Wigan CAMRA considers itself very fortunate to have three excellent breweries within our  branch area. These are All Gates Brewery, Mayflower Brewery and, most recently, the Prospect Brewery. Click on the links to view the brewery websites or see below for the latest news from our local breweries :-

MARCH / APRIL 2010

All Gates Brewery : The brewery with no beer ? Allgates are featuring in the next Wetherspoons festival that commences on 5 April. Wetherspoons have ordered 350 firkins of Brigantia (ABV 4.0%) which is rebadged Summer Gold with a slight change to the hops to complete this order the brewery stopped brewing all other beers on 28 February and from 1 March has been brewing nothing but this variation of Brigantia. They will continue to do so until they have reached 18 gyles. Though Allgates tried to get enough other beers brewed in advance of this to see them through but have just had two record weeks in sales so currently have very little beer to sell but are taking orders for the end of March onwards.

California in particular is selling really well and without doubt is their lead beer and was the beer featured in the Strangers Bar at the Houses of Parliament which made the local news. Weapons of Mash Destruction (WMD) - a 5.7% dark ruby mild brewed especially for Wigan Beer Festival (on a food theme) was well received and came third in the dark beer category. They will probably brew this again next March (possibly under a different name) at around 6.0%. Their new seasonal beer Celtic Pale (ABV 4.0%) brewed almost exclusively with lager malt has also been well received and they will brew this again for the next two months. The April special will be a pale and hoppy 3.9% IPA style and is un-named as yet.

Porteresque did not make the final two of the Sainsburys bottled beer competition but the beer was a personal favourite of their buyer. Allgates are now talking to Sainsburys again about supplying the beer on a regional basis to 30-40 stores in the North West.

The Jolly Nailor at Atherton is now open selling Allgates beers (plus guests) under the management of Mary formerly of Old Isaacs.

Mayflower Brewery : no news on the progress of the new brewery.

Prospect Brewery : No longer brewing at the garage and the remaining kit has been sold to a new micro brewer (Raw Brewing Company). Change over to new brewery went smoothly. Brewed a new beer called 'One-Twenty'  for the Wigan Beer Festival brewed in memory of Patsy’s mother-in-law, Beth Slevin who lived at 120 Wigan Road and where the brewery was first housed. The beer brewed with Cascade hops was well received getting the coveted first place in the light beer category and has been brewed again. Our old favourite Nutty Slack got second place in the dark beer of the festival.

Currently brewing the seasonal beer Big John – a 4.8% stout. There are plans to brew Dragon Ale for St. George’s Day.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2010

All Gates Brewery : now have a beer on at the House of Commons bar – also now contracted to supply Wetherspoons nationally with a beer called Brigantian.

Mayflower Brewery : not currently brewing as moving to larger premises

Prospect Brewery : Patsy has now moved to new much larger premises on Bradley Hall trading estate – spitting distance from the Crown at Worthington, which is the brewery tap for Prospect. The first brews have been tested and with the increased production at the new plant we should soon be able to enjoy even more Prospect beers in our locals. Patsy is planning a brand new beer to commemorate the memory of her late mother-in-law, without whom there would not have been a Prospect Brewery, and to mark the move to the new brewery. It is hoped that the beer will be launched at the Wigan Beer Festival.

NOVEMBER 2009

All Gates Brewery : Brewing at almost maximum capacity - 7 days a week and occasionally brew twice a day. Their new range of beers which are more hoppy than before appears to have increased demand. 'Session Ale’ has been produced as a traditional house bitter and is selling particularly well at Crooke Hall and the Hare & Hounds at Hindley – it may join their core beer range. Another addition to the core beer range is the re-vamped ‘Reverend Ray’ using the same grain as before but different hops to give the beer a more hoppy taste. Porteresque came in the top five of Sainsbury’s bottled beer competition but did not win this. The joint winners were ‘Taylor’s Tipple’ from Nick Stafford’s Hambleton Ales and ‘Golden Hare’ from Bath Ales. The Sainsbury’s buyer’s personal favourite was Porteresque and he would like Allgates to supply the beer to their 40-50 North West stores in Spring next year. Allgates are also planning to produce a 7.5% Christmas Brew. Allgates are sponsoring The Thursday open session at the forthcoming North West Winter Ales Festival.

