On Friday 4th November Wigan and Makerfield’s Labour MP’s Lisa Nandy and Yvonne Fovargue dropped in on All Gates’s, The Anvil, Dorning Street, Wigan to offer their support to landlord Ian Thorpe and the pub industry as a whole.

The visit was part of the House of Commons ‘MP’s In Pubs’ initiative, which saw Lisa & Yvonne working on the bar to experience life as a publican and to allow customers to have their pint pulled by their local party representative.

Ian told them about the challenges facing the industry, including over regulation, alcohol tax hikes and the effect cheap booze sold by the off licence trade has on the pub. (more…)

The 24th Wigan Beer Festival for the second year forms part of the Wigan Food and Drink Festival. The beer festival is organised by the Wigan branch of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale).

The beer festival runs from Thursday 3^rd March to Saturday 5^th March and the Food and Drink Festival from March 3rd to March 13th inclusive and there are events every day.

The venue is Robin Park Arena, Loire Drive, Newtown, Wigan WN5 0UH; opposite the DW Stadium. (more…)

Four weeks ago this coming Monday, on 11^th October 2010 to be exact, a good friend of mine Bill Atherton took his own life.  At present as I write, why he did so, no one knows; not even his own family, no note, no nothing. But I guess in the next few weeks or months it will come out; whatever he was only 53. 

A beer blog is probably not quite the right place to celebrate a life, but Bill wouldn’t have minded. 

I worked with Bill many years ago, for Barclays Bank; we car shared for the best part of two years on our commute to Bolton from Wigan; played rugby together for the best part of six years; he was a fearsome hooker and would never give an inch and I was a god parent to his daughter Catherine. We had many nights together doing the ‘Lane’ in Wigan and then finishing up at his parents when the grill would come on and it would be bacon sandwiches for all. 

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Back in early September I wrote about the wonderful Citra hop under the post; On the Citra hops bandwagon! I mentioned that All Gates were on it and was pleased for a change to be a leader not a follower.

Again with the Apollo hop, we are not quite a leader but close. I think the excellent Crouch Vale brewery was the leader here, the first brewery in the UK to use Apollo back in May with their single hop variety beer, Apollo, ABV 4.3%. This was pale amber, an insanely hoppy beer and just wonderful stuff. Around this same time though Stu at  The Crown Brewery at The Hillsborough Hotel, Sheffield was I know also experimenting with Apollo hops in his American Pale Ale, Brooklyn Heights, so I may be wrong. I am sure somebody will tell me if I am.

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