Winning Dorothy for the Day!

The spirit of our Dorothy Goodbody – has been brought to life for our 2013 calendar cover thanks to 'Dorothy for the Day' competition winner Lucy Dearden.  

Dorothy Goodbody is the brains and beauty behind a delicious range of real ales from Wye Valley Brewery.  Legend tells that Dorothy was the daughter of a Herefordshire hop farmer in the 1950's and renowned local belle.  Inspired by the Herefordshire countryside, she developed a passion for real ale and created a range of fantastic ale recipes using local hops.  

We received over 90 applications from potential Dorothy’s, all keen to represent her in a fabulous 1950's styled photo-shoot.  To make this all possible, we worked with the lovely ladies from vintage fashion designer Vivien of Holloway.

We were overwhelmed by the response to this competition – and there were so many fantastic entries – it was really hard to pick just one winner!  But in the end, Lucy’s entry won over judges for her spirited prose - explaining why she would be a great Dorothy for the day - and her winning smile.

Lucy, comments “I had a great time on the photo-shoot, it was amazing to be transformed into the 1950’s look, the clothes were beautiful.  It was surprisingly hard work though – I certainly deserved a bottle of Dorothy Goodbody’s Golden Ale by the end of the day!”

To celebrate the local hops used in Dorothy Goodbody’s ales, the backdrop for the photo-shoot was the verdant hops at Pridewood Farm. Winner Lucy was joined for the day by runner-up and local girl Hannah Tuffin from Hereford. Percival the farm Jack Russell also had his 15 minutes of fame when he posed with Lucy in one of the photos!

The 2013 Wye Valley Brewery calendars are hot of the press.  Over 1000 copies will be distributed to Wye Valley Brewery customers and for Dorothy-fans they are also available to purchase from the brewery shop.

PICTURED IS: Winner Lucy Dearden, amongst the hops at Pridewood Farm near Ledbury.

For, further images from the photo-shoot see the facebook album.

A Great British Beer

It's official, Dorothy Goodbody's Blissful Brown Ale is a Great British Beer!

Dorothy Goodbody's Blissful Brown Ale recently reached the finals of the 2012 Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt. We made it through the regional heats, which secured inclusion in the in-store beer festival in September. 

The beer qualified for the Grand Final of this year's competition, unfortunately it wasn't the final winner, however, qualifiying for the Grand Final two years in a row isn't bad, and there is always next year!

Dorothy Goodbody's Blissful Brown Ale has sold well at food festivals over the Summer and only a few cases remain, if you would like to try this limited edition beer please visit our brewery shop or our online shop.

Cask Ale sales back in growth

According to The Cask Ale Report, which has just been published, cask ale volumes grew in 2011 for the first time in 20 years, recording a 1.6% uplift.

Report author Pete Brown says, 'The Cask Report has been analysing the sector for six years now and while cask has been outperforming the beer market for most of them, this is the first full year of actual growth'.

To see The Cask Ale Report visit www.caskreport.co.uk.

Beer fit for World Champions

One of the highlights of the Bromyard Hop Festival which is held in September is the Hop Pocket World Championships. A total of twenty teams of runners carrying a full 'hop pocket' (the huge sack used to store dried hops) set off from the Market Square and ran the length of the town before doubling back. 

Winners of the 2012 Hop Pocket Word Championship race were the team 'Awesome', made up of two pairs of brothers: Ashley and Andrew Davis, and William and Lewis Jacobsen.   'It was a last-minute decision to enter', said Andrew Davis, 'but I'm glad we did.  We had no special training, but we're all pretty fit, so we just went for it'. 'Awesome' ran the course in 2 minutes 41 seconds, narrowly beating a team of Halo Leisure fitness instructors who made 2 minutes 47. The Butty Bach Boys, a team from Wye Valley Brewery came in third place.

The new Ladies World Champion team is Luscious Ladies, who are Philippa Jones, Sally Bullock, Carla Chamberlain and Steph Bagley. The girls returned a time of 4m 11s. "The women's hop pocket weights 50 kg as against the men's one at 70kg, so we're very pleased with that time", said Steph Bagley, "and very proud to have taken over the title of Ladies' World Champions. Proud, but exhausted!"

Chris Barltrop, one of the organisers of the Bromyard Hop Festival said ‘the Hop Festival Committee are hugely grateful to Wye Valley Brewery for their whole-hearted support in so generously being one of our two major sponsors’.

The two winning teams met up at Wye Valley Brewery to collect their prize boxes of beer.

Pictured Vernon Amor, managing director of Wye Valley Brewery, with winning men’s team ‘Awesome’ and winning ladies team ‘Luscious Ladies’.

25 years for The Barrels

Visitors to The Barrels were celebrating last night as the pub was awarded a plaque to mark 25 years of being featured in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. 

Described in the Good Beer Guide as a multi-room pub which enjoys a cult following, it stocks the full range of Wye Valley Brewery beers, and has been awarded CAMRA Herefordshire Pub of the Year on six occasions.

This year The Barrels held their 25th charity beer festival and raised a massive £25,000 for local charities.

Pictured from left Peter Amor landlord of The Barrels, Mark Haslam from Herefordshire CAMRA and Phil Pryce, Manager of The Barrels.

The Blooming Barrels!

The Barrels in Hereford has been recognised in the Heart of England in Bloom awards. 

The Barrels is Wye Valley Brewery’s flagship pub and was home to the brewery for many years. This popular pub which boasts a friendly atmosphere and excellent beer, also prides itself on its colourful beer garden.

The Heart of England in Bloom judges awarded The Barrels a Gold Award, in the Hotel and Pub Grounds category. 

Manager of The Barrels Phil Pryce and Estate Manager Geoff Evans were delighted to collect the award, and were pleased that their hard work had been recognised.

Pictured Geoff Evans receiving the Gold award.

Breweries in UK at a 70 year high

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) says there are now 1,000 breweries in the UK - the highest figure for 70 years.

Camra said 158 new breweries had opened in the past year alone, the highest number ever recorded by the lobby group's annual Good Beer Guide.

The organisation said the growth rate had quickened over the past 10 years and that the number had doubled in that time, with one brewery for every 50 pubs.

Camra called the figure "astonishing".

The increase has come against a backdrop of continuing pub closures. Almost 10,000 pubs have closed in the past decade.