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Having had the date of the third of October in the Branch diary for some time as a 'day for a trip out of some sort' it was felt that maybe we ought to decide on where to go. Since we hadn't yet got around to formally presenting the Pub Of The Year award to this year's winner (The White Horse, Ridgewell) it was felt that we ought to try and incorporate this into the day. Several members had tried and enjoyed offerings from the recently set up Mill Green brewery at Edwardstone in Suffolk it was decided to visit there, followed by a stop at The Brewery Tap in Sudbury and then on to The White Horse for the presentation.
Slightly disappointingly we only managed to round up fourteen takers for the trip on the day but undeterred we set out from Walden, via Dunmow and Sible Hedingham before venturing across the border to Edwardstone which is a small (read tiny) village about ten miles to the East of Sudbury. We actually arrived slightly before our scheduled time of eleven o'clock, possibly a first for any of our visits! One of the things that first catches the eye on arrival at The White Horse, no not the POTY one but this one is the home of the brewery, is the large wind turbine, of which more later. We all piled in to the welcoming pub to be faced with the always pleasant challenge of which beer to order from a range of eight on offer, five from the brewery and three guests, oh and three real ciders to keep Chris happy. Whilst supping the excellent 2.9% mild, which tastes considerably better than such a description might lead you to believe, I examined the extensive range of pump clips and beer mats covering the walls and ceiling of one of the siderooms and noticed considerably more milds represented than one would expect in rural Suffolk, it appears that the previous owner had been a bit of a mild fan and always had one on, something the current incumbent has taken one step further by brewing his own.
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Mill Green brewery was established in 2008 and aims to be as ecologically sustainable as possible, to this end the brewery building at the rear of the pub was constructed with as many reused materials as possible and traditional products such as lime plaster with wool as insulation. The wind turbine mentioned earlier helps to offset their energy costs and a wood fired boiler is used to heat the liquor, the wood for the boiler comes from coppiced local woodlands. All this is well and good I hear you cry but what of the beer, well, these are all brewed using pure organic ingredients, locally sourced where possible and the brewery are having their own malting barley and hops grown nearby for future years. The 2.9% Mawkin Mild, named after the old Suffolk name for a scarecrow as a reminder of the farmhand's traditional tipple, is a very flavoursome easy drinking beer and would certainly be a regular beer for me if I could get it nearer home. O'Bama stout is named in tongue-in-cheek honour of President Barack and is in fact a dry malty stout of 3.8%. Loveley's Fair is an aromatic Pale Ale of 4% and is named for the historic location of the brewery at Lovely's Green. Whilst telling us about how he had got into brewing it transpired that he had made cider for many years and after that there was nothing for it but to dive into the bus and head back to his place to see the set up and sample some of the produce, you'll have to excuse me if things become a little vague from here on in as I was by now certainly having a very good day.
Full details of the brewery and the pub can be found at http://www.edwardstonewhitehorse.co.uk/
From the cidery we made our way to the Brewery Tap in Sudbury only to discover to our dismay that they were holding a beer festival at the time! The dismay mainly stemmed from the fact that we had only allowed ourselves a couple of hours stop there before we had to be off, nevertheless we bravely took up the challenge and several excellent beers were tasted and by this point pontificated upon in the way that only the slightly tipsy can. It must be understood that I speak only for myself in these ramblings, it may be that others were as sober as judges, I really couldn't say.
From Sudbury we headed to Ridgewell to the White Horse to present Robin with his certificate for being awarded Pub Of The Year 2009 for North West Essex. Now you'd think that since Robin has received this award on several occasions before and Tom (our chairman) has presented many an award in his time that they might know to look at the bloke with the camera whilst doing the presentation but a glance at the picture below will show you how wrong you can be, never mind.
From the White Horse it was but a matter of minutes (or so it seemed) before we were decanted from the bus virtually on our doorsteps, another arduous and selfless day of campaigning for CAMRA over.
Ian Fitzhenry