SIBA National Beer Competition 2008

Beartown Brewery has won Silver in the Champion Porters, Strong Mild's, Old Ales & Stouts
Sponsored by Lallemand UK Ltd

Polar Eclipse, Beartown's Oatmeal Stout gained silver just behind Severn Sins from Severn Vale Brewing Co
(They went on to get Gold as Supreme Champions)

This well won silver was against strong competition as you can see below.

Oakham Ales Black Hole Porter (5.5% ABV)
Amber Ales Ltd Original Black Stout (4.0% ABV)
Beartown Brewery Polar Eclipse (4.8% ABV)
Fyne Ales Fyne Porter (4.6% ABV)
Meantime Brewing Co Ltd London Stout (4.5% ABV)
South Hams Brewery Co Ltd Devon Porter (5.0% ABV)
Severn Vale Brewing Co Severn Sins (5.2% ABV)

At the national finals, staged in the Barrels pub in Hereford, the winners of each of the draught beer categories, which ranged from milds to stouts, old ales and porters, went into a final judging session to decide the supreme champion.

But the names of the winners remained a secret at the end of the day.
The results were announced on the afternoon of Friday 7 March at SIBA’s annual conference in York.

Beartown got to the finals having won the North Region Beer Competition held at The Scarisbrick Hotel in Southport on 11th January 2008. Sponsored By Thomas Fawcett & Sons

The North Region Beer Competition Result

GOLD
Beartown Brewery - Polar Eclipse 4.8%

SILVER
Grindleton Brewery - Farley's Dusk 5.5%

BRONZE
Bazens Brewery - Knoll Street Porter 5.2%

Want to know more about it?

CLICK HERE

Animals Asia Foundation UK Roadshow – June/July 2007
The Roadshow with Dave Neale (UK Director) and Jill Robinson MBE visited eight locations in 10 days raising an incredible £80,000!
On the 30th of June 2007 Dave & Jill were in The Beartown Tap pulling the pints with the Moon Bears

Dave & Jill said;

The Beartown Brewery and Beartown Tap are based in Congleton and have taken our bears under their wing. The brewery has been brewing “Jolly Jasper” beer and is set to brew beer named after our rescued bears for many months to come. The Beartown Tap serves the beer to the people of Congleton. We were delighted to see our very own Jasper and BJ on the bar so to speak and we were joined by a packed pub to help us raise further funds and awareness for our work.

Thank you to Ian at the Beartown Brewery and Steve at the Tap for making our bears famous in Congleton and beyond.

China Bear Rescue

Across China & Vietnam over 13000 Asiatic Black Bears, (known as Moon Bears after the golden crescents of fur across their chests), are factory farmed under the most deplorable conditions. Metal catheters implanted deep into their gallbladders and holes in their abdomens, enable farmers to 'milk' the bears twice daily for their bile, which is used in Chinese medicines. The Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) is dedicated to ending this barbaric practice and is currently undertaking the "Moon Bear Rescue" - a project of epic proportions with the ultimate goal of ending the barbaric practice of bear farming by the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In 1993, Animals Asia Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson MBE, began the first investigations into the practice of bear farming in China. She found bears incarcerated in rusting cages little bigger than their own bodies, with gaping wounds where 7 inch rusting metal catheters had pierced their abdomens and scars from the cage bars running the length of their pain-wracked bodies. Many of these bears had been in their coffin-like cages for over twenty years.

In July 2000, after seven years of tireless negotiations, Jill Robinson’s dream to free these bears became a reality. In an unprecedented breakthrough, an agreement was signed between the Animals Asia Foundation, the China Wildlife Conservation Association and the Sichuan State Forestry Administration to free 500 suffering and endangered Moon Bears from a lifetime of pain on the worst farms in Sichuan Province. Sanctioned by the Central Government Department in Beijing, the agreement pledges to expand the initiative to other provinces and work toward the total elimination of bear farming countrywide.

In October 2000 the first bear farm was closed down, starting the historic Moon Bear Rescue. The bears arrive with severe physical and psychological problems due to their captive conditions. The bears receive emergency health checks before being moved to the hospital area to undergo extensive surgery to remove the catheter implants. Following surgery the bears receive months of physiotherapy whilst being gradually integrated with other members of their own species. Finally, once healthy the bears are released into their permanent home, a semi-natural sanctuary on a beautiful piece of bamboo forest, where they will live out their lives, free from pain and fear.

Animals Asia Foundation is currently the proud owner’s of over 170 healthy and happy Moon Bears at a rescue centre in Chengdu, China. And more farms are due to close soon, with the release of more bears from their agonising torture chambers. Animals Asia remains committed to working with government departments to bring this terrible practice ever closer to an end, whilst continuing to work with Chinese medical practitioners to source and promote the abundant herbal alternatives to bear bile.

In November 2005 after 8 years of working to end bear farming in Vietnam, Animals Asia Foundation signed an agreement with the Vietnamese Government to set up a rescue centre and rescue 200 farmed bears and to work towards ending the illegal practice of bear farming within Vietnam.
Help is desperately needed to fund the ongoing care of these bears and the rescue of thousands more bears trapped on bear farms across China & Vietnam.

For more information and ways to help visit the website
www.animalsasia.org