Mayflower Brewery : is not brewing at the present time as they are in the process of moving to new premises at a farm in Up Holland owned by licensees of the Turk’s Head in St Helens.The brewery will use existing kit but may have an additional fermenter so capacity may increase a little - it should be up and running’ by Christmas and will feature a bar for possible brewery trips. The farm has a WN8 postcode therefore the brewery still falls within Wigan CAMRA branch.

Prospect Brewery : A new beer ‘Panned Out’ (4.0% autumnal beer) was launched at the Berkeley Beer Festival and was well received. Patsy will once again be brewing ‘Lancashire Hoptot’ for Lancashire Day (27 November). New outlets for Prospect beers include the Masons Arms at Billinge, Gerrard Arms in Aspull, Thomas Gerrard in Ashton, Wigan Rugby Union Club, Red Lion in Hindley Thomas Burke in Leigh and the Hop Vine at Burscough. Clementine will be brewed soon and in pubs for Christmas. Patsy recently did some ‘Meet the Brewer’ evenings and was interviewed by Becky Want of BBC Radio Manchester. Patsy has also been asked to judge in the Champion Winter Beer competition at the North West Winter Ales Festival.

OCTOBER 2009

All Gates Brewery - Porteresque came in the top 5 of the Sainsbury’s bottled beer challenge when the winners were announced last week. It is hoped that a contract can be agreed which will allow it to continue to be marketed in North West stores. No new brews this month. Still looking at developing their core beer range. Yankee Pale Ale was well received and will join the core range as premium strength ale. Looking at the 3.9 ‘Session Ale’ as a replacement for the defunct ‘Napoleons Retreat’. ‘George Lyons’ was brewed last month as a trial beer.

Mayflower Brewery - ‘Toffee Nose’ (4.0%) was brewed for our LocAle festival. Recently brewed ‘Douglas Valley’. Plans to brew ‘Hic Bibi’ in November. Alan is looking for bigger premises and is considering investing in a 5 barrel plant.

Prospect Brewery - Just brewed a ‘Silver Tally’ special using hops picked on the same day. The next new brew is ‘Panned Out’ and is expected to be a 3.9% ruby ale. This will be launched at the Berkeley LocAle festival that takes place on 8th to 11 October and features beers from Bank Top, Allgates, George Wright and Prospect.

Over in Merseyside there is a newish brewery to look out for – Liverpool Organic Brewery - which we first came across at the recent Southport Beer Festival. We were so impressed that we invited them to feature in our recent LocAle event.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009

All Gates Brewery - Porteresque went on sale on 26th August at 400 Sainsbury’s stores in their British Beer Competition 2009 – there are 15 beers and the winner is the one which sells out first. New seasonal beers recently have been Dry Bones, Barley Brook, Twitter & Bisted and 3.9% Session Ale which may become a new core beer. A new brewer to Allgates (Ian Thorpe of the Anvil) also recently brewed a cask conditioned lager called True Blonde and was marketed as being produced by the ‘Bad Ass’ brewery.

Mayflower Brewery - Alan is still producing his Alden’s Amber, Return of the Red Eye, and Douglas Valley beers and is selling to new outlets in the West Lancs area, he hopes to produce a new beer for the St Helens festival in October .

Prospect Brewery – A third fermenter has been squeezed into the brewery to meet the demand from record sales. New brew ‘Ore Some’ was named in a competition at the Crown @ Worthington, Members who sampled the first brew may wish to note that subsequent brews have had additional lemon grass to the original recipe so the beer is now more flavoursome. The Berkeley are also holding a competition to name Patsy’s next new brew.

JULY 2009

All Gates Brewery - Porteresque is one of 15 beers selected for the final in Sainsbury’s British Beer Competition 2009 so due to the quantity required they are concentrating on production of Porteresque - also currently brewing Young Pretender, Mild at Heart, Caskablanca, Groundhop Day and Saving A Pint For Ryan. Mild at Heart and Young Pretender are current core range beers possibly to be joined by Groundhop Day and Saving A Pint For Ryan though re-named as California and Pretoria respectively. There will still be ‘special’ brews but not as many as before. Future brews include a cask conditioned lager and an elderflower beer. Allgates were asked to supply the Royal Party with 3 different types of bottled beers when they visited the North West recently.

