Due to the temporary closure of the Lazy Landlord our August Meeting & Social will now take place upstairs at Gallagher’s, Birkenhead on Tuesday 13th August at 20:30.

The use of a handpump on a pub bar has always indicated that the beer being served is cask conditioned (Real Ale). Serving other beers, notably keg or brewery conditioned beers, by handpump is confusing and misleads the customer. CAMRA has vigorously opposed this practice and with the support of Trading Standards Departments this misleading practice has been effectively wiped out.

Recently, Marston’s (Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company) has introduced a range of keg beers, described as Fresh Ale, which it intends to serve by handpump. CAMRA is mounting a campaign to oppose this practice which it has called the Handpump Hijack. The beers affected at present are Wainwright Gold, Wainwright Amber and Hobgoblin IPA. Apart from Marston’s own pubs, the beers may appear in Stonegate and Thwaites pubs and in the free trade.

In line with long established CAMRA policy, any pub using misleading dispense will be excluded from consideration for the Good Beer guide and any CAMRA pub awards. In addition, the pub’s entry in the online WhatPub pub guide will carry a prominent warning about the pub’s use of misleading dispense. Any of the beers being marketed as Fresh ale will be ineligible for any CAMRA awards because of possible confusion between the real cask conditioned beer and the keg Fresh Ale version.

Although Marston’s say that the pump clip will state the Fresh Ale is brewery conditioned, this will not be understood by most customers and is likely to be overlooked anyway. If you see these beers, ask the licensee or bar staff if it is the new Fresh Ale. If it is, report it to the local CAMRA Branch and we will investigate. You can use the ‘fill in the feedback form’ link on the pub’s entry on the WhatPub website.

The winner is the Magazine Hotel in New Brighton which has won the award several times in recent years – congratulations to all at the Magazine.
The runner up is the Black Toad in Hoylake
and two awards of Pub of Excellence go to the Bow-Legged Beagle in Bromborough and Gallaghers Traditional Pub in Birkenhead.
Congratulations to all four of these excellent pubs which are definitely worth a visit for a pint or two.
The dates for presentation of the awards will be announced later.

The Cock & Pullet on Woodchurch Road, Oxton has had a bit of a makeover and changed its name to the Royal. Great news that it is still serving a couple of real ales on handpump.

The pub was closed in January 2020 and bought by Stange & Co who also operate the Fox & Hounds, Jug and Bottle and the Ship Hotel in Parkgate. The pub has been extended and tastefully extensively refurbished with an emphasis on food but with a sizeable bar area with up to six cask beers available.

Peerless awarded silver for Full Whack in the British & New World IPAs Category at the NW regional CBoB 2023 Awards recently at Crewe Beer Festival.

Congratulation to the Magazine Hotel in New Brighton on being awarded the Wirral CAMRA Community Pub for 2023.

The award will be presented on Saturday 7th October at 3pm (subject to confirmation).

Congratulations also to licensee Steve for celebrating 25 years at the Mags.

Congratulations to Victoria Club in Holmes Chapel on being judged the Merseyside and Cheshire Regional Club of the Year 2023. The presentation at the club will be on Saturday 30 September at 2pm.

We are sorry to announce the death of former Wirral Branch Chairman, Ashley Standidge at the age of 74. Ashley was a long time supporter of CAMRA and was on the Wirral Branch Committee for many years. Apart from his time as Chairman he had many other roles including Social Secretary and was one of the senior bar managers and cellarmen at Wirral Beer Festivals managing the hand pump bar. Although we have not seen much of Ashley in the last couple of years he will be sadly missed.

Ashley's funeral is on the 8th September at Landican 3 pm and afterwards at the British Legion in Heswall.

Winner: Elland 1872 Porter. Silver: Greene King Abbot. Bronze: Salopian Darwin’s Original.

Wirral Branch Pub of the Season for Summer presented to the White Lion, West Kirby.

The Boat House, in Parkgate was presented Autumn2022 Pub Of The Season

The Bow-Legged Beagle in Bromborough was presented Autumn2021 Pub Of The Season

The Black Toad, Hoylake won the Spring 2020 Pub of the Season

The Beer Lab in Heswall was presented Autumn2019 Pub Of The Season

The Irby Mill, Greasby was presented Spring 2019 Pub Of The Season

Wirral CAMRA is pleased to announce our Pub of the Year 2019 results.

Overall winner: The Lazy Landlord, Liscard

Runner up: Rose & Crown, Bebington

The judges also Highly Commended two further pubs:

Magazine Hotel, New Brighton

Harp, Little Neston

The Farmers Arms, Wallasey Village was presented Summer2018 Pub Of The Season

The Harp Inn, Little Neston has been awarded Wirral CAMRA Pub of the Year 2018 Runner Up

Lazy Landlord, Liscard, has been presented Wirral CAMRA Pub Of The Year 2018

Wirral CAMRA is pleased to announce our Pub of the Year results.

• Overall winner: The Lazy Landlord, Liscard
• Runner up: The Harp, Little Neston (Cheshire)

The judges also Highly Commended three further pubs:

• Gallaghers, Birkenhead
• The Magazine, New Brighton
• The West Kirby Tap, West Kirby

In total 16 pubs were nominated and after considering the beer scores we received from members during the last nine months (we received over 2000 scores), ten pubs were visited by judging panels in December and January to score the pubs in various categories. Congratulations to these five excellent pubs which made it to the top of the pile. The dates for presentations will be announced later.

The Harp, Little Neston, has been presented Wirral Pub Of The Year 2017 runner up.

Congratulations to the Magazine, New Brighton on getting Wirral Pub Of The Season Award.