A potted Branch History

The early days-

The formation of The Bailiwick of Guernsey Branch of Camra was basically the brainchild of Stuart McGuinness, a Welsh Camra life member who moved to Guernsey with his job in 1980.  Along with the help of a core of real ale lovers recruited from his friends and workmates, an associate group was formed, before becoming a full branch in September 1991.  A few of those early and founder members are still active on the committee today, notably our treasurer Eileen Bougourd and myself, Fran Torode, (Stuart’s ex-wife). Stuart left Guernsey for Devon in the January of 2000 leaving the legacy of an established branch to carry on the campaign.

The current branch has members who live in Guernsey, Alderney and Sark.

We are very keen that the smaller islands feel part of the branch and that is why the correct branch title is Bailiwick of Guernsey ( or BoG for short ) Camra

In the early days, Guernsey was a bit of a real ale desert when it came to choice and there was little or no real ale on the other islands. The real ales brewed by The Guernsey Brewery and Randall’s brewery were excellent when you could find them in good condition but sometimes this was not easy, real ales from off island at this time barely existed, and if they did, they were probably from Jersey.

Our target was to find ways to introduce new beers for local drinkers to experience and also to promote the fact that locally brewed beers were as good as anyone’s. The latter was not always as easy as it should be, in the islands there has always been a strong sense of “imported is always better” and a sad lack of valuing local products, more the pity when local products were and are very good.

During those early days, Sark had a brief renaissance of brewing with Jim Shelley brewing a range of beers, cider and soft drinks in a converted greenhouse before selling the brewing kit on to Roger Curtis in Alderney where there was a brief ray of light in the form of The Braye Brewery but this failed dismally on an island that at the time was a “tinny paradise”

A visit to the Braye Brewery by
Alan James, Steve Netherton, Stuart McGuinness, Roger Curtis

We started in a small way by importing polypins and running Camra bars from a small tent at functions like motor shows and music or sports events before going on to run a series of extremely well received beer festivals. Alongside this, a landlord in the shape of Steve Taylor, then of the Drunken Duck, who was prepared to import beers himself and sell a choice and range of beers fulfilled our wish of seeing a bigger beer range available to Guernsey drinkers on a regular basis and in the year 2000 we held our swansong festival with an event plagued by atrocious weather.  We then pulled out of the beer festival circuit.

At one point there was talk of the Camra national AGM coming to Guernsey, a lot of feasibility studies were carried out, we did also have an NE visit. 

Now-

The  Branch membership is currently around 50 and we are members of the Wessex region of Camra. A Regional meeting was held in 2008 in Jersey and 2009 in Guernsey. Both Guernsey and Alderney have a good real ale scene, though with the ever present problem of “musical landlords” making it very difficult when it comes to selecting Good Beer Guide entries. Real ale availability is better than it has ever been in the history of the local branch.

The Guernsey Brewery has totally gone, the old Randall’s has gone but in its place is the new Randall’s brewery which once again is brewing the excellent Patois Ale and also holds worldwide sole brewing rights to Breda  lager which is noteworthy in being micro-filtered and unpasteurised.

We also have a local cider maker, The Guernsey Cider Company, whose bottled and draft Roquettes cider is making inroads into persuading locals to value a locally produced product

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