Bottles Ahoy

Ivor Watkins tells us that he has available 147 full bottles of beer, all in good nick, and mostly celebratory brews for weddings, historic events etc. They're largely from the period 1977 to 1983 so many are from now-deceased breweries. For more info, please contact Ivor on 01263 579511 – he's happy to supply a detailed list.

City of Cambridge Brewery

For some years now, City of Cambridge beers have been contract-brewed, initially by Wolf Brewery of Attleborough, Norfolk and more recently by Elgoods of Wisbech. Owner Steve Draper has now sold the business to Wolf. They have committed themselves to start brewing the beers locally again and are actively searching for suitable premises in Cambridge. In the meantime Elgoods will continue to produce the beers.

Greene King

GK have announced a new scheme called Local Hero, focused on pubs which have seen a slip in barrelage in recent years. Licensees selected for the scheme will be able to source microbrewery beers within a 20 mile radius and take up to 50% of the real ale offer alongside GK beers. They'll be given a 25% discount on existing rent and £100 a barrel discount on GK ales – but will pay a 6% royalty on set turnover. GK have a target of converting 50 pubs to the concept.

Lord Conrad's

Jon tells us that August was a very busy month for the brewery and saw the launch of Gubbins, a new wheat beer. He next aims to recreate Pheasant's Rise, the beer that started it all. Lord Conrad's Gubbins Pie is a collaboration with Cam Cattle, who graze the cows on Cambridge common land – it's a marinaded steak in ale pie with lashings of Gubbins gravy – order from Cam Cattle. The brewery's annual wild hop pick yielded abundant results – one good thing about the guided bus is that soil disturbance has awakened ancient hop vines along its route. The hops will be used to brew Hedgerow Hop next spring.