Mayflower Brewery - summer beers for 2009 are Alden’s Amber Ale (3.7% - first brewed in January 2009 and now a core beer), Return of the Red Eye (5.2% - a special originally brewed for the March 2009 Wigan Beer Festival being brewed again by popular demand) and Douglas Valley (4.0%). The seasonal beers are – Black Diamond (3.5%) and Hic Bibi. Georgie Porgie was a ‘one off’ brew for St. George’s Day.

Prospect Brewery - Sales are at a record level and production at maximum capacity. ‘Open Cask’ brewed recently. Plans for another new beer within the next few weeks. A competition was held recently at the Crown @ Worthington (current brewery tap for Prospect) to name the new beer and the winning entry was ‘Oresome’. A Wigan CAMRA member has been appointed Assistant Brewer. 

MAY 2009 

All Gates Brewery – won the bitter category beer of the festival at Leicester with "Groundhop Day‟ under tasting panel conditions. "Porteresque‟ has been selected by Sainsbury‟s as one of the final 15 in a bottled beer competition – the challenge now is to produce the requisite 40k bottles.
Mayflower Brewery – have recently brewed ‟Black Diamond Mild‟ and a St Georges Day Special which was available at the Royal Oak.

Prospect Brewery – is in great demand following the various media features and the Silver award from SIBA for Nutty Slack. Patsy is now brewing to capacity with husband John working 2 days a week in the brewery to help out and looking for the space to install a third fermenter to meet the demand.

FEBRUARY 2009

All Gates Brewery – is a top award winner ! Not for its beer this time but for the pump clip designs in a competition run by the Pump Clip Museum. Second prize went to Cottage Brewery and Third to Northumberland Brewery.

Mayflower Brewery – change of plans – Alan is staying on at the Sandbrook for the time being but does not open the pub until Thursday evening leaving him time at the beginning of the week to brew his beer. He has recently brewed an excellent Hic Bibi and also a brand new beer called Alden’s which is named after the copper on the Mayflower. Alan has also promised a new brew for the Wigan Beer Festival.

Prospect Brewery – no news yet on how the Nutty Slack fared in the recent SIBA competition however on a recent pub survey trip all the Prospect beers on offer at the Windmill in Parbold could easily have been competition winners.

Beers from all of our local breweries will take pride of place at the Wigan Beer Festival 

JANUARY 2009

All Gates Brewery – no additional news at present.

Mayflower Brewery – Alan will be moving out of the Sandbrook soon which means he should get more time to concentrate on his brewing.

Prospect Brewery – The brewery is featured in the programme ‘Oz & James Drink To Britain’ which is to be televised on BBC2 on Tuesday 13th from 8:00 to 8:30pm – we hope all our members can watch – set your video or watch it on I-Player ! Prospect have also won a Gold award at the recent Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Northern regional competition in the Mild category for Nutty Slack – the beer will now be judged against other mild winners from the 6 other regional competitions at a contest which will be held in Nottingham from 12th – 15th February, let’s keep our fingers crossed that Patsy gets a special Valentine’s present and does well in this – we will let you know if she wins ! In judging for best regional beer overall from all the category winners it won silver place.

DECEMBER 2008

All Gates Brewery – 4 seasonal brews Santa’s Coming (golden/amber 4.2%, which was brewed last year at 4.4%), Winter Warmer (4.4 ruby), New Year’s Ale (4.0% copper coloured) and Metrohopolis (3.9% amber). The breweries has now produced a total of 500 beers and are marking the occasion with a commemorative beer called Quingenti (D)

Mayflower Brewery –2 brews planned for next week Yule Be Lucky (a 5% dark spicy beer which Alan brewed last year), and another - possibly be a new brew.

Prospect Brewery – Patsy has now produced 3 brews of Clementine, as well as another festive beer Pickaxe. The last couple barrels of Toothpick (6.5%) are at the Crown. Ditchie & Salty’s Big Brew to be produced under the name of Big Brew with a new pump clip showing a miners brew can in keeping with the mining theme adopted by the brewery. The ‘secret’ programme filmed at the brewery last summer which we have been awaiting for months is due to be shown on BBC2 on 13th January.

NOVEMBER 2008

All Gates Brewery : Rob Wright, Sales Manager was made redundant and left on 31 October. Brightblade is still available and selling well. Hung Drawn and Portered is also available for the early part of November. November specials are - Some Like it Hopped (ABV 4.5%) ; Cask of Zorro (ABV 3.7%) ; Metrohopolis (ABV 3.9%). Still no news on the bottling plant but work has begun on the general layout/images for the labels. Allgates will be a sponsor at the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester.
 
