, that of the HSBC current account. The plan is that Howard has found an account with Nat West which suits our needs and does not extract a fee from us each month as the current HSBC account has decided to do. Howard is currently liaising with Les Bailey to make the transition as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Faversham Hop Festival. We have been in talks with Gill Keay at Canterbury branch regarding the Faversham Hop Festival with is normally held at the start of September. The current situation is that the Hop Festival committee have a meeting booked with their main stakeholders on Feb 22^nd to discuss the matter. From there we shall be advised as to what they are looking to do for this year. Keep an ear out for updates both via e mail and social media.

Kent regional meting’s resumed last November and are usually bi monthly. However, we have been advised that the meeting, originally due in February, will not be taking place until Saturday March 26^th starting at 12 noon. The venue is the Ship Centurion, 111 High Street, Whitstable CT5 1AY. Due to work commitments, I am unable to attend, but if anyone would like to represent the branch please let me know. They usually last a couple of hours or so. I will get the items required to region and will also send a copy to whoever wishes to represent us.  

Pub opening hours are still subject to change so if you are out and about could you please send either Howard or John any updates and we shall get them amended on What Pub. The Blacksmiths Arms in Wormshill is such a pub and Mary Cross has kindly given us the pubs current opening hours. Even if you just want to let us know that days/hours of opening have changes we can check on the pubs web/Facebook page for the current information. Similarly, if a pub has closed or changed landlords please advise. Here is one to start you off. The Fountain of Ale in Sittingbourne has now been taken over by Malcolm Winskill of the Three Hats. Wantsum beers are available on hand pull and at less than £3 per pint represent excellent value.

Membership. As of the end of January, the branch totalled 411 members. Sadly this is slightly down on the previous month but with more people venturing out now, this figure should hopefully turn to a positive.

Good beer Guide/ POTY

Where do we start on this one is a question I know has been put around by a fair few of you. The committee met and discussed this, and along with some CAMRA discourse groups concluded that we would use the usual NBSS scoring system but with a couple of tweeks. Bearing in mind hospitality was closed for a substantial part of 2021 we have taken into account the additional services that pubs provided to keep us in good beer and them afloat. A goodly number of the membership have had limited experience of the pub numbers we visited pre pandemic with many visiting only a few at most. To this end we have combined all the information gleaned from our branch members in conjunction with NBSS scoring and reports from a number of high quality sources including a minimum number of opening days/hours. We had, for this year, agreed to reduce our number of GBG entries to fourteen, but could only agree on thirteen pubs that we found deserving of entry. It has also been decided that due to the lower number of entries in the GBG, we shall now be announcing our first, second and third place winners plus one highly commended for our POTY. (As opposed to the three commended certificates we traditionally gave.) The POTY nominees will be selected from our short list of thirteen and we would ask you to vote via e mail so we can provide written copies of paperwork should it be required. The voting format will be quite simple with no category scoring required just for this year. There can only be one set of votes per member and your submission must be as follows.

Name, membership number then your vote for first, second, third and highly commended. Finally please date your entry and e mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The thirteen entries short listed are as follows and are in no particular order.

Black Lion, Lynsted

The Ship, Conyer

Three Hats, Milton Regis

Three Tuns, Lower Halstow

The Alma, Painters Forstal

Admirals Arm, Queenborough

Bear Inn, Faversham

Donna’s Ale House, Sittingbourne

Yellow Stocks, Sittingbourne

Shipwrights Arms, Hollowshore, Faversham

The Elephant, Faversham

Furlongs, Faversham

Paper Mill, Sittingbourne

The closing date for your submissions is midnight on 17^th March 2022

These entries will then be checked by the committee and forwarded to region by the deadline of 20^th March 2022. Should you want dates of other rounds for this year’s competition, I will post them via a separate e mail.

In the background we shall be completing the appropriate paperwork for GBG entries making sure that this is complete correct for region and includes all current information as required. This way, we can do everything in our power to make sure this year’s good beer guide is as complete and accurate as it can be.

Thank you for your kind attention and indulgence.

John and the committee.