Our meeting of the West Cumbria branch of CAMRA on Saturday 1st November at The Globe Inn on Main Street, Hensingham was productive.

Before long we will be voting for a shortlist for entries for the 2027 Good Beer Guide.

Also we will be voting soon for the next Pub of the Season.

The branch now has good stocks of CAMRA drip mats, for distribution to the many pubs we visit and survey.

It was made known at the meeting that owing to increased demand, Jennings Brewery have purchased a second batch of brewing plant. That will double their current brewing capacity.

Our December branch meeting will be in Cocketmouth. Details will be made known on this website and on the branch Facebook page.

Over the past year a small Cumbrian craft brewery located near to Frizington in West Cumbria has been taking shape and brewing commenced recently.

The project for 2025 is described on the Swig Brewery website as : 'Three lads on an adventure building a small craft brewery and turning all this water into beer'.

The owners are hoping to see their beers on the bar in some West Cumbria pubs before long, including in The Bitter End in Cockermouth.

Each brew produces about 72 gallons of beer, which is a '2 barrel' brew (a brewery barrel of beer = 36 gallons).

Each brew will fill eight 9 gallon 'firkins' of beer a size commonly used in pubs these days.

The initial two ales being produced are The Golden Flarch and The Shady Lush.

The Golden Flarch is a 4.3% IPA style beer

The Shady Lush, weighing in at 4.8% is a full flavoured robust dark bitter beer, pictured below

Sales enquiries : phone 07444 166835 or 07803 248733

Booked in for a meal at this historic coaching inn with family members on Saturday 6th September.

Everything was absolutely tip top.

The 4 house beers were : Esthwaite Bitter, Loweswater Gold, Langdale, Grasmoor Dark Ale.

And although Loweswater Gold is fairly ubiquitous in the area, we agreed that it was outstandingly good in the Kirkstile.

All beers were £4.60 a pint.

A word of warning, unless you have a huge appetite go for the small portion of the house pie. I opted for this large portion of steak pie and had a job getting in the passenger seat of the car afterwards, as it is served with generous portions of homemade chips plus fresh veggies.

The 53rd edition of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide is released on September 25th 2025.

It can be pre-ordered direct from CAMRA.

This is an essential companion for lovers of traditional beer and good pubs.

The listings are based on evaluations from volunteer CAMRA members.

The foreword in the 2026 edition is by comedian and beer lover, Ed Byrne.

The guide also contains a list of all UK breweries and lists all of the real ales they produce

Some CAMRA West Cumbria branch members pictured here enjoying Jennings ale on the riverside balcony at the brewery on the afternoon of Monday 30th June 2025 - this being the inaugural day when beer was pulled at their brewery tap bar. And the beers were in fine fettle. The lady stood next to our branch Chairman, Phil Wooly on the extreme right, is Sue Jefferson, owner of Keswick Brewing Company.

Jennings Head Brewer, Buster Grant conducted a superb, informative brewery tour. Buster is an excellent choice of brewer as he brings a wealth of experience, having held several head brewer positions. He was also a past Chairman of SIBA - the Society of Independent Brewers Association.

Buster is also a long term active CAMRA member and worked as a volunteer at several Great British Beer Festivals in London.

Earlier this year it was announced that Kurt Canfield and Rebecca Canfield had acquired Jennings Brewery. Kurt is the CEO of engineering and technology company Delkia and Rebecca is the owner of wine and spirits company Wine and the Wood.

Kurt confirmed that they are in this project for the long haul and that it is definitely not a short term project. In 2024, Delkia recorded a turnover of over £11m

In attendance at this event at Jennings were two former Jennings Head Brewers.

Paul Theakson was also there, the man who founded Black Sheep Brewery in Masham.

A good time was had by one and all.

The West Cumbria branch of CAMRA has been actively campaigning to save Jennings Brewery from permanent closure since the day it ceased brewing and for the past several years, with many articles published by our small band of activists in the local press, on social media and in this website, plus several media interviews.

Members of the branch also staged an exhibition of Jennings memorabilia in a Cockermouth shop window a while ago.

No other organisation or government body locally has come close to the dedicated input of our active branch members in their dogged effort to save this unique brewery.

With a bit of luck, Jennings will be revived big style and the new owners may even see fit to buy a few local pubs in the course of time to ensure the long term survival of the famous Castle Brewery and the precious jobs therein.

I sold Jennings Bitter in a pub I own in Tynemouth for over 20 years so I’ve had a close business connection with Jennings.

The new owners of the brewery have hit the ground running and have already launched a ‘brewery membership’ scheme allowing members of the public to purchase one of several types of membership in return for certain benefits. Details of this somewhat unusual scheme can be seen on Jennings website. Maybe this is a type of crowdfunding ? I am not in a position to judge or to advise whether or not this is a sound investment.

Prior to about 1980, Jennings Castle Bitter was the name of their popular low gravity, full flavoured, session bitter. Shortly after this it was rebranded simply as Jennings Bitter. This same beer will be launched once again with its former name, so a link with the past.

Jennings Castle Brewery has the unique distinction of being located right next to a Grade 1 medieval castle and it even has its own deep well which supplies chemical-free pure water (or ‘liquor’ as master brewers call it). This pure water imparts a unique flavour to their ales.

Active members of the West Cumbria branch of CAMRA are to be applauded for their dogged long term campaigning to revive brewing at Jennings.

At time of writing, brewing has recommenced at Jennings and beer is conditioning within the brewery and will be on sale shortly in their brewery bar and to the free trade.

Hugh Price

Branch committee member & website editor.

On Saturday 7th June at 3pm the Keswick Brewing Company will be presented with a certificate by Lynda Johnson of the CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain Tasting Panel.

Pictured above is Matthew Power, the Head Brewer.

The presentation will take place in the splendid Keswick Brewery Fox Tap bar.

Director, Sue Jefferson, is delighted that the brewery has scooped this highly prestigious award for their top quality Mild beer.

Please make an effort to attend this presentation and to raise a glass to this gem of a brewery.