HQ Open
Day & Grand Union Brewery Trip - 23rd October 2004
Around HQOctober 2004 saw the annual Open Day at the St Albans CAMRA headquarters. A group of some 13 branch members braved the road works around St Albans to visit HQ, many who'd never been before. Having been delayed by Colchester's public transport and then a maze of road work diversions around St Albans, we finally arrived around 11am. We were duly greeted by Mike Benner, CAMRA's head honcho. Many of the 18-strong permanent staff were on hand to show us how they get on with day-to-day life, running and organization with over 75,000 members. We were treated to demonstrations of the membership database, and could see how the information is stored and returned in an efficient manner, ensuring that we all get our copies of What's Brewing on time. The team that handles this is Gary and Jean, managed by Malcolm Harding. A quick spin around the other areas on the ground floor, including the post room and promotions store cupboard, and we were then whisked upstairs to find Cressida Felier waiting for us.  Cress - the hostess with the mostest!Now, for those of you that aren't familiar with this name, Cress is one of the main contacts for branches, handling all manner of queries. For instance, she looks after the branch entries that appear in What's Brewing, and despite her own personal set-backs, she does a terrific job of it all. Unfortunately, the Publications team were all out researching for the next edition of some book or other, so we had to make do with quenching our thirst in the Board Room, where 'nibbles' and a variety of hand pumps had been kindly laid on.  No, I don't know what they're on about either! At this point I guess I should say that we didn't drink all the beer, there were a number of other branches coming and going throughout the day! Pint glass in hand, we were able to wander around the other sections, and chat to more of the staff. One chap in particular got a dry throat answering questions. I refer to Tony Jerome, CAMRA's press officer. As press and promotions personnel have to be, I guess, Tony was enthusiastic about his work. We got to see some of the stuff coming up in the near future, and particularly some of the events for National Pubs Week. It's good to see that such an important job has someone in charge with his finger on the pulse of what's happening. During all this, our Colchester BFO - Big D - was hopping up and down, as he'd found an article in ancient copies of What's Brewing, relating to the creation of the Colchester branch almost 30 years ago (more on this in the coming months!).  Who wouldn't want to come to work with this girl as company... After amusement and chat, it was time to leave our hard working colleagues and head out the Grand Union brewery, but not before a couple of unexpected circuits around St Albans. Grand Union BreweryThe Grand Union Brewery sits on a small industrial estate in Hayes, Middlesex. It occupies 2 lots, one for the brewery itself and the other for the racking operation and offices. This may sound unusual, but many micro breweries exist like this, as I found out many years ago when I visited the Wolf brewery. My point is, if your only experience of a brewery is meandering around Guinness in Ireland, or perhaps Green King or Adnams, then get yourself down to your nearest micro brewery, and see how it's really done. There are plenty to choose from in our neck of the woods, and they're usually happy for you to visit, have a look around and take some of their product back with you. However, there were a couple of unusual things about Grand Union. The first was it's Marketing Manager. An American by birth, but had obviously spent quite some time in the UK, doing stints at a variety of breweries before finding himself at Grand Union.  The 'Bar' at the Grand Union Brewery, taken by a 'very relaxed' person. As we talked, he sat behind a small bar on a stool, occasionally pulling a pint of one of three hand pumps. ( I say three, but as very few dare tackle the 6% Old Ale, two was the norm). We chatted through varying beer related topics, pausing only for another slice of the selection of cheeses that he'd also kindly laid on (It's a hard life this CAMRA lark, you know). Ah yes, the other unusual thing! Well, normally you get an empty cask to sit on, or sometimes the dray wagon. If you're really lucky, then there's a beaten up lounge chair that the head brewer's had for centuries, but it's hard to get 13 people into one of those. Grand Union had a selection of very soft, very comfortable and extremely welcoming sofas! So much so that when it came to having a look around the brewery, the veterans opted to stay relaxed in their recliners and drink some more of the stupendous ale. I can almost taste it now!  Some of those really uncomfortable chairs! Forest GateOf course, all good things come to an end, unfortunately, and it was time to move on once more. Back onto the 'Battle Bus' and heading for somewhere around Stansted. (By this time I was a little too relaxed!) Now, I remember a motorway service station, and there was definitely a Big Whopper involved at some point, but until arriving at the Forest Gate in Epping, I can't give you much more detail. The Forest Gate was a nice enough pub, a couple of decent hand pumps on, but nothing much to shout about. Just the sort of thing required for a halfway stop. This is where things got interesting, though, as mixing beer with discussion generally does.... It started out with something like, "The Swan's about an hour away", to which retorted, "Na - about 45 minutes!". After an amount of discussion, I took the opportunity to seize the advantage. A quid a man (or lady), pick a minute between 45 and 60, the driver gets the cash for 45 or less and anything over 60 goes to charity. Now, the average 'Battle Bus' is pre 1st World War, or at least seems that way, but this thing shifted. I've never seen a driver wriggle through the back lanes of South Essex in quite that way. The upshot of it all was that we made it their in 59 minutes, Trev got the cash (much to Jo's delight) and I got the next round in. The SwanJohn being John, had already laid out a couple of trays of hot nibbles, but CAMRA being CAMRA, they didn't last long. I had to give John a stern ticking off for only having 12 beers on, of course, which he duly apologized for. The rest of the night was spent in John's company, interrupted only by me kicking Al's arse at Bar Billiards and missing the 3rd tray of bites that had appeared from the direction of the kitchen.  John, chatting the girls up (as usual) On a more serious note, the talk at the Swan is that John will soon be retiring, due to his wife's ill health. Chatting about his possible replacement, it was quite obvious that John couldn't bear to let the place go, but would only do so if the high standards would be kept up. The main point of us dropping in their was to say our goodbyes and well-wishes, in case we didn't get the opportunity again. Whatever happens, we made sure that John knows he'll be missed by all of us in Colchester......... |