On Saturday 16 May, Cornwall Branch had its regular business meeting. This time, we were at the Hole in the Wall, Bodmin, the 2025 SW Regional Pub of the Year.

Landlord Steve Hall kindly let us have the upstairs room for the meeting. On the bar, we had a choice of Sharp’s Special (yes, I know that it is officially called Sea Fury), Tintagel Castle Gold, Bluntrock Ambassador, Wye Valley HPA (Hereford Pale Ale), Draught Bass, and Theakston Barista Coffee Stout.

I drank the Barista (stouts are among my favourite styles), the pleasant HPA and the Ambassador. I must admit that I associate Bluntrock with canned craft beers, but this was a revelation. The clue is in the name – AmBASSador. It was a cracking traditional 4% bitter in the Burton style. The Bluntrock pump clip image looked like Fred Dibnah beating hell out of a dustbin with a hammer, but on closer inspection, it was the Bluntrock mascot as a cooper making a cask!

So, to business. Our branch magazine, One & Ale has been relaunched as a glossy colour format in A5 printed size. It has been well received in the pubs and volunteers have stepped in to deal with distribution. Future social events were announced including a CAMRAmble. The forthcoming new pub beer quality scoring system was explained. The Branch reaches its 50th anniversary next year and we started thinking of ideas to celebrate it (probably something to do with drinking beer). The Pub of the Season for Spring 2026 was voted on – the winner being the Star at Crowlas.

Business over, we enjoyed a social for the rest of the afternoon. It just so happened that we were joined by members from Exeter & East Devon Branch, who chose the Hole in the Wall for their post-beer festival volunteers’ party. A long way to come but a very wise choice!

Cheers,

Steve Barber