Mayflower Brewery : Their new beer 'Autumn Gold' ABV 4.5% which is very good and selling well. Alan has just brewed Black Diamond mild which is one of his favourites.
 
Prospect Brewery : Patsy has brewed her Christmas beers Pickaxe and Clementine. Two barrels of Clementine have already been distributed. One to a beer festival in Sheffield and the other to the Crown at Worthington. Big Adventure brewed for bottling to be available when the TV series comes out in January. Private commission from a dentist for a special brew - 6.5% dark beer called 'Toothpick'. Some left and available at the Crown at Worthington 

OCTOBER 2008

All Gates Brewery : current seasonals are ‘ Caskper’ 3.8%, Golden,’Festivale’ a 4% Light ale made with Japanese hops and brewed especially for the Wigan Food & drink festival, and ‘Robo Hop’ 4.3%, only one batch brewed. Old favourites ‘Nightmare on Ale Street’ (5.3%) and ‘Hung Drawn & Portered’ (5.2%) have also been brewed for Halloween.

Mayflower Brewery : Latest brew is Autumn Gold 4.5%. Mayflower brews will regularly be available at the Sandbrook whilst Alan Brannigan, the brewer, is caretaker manager there. There will also be a selection of beers from the Scottish & Courage beer list.

Prospect Brewery : a ‘one-off’ beer was produced for the recent festival at the Crown @ Worthington called ‘Pie & Beer’. Old favourite Clementine has been brewed and is maturing nicely for Christmas. A brochure featuring a range of Christmas gift packs is shortly to be available. Prospect beers are now available at the Continental at Preston, the New Hall Tavern in Salmesbury and the Trackside in Bury

SEPTEMBER 2008

All Gates Brewery : current seasonals are ‘ Pursuit of Hoppiness’ 4.1% pale & hoppy, ‘Maltrix’ a 4.2% Golden Ale, and ‘True Grist’ 4.3% Pale/Amber using Pilgrim Hops (a first for Allgates). A recent special using a variety of left over hops was called Keystone Hops.

Mayflower Brewery : due to the recent move to the Sandbrook Alan has not been brewing but has plans in hand to get together with Stewart Thompson (the former Mayflower brewer) to produce a dark winter special.

Prospect Brewery : the brew made ‘on air’ for Century FM (at the request of the DJs it is currently named Ditchy & Salty’s Big Brew) is selling well and likely to be a regular brew, though possibly under a different name. Patsy has also affiliated to a new ‘brewery tap’, the Crown @ Worthington which plans to stock Silver Tally as a regular beer and other Prospect beers on a rotating basis.

AUGUST 2008

All Gates Brewery : the plans for a dedicated bottling plant are on hold at present . New seasonal brews are : Mary Hoppins , a 3.8% copper beer; Enter The Flagon, a 4.4% copper, and Bar Beer Ella, a 3.9% beer. On days when the brewery gets ahead of scheduled production they are occasionally reviving archived brews – so far have done ‘Bottoms Up’ but due to popular demand from Wigan CAMRA plan to do ‘Bright Blade’ next so watch this space !

Mayflower Brewery : mixed news – the bad being that due to a transportation glitch the brew of Douglas Valley did not get to the Great British Beer Festival & the good (for local CAMRA members at least) being that this means that we are likely to see a bit more of this beer around than of late as Alan’s production of beers had been limited since he took over the White Lion and what had been produced had generally gone to the Royal Oak and he will now be marketing the beer planned for the GBBF to local freehouses.

Prospect Brewery : Pasty has been getting media coverage with the beer ‘105.4’ a particularly light beer planned to be a one-off brew. Other new brews within the last month have been ‘Big Adventure’ & ‘Giants Hall’, a golden beer named after the Standish Lower ground pit. Whilst we are really enjoying all of Patsy’s stock and summer beers many of us (including Ken and I) are wishing the summer away (what summer I hear you say as I look at the rain outside ?) waiting for her to brew her Clementine winter ale. More good news is that Patsy is now doing a wide range of bottled beers and will also be bottling Clementine and will be selling Christmas gift packs – though would you really love anyone enough to give Clementine away ? I’d sooner give away a whole packet of Rolos !

