Summer Newsletter 2026

The next social meeting: - 8th June, ‘Victoria’ - Lower Rushall St. Walsall. 7.30pm for social and raffle, maybe a quiz too, if there’s time.  Plenty of beers available! The July meeting is at the ‘Pretty Bricks’ on the 13thJuly.

Membership: thanks to everybody who has renewed their membership. We are now sporting 87 members.

 

Obituary: Sadly our member Michael Lee from Brownhills died in April after a long battle with cancer. He will always be remembered as a true gentleman and a stalwart supporter of the ‘Friends’. FoHB was well represented at the funeral in St Peter’s Church in rural Stonnal, and there he was interred in the quiet churchyard in the family plot shaded by poplars; and although the heavens rumbled a bit, no rain fell. The wake was held in the ‘Fox & Hounds’ in Shenstone where a wonderful buffet was laid on and the beer flowed like Niagara Falls (Tribute and Golden Glow). Full marks to Louise and Peter, Michael’s children, for putting together a memorable send-off.

Also, Jennifer, the wife of ex-member Keith Watkins has passed away towards the end of April; she was being treated for breast cancer and it spread (she always did the Tombola at Walsall Beer Festivals). Sadly missed.

Trips: we are getting a trip organised to Peterborough on August 29th for the CAMRA beer festival and a pub crawl round this historic town, which boasts a cathedral, museum, river, old pubs and the Queensgate Shopping Centre containing  Odeon and IMAX cinemas and Puttstars mini-golf. The cost will be £18 as usual and names are being taken for it now, so if you want to go let me know. The Chester trip was a great success in the sunny weather, with a great many pubs both old and new being visited. Abbas, our driver, was very patient with us because even with nearly 6 hours there it’s never enough, and people like me ended up trying to do the last 2 pubs in 10 minutes. The on board raffle raised £120, so thank you for your generosity.

There were no UK medallists at the World Beer Cup in 2025, so now a new transatlantic partnership has been formed between SIBA and the Brewers Association in the States so that the 14 champions from UK’s Indie Awards will go head to head in the largest beer competition in the World. Some 8375 beers from 49 countries were judging in the 2025 competition. SIBA is funding the refrigerated transport to Philadelphia where the judging takes place.

A tasting room and bottle shop in Stratford on Avon sold an Imperial barrel aged stout from an Alaskan microbrewery for £25 in third pint glasses (that’s £75 a pint folks!). The keg of ‘Blessed’ from Anchorage held 105 servings and sold out in a day. Customers were allowed to take the badged glass home, (as proof of their gullibility?-ED).

Those wonderful people at Heineken have reduced the ABV of Fosters from 3.7% to 3.4% citing changes to our drinking habits and no doubt taking advantage of a lower duty band but not lowering the price of a pint. Hence the saying “I wouldn’t give a XXXX for a Fosters !” Meanwhile, Greene King has sold the rights to ‘Old Speckled Hen’ to Barcelona brewer SA Damm , who make ‘Estrella lager’ in Greene King’s factory in Bedford. Old Mr Morland must be rotating in his grave!

Summer 2026 continued …