Beer 'Bible' hails Fylde breweries

The area’s micro breweries get a mention in the latest edition of the Good Beer Guide, The Campaign for Real Ale’s annual tome which highlights beer heroes.

The 2018 and 45th edition reveals that there are 14 new breweries in the North West, bringing the total up to 91, highlighting a surge in the number of small and micro breweries supplying casks and bottles to a variety of customers from pubs and microbars to events, supermarkets and individuals.

Three micro-breweries on the Fylde coast are highlighted – The Skippool Creek Brewery in Thornton, The Bloomfield Brewhouse in Bloomfield Road, l and The Rock Solid Brewing Company based in Normoss.

Vin Hamer, from Rock Solid said he was proud to get a mention in the ‘Beer Bible’ especially since he only set up the company in June this year after leaving the Chapel Street Brewery in Poulton.

He said: “Three and a half months in, it has been scary and exciting but we are doing well with our beer going to the Blackpool Cricket Club this week Number 10s in St Annes and the Venue at Cleveleys.”

The book's editor Roger Protz said: "It's fantastic to see a continued growth in local brewing. The first edition of the Good Beer Guide published 45 years ago was a call to arms for beer lovers at a time when the brewing industry was in dire trouble and the market flooded with tasteless, fizzy beer.

“How the beer world has changed! Today, in spite of closures, a growing number of pubs clamber to offer the best-possible range of real ales and we are still seeing remarkable growth in the brewing sector.”

The full list of new breweries in the North West is Bloomfield Brewing, Crankshaft Brewery, Doghouse Brewery, Farm Yard Ales, Grill and Grain Brewery, Hubsters Brewery, Mighty Medicine Brewing, Northern Whisper Brewing, Priest Town Brewing, Recoil Brewing, Skippool Creek Brewery, Withnell's Brewing, Rock Solid Brewing.

The pub named as the best North West was the Drovers Rest in Monkhill, near Carlisle. It was also named as one of 16 finalists in the Campaign for Real Ale's National Pub of the Year competition. The traditional country pub is close to the popular Hadrian’s Wall path and is an oasis for many different and sometimes obscure real ales.

The pub was judged against numerous other local branch winners and 235 pubs are listed in our region in the guide with 119 in Lancashire and 39 new ones in the county.