JULY 2008

All three of our local breweries will be participating in the Great British Beer Festival next month :-

• All Gates Brewery will be featuring Shining Light
• Mayflower Brewery is sending Douglas Valley
• Prospect Brewery is providing the award winning beer from our 2008 festival Blinding Light plus some of their other bottled beers.

This goes to prove that whilst we may not have as many breweries within the borough as some CAMRA branches, the three which we have are amongst the country’s best microbreweries. They deserve our support so we would encourage all our members to drink Loc-Ale whenever they can – after all this is not only supporting local business but also being carbon efficient !

JUNE 2008

All Gates Brewery : in addition to their regular beers they have 3 new seasonal beers Caskaway @ 4.1%, Scubi-brew 4.2%, and Pussy Galore at 4.4%. Plans are being drawn up to expand operations to a new bottling plant, brewery shop and offices in the former motorcycle shop around the corner from the Anvil to be overseen by a new business director. The Anvil and some other local outlets have been benefiting from various Allgates brewery ‘swaps’, particularly welcome has been the recent trade with the York brewery. Allgates beers are also now regularly featured at Blackpool’s Pump & Truncheon if you happen to be there and get homesick for a pint of the proper stuff.

Mayflower Brewery : Douglas Valley bitter, Alan’s very first beer brewed to his own recipe, is to be featured at this year’s Great British Beer Festival and he is understandably quite proud of this accolade. Alan has also been asked to brew a special beer for a stall at Medieval Fayre which is to be held at the St Thomas Church across the road from Alan & Tracey’s pub (the White Lion in Upholland) – see local events for more info. Proceeds from the sales are
to go to charity (which is St Thomas’s Church Funds).

Prospect Brewery : the recent new brew ‘Nutty Slack’ is to join the regular range of beers produced. Blinding Light (4.2%) which was produced especially for the 2008 Wigan Beer Festival and was the bronze award winner in the light ales category is to be added to the bottled range (available in Chadwick’s emporium and some other select local
outlets). Patsy also plans a new light beer called Giants Hall.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2008

All Gates Brewery : Three new brews for March, all with a film theme, are - Hop Gun 3.9 ABV Light/Golden, Pump Fiction 4.3 ABV Dark/Copper, Carry on Drinking 4.4 ABV Pale/Straw colour. They have also solved their previous brewing problems with Hung Drawn & Portered and produced some recently.

Mayflower Brewery : brewing re-commenced last Friday with Douglas Valley Ale available at Wigan beer festival.

Prospect Brewery : Patsy's brew for the Wigan beer festival is Blinding Light. All beers (including Blinding Light) are available in 500 ml bottles and are 'bottled conditioned'. The bottled Blinding Light will not be ready before the festival and go on sale afterwards.

JANUARY 2008

All Gates Brewery : their special charity event and mini beer festival begins on Friday 18th January. The new Allgates beer which is being brewed specially for the pub and includes a donation of 10p from every pint sold for Wigan Hospice will be available. The brewery is expecting to produce a stout as its January seasonal beer.

Mayflower Brewery : not currently brewing due to the drain problems at the Royal Oak.

Prospect Brewery : Patsy’s new beer Open Cask will be available at Bent & Bongs festival. We
have noted an increase in outlets stocking Prospect brews as part of their guest range including the Turks Head in St Helens and the Smithfield in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

DECEMBER 2007

All Gates Brewery : Their latest acquisition the Crooke Hall Inn in Crooke village is now selling a combination of Allgates and other cask beers from their 6 newly-installed handpumps. They are planning a special charity event with proceeds going to Wigan & Leigh hospice which begins on Friday 18th January. The whole weekend will be a mini beer festival and a band called Free Fall will be playing on the Friday and various other fund raising activities including raffles charity auctions, darts knock outs are planned for the weekend. There will also be a new Allgates beer available which is being brewed specially for the pub and 10p from every pint sold will be donated to the charity.

Mayflower Brewery : Problems with the drainage system at the Royal Oak premises has meant that the Mayflower brewer, Alan Brannigan, has been unable to brew on site since the middle of December. He advises that all being well production should resume in the New Year either at the Royal Oak or he has been offered the use of the new Higsons Brewery premises until any problems are sorted.

Prospect Brewery : Patsy’s new Christmas beer Clementime proved to be very popular at the recent Black Horse Beer Festival in Moss Bank …. We’re looking forward to her next special beer.

NOVEMBER 2007

All Gates Brewery : are adding to their expanding empire of pubs (The Anvil in Wigan town centre, The Victoria in Aspull, The Hare & Hounds in Hindley, The Globe in Congleton (which is undergoing a refurb)) by adding Crooke Hall Inn in Crooke village later this month.

Mayflower Brewery : Alan Brannigan, brewer and owner of the Mayflower brewery is now also
expanding into the pub trade as he and his partner Tracey are taking over the White Lion in Upholland (a Good Beer Guide listed pub for 2007 though recently having had no real ale). However as the pub is tied to the Thwaites brewery we may not see much of the Mayflower range appearing there. Alan will be taking over from 28 November and has stated that he will have Thwaites cask ales on all the time and not just at weekends.

Prospect Brewery : have just brewed a Christmas beer which will be called this Clementime - yes it does contain clementines and uses First Gold hops. The beer is dark in colour and should be between 5% and 5.5%. Patsy is also doing a 'one off'' brew for Lancashire Day (27th November) and details will be on the brewery website very shortly.

OCTOBER 2007

All Gates Brewery : in addition to significant part played in the Wigan food & drink festival Allgates also supplied their popular Bright Blade for the taste off competition at the Manchester Food & Drink festival last week. A panel of ‘experts’ tasted a range of beers all from breweries in Greater Manchester selecting Marble Breweries JPB as the overall winner. Expert opinions apart though the first beer to run out of all those on offer in the beer tent was the Allgates Bright Blade so clearly it was a winner with the paying public !

Mayflower Brewery : Alan tells us that he is brewing at capacity at the current brewery plant and that he is considering expansion of production to meet demand.

SEPTEMBER 2007

Mayflower Brewery : Alan Branagan the brewer his building on Stewart Thompson's legacy and the brewery is going from strength to strength. Alan is now brewing at full capacity. The new seasonal brew Douglas Valley has proved to be very popular and will now join his permanent range of beers. Alan will also be brewing the beer he produced for the 2007 Wigan Beer Festival which instead of being called "Casino Royale" it will now be known as Casino Strong Ale (4.8%).

Prospect Brewery : finally in production of Pioneer @ 4% (coppery/brown colour) and Gold Rush @ 4.5% (golden colour) which are available in various local free houses. We have only had the chance to try the Gold Rush as yet but found it very palatable and are looking forward to more Prospect brews – apparently the next brew is being launched at the Crown festival

AUGUST 2007

Prospect Brewery : Still awaiting final fittings of utilities with test brews to follow in early September. For those seeking more information the brewery is now online at www.prospectbrewery.com

JULY 2007

Prospect Brewery : latest news supplied to our breweries liaison officer is that the majority of equipment is in place but utilities had still to be connected. The brewer, Patsy, has studied her trade at bank Top brewery and is committed to producing a quality product using wholly metal casks. Patsy aims to produce two brews each week on a craft basis as opposed to commercial production. Beers will be supplied only to local outlets which will include the Dog & Partridge in Standish though there is still much testing to do and it is anticipated that Prospect beers will not be available until around September. For those seeking more information the brewery is now online at www.prospectbrewery.com

APRIL 2007

All Gates Brewery : Two new beers were on offer at the recent Wigan beer festival – ‘Unusual Suspects’ and ‘50 Marks’ both very well received

Mayflower Brewery : Brewer Stuart Thompson is giving up the brewery the management of which is being taken over by Chris Doherty who owns the Royal Oak whilst Stuarts son-in-law Alan is doing the brewing although Stuart still intends to dabble in brewing as and when the mood and his busy schedule of having fun allows. Alan intends to increase production of Mayflower beers though still concentrate on local demand to market his beers.

Rose Bridge Brewery : recently marketing a wider range of beers including one brewed specially for the Wigan Beer Festival ‘Live & Let Pie’ which featured as one of the nominees in our beer of the festival competition and also ‘Ince Ale’ and a particularly hoppy beer called ‘Cascade’ which were featured at the Bulls Head Easter festival. The brewer Philip Little is hopefully putting the brewery’s shaky start to rights now.

JANUARY 2007

Mayflower Brewery : The Branch will be awarding Stewart Thompson owner and brewer of the Mayflower Brewery with our new special award for Commitment to Real Ale Award. For those of you who do not know the background to the Mayflower brewery our branch chairman, Ken Worthington has written the following brief history : After reaching the age of 50 and having worked in various managerial roles in a number of breweries, Stewart decided it was time to take a gamble and realise a dream by starting his own brewery. The first step was to purchase a suitable microbrewery which he did in December 2000, the initial location being at the Worthington Lakes industrial complex. Due to the demolition of the original premises at the Bleachworks site, the brewery was later relocated to the Royal Oak in Wigan. The original vessels and casks are still used, although the premises are much smaller. His current brews include Special Branch (4.2%) Light Oak (4.0%) Myles Best Bitter (3.7%) Dark Oak (3.5%) and for Christmas he brewed Sleighed (7.0%). Stewart tells us he plans to retire from the Brewery in
April, however he will be leaving the brewery in the capable hands of Chris Doherty, current landlord of the Royal Oak.

The presentation has been arranged for 2pm on Sat 24 February 2007 at the Royal Oak in Standishgate, Wigan. and we have also invited Stewart and his partner Christine along on our branch pub survey trip which follows.

DECEMBER 2006

All Gates Brewery : now reported to be running successful pre-booked brewery tours. We were told recently that the ever-enterprising brewer had problems with the fermentation of a recent batch of ‘Hung Drawn and Portered’ which firmly refused to gain the 5+% abv so he decided to turn it into a 4.5% abv brew with the name of Twist and Stout – yet another nice brew ! It seems that all brews the Allgates produce, even by chance such as this, are well received.

Mayflower Brewery : Stewart has been supervising a new brew and is doing well. Fans of the Mayflower brew may wish to pop along to the Royal Oak for 2pm on 3rd February when the branch proposes to make an award to Stewart.

Rose Bridge Brewery : still getting mixed reports though samples we have had in various outlets recently have been fine.

NOVEMBER 2006

All Gates Brewery : their ginger beer Bright Blade won beer of the festival at the Warrington Rotary Club OctoberFest – congratulations to all concerned ! Apparently trade is so good they have taken on a second brewer to assist John. The official opening of the brewery took place on 9th November with many local licensees in attendance. The brewery is now operating pre-booked brewery tours.

Mayflower Brewery : fairly positive new on Stuart’s health – apparently so much so that he has developed a new recipe for his team of volunteer brewers. We grow increasingly hopeful of commissioning Stuart to develop a new brew for our 2007 beer festival

Rose Bridge Brewery : slowly regaining the confidence of the trade – watch out for new beers at forthcoming festivals !

OCTOBER 2006

All Gates Brewery : from reports we hear of CAMRA colleagues in other North West branches All Gates beers are being very well received when featured at beer festivals. We hear also that Ian has now taken out his Pheonix Arizona pump at the Anvil so that he can feature the All Gates brews on a regular basis. Rumour has it also that All Gates may be getting a Wigan pub.

Mayflower Brewery : due to limited production at present the Royal Oak is unable to feature Mayflower brews as prominently but we remain hopeful of an increase in supply as Stewarts health improves.

Rose Bridge Brewery : earlier problems seem to have been resolved but the brewery will need to work hard to regain the confidence of some publicans in the area. Now regularly brewing a house beer for the Lass o’ Gowrie in Manchester.

SEPTEMBER 2006

All Gates Brewery : now regularly producing Napoleons Retreat and Young Pretender, both very popular and launching a new ginger based brew called Bright Sword.

Mayflower Brewery : Stewart is still poorly but has been supervising brewing recently so the Mayflower pump clips will soon be reappearing at the Royal Oak – our best wishes go to Stewart in his current course of treatment.

Rose Bridge Brewery : currently experiencing one or two hiccups in production but hoping to be back into full swing soon.

AUGUST 2006

All Gates Brewery : not only now open but in full production - apparently several beers have been produced some of which have been named with regard to Wigan’s local history eg Young Pretender. Hopefully soon the brewery will be able to utilise its hospitality suite overlooking the church gardens by offering brewery tours. Branch members were able to sample one of the range (Napoleon’s Retreat) at the Crown at Worthington POTY presentation last weekend.

Mayflower Brewery : branch members were disturbed to hear of Stewart Thompson’s illness as he has been a good friend of the branch over the years. As a result of Stewarts current health we are unlikely to see any new brews from Mayflower for the immediate future though it is understood that production of existing recipes will continue with assistance from willing volunteers. We wish Stewart a speedy recovery.

Rose Bridge Brewery : after a promising start the brewery experienced a couple of minor setbacks in production but is now back on track.