The Rutland Campaign for Real Ale team (CAMRA) hosted their second Rutland Licensee's Social Evening on Sunday 14 May at The Grainstore Brewery Tap in Oakham.

The event was attended by licensees from a broad cross-section of both village and town pubs from across Rutland.

The evening was not only a success for CAMRA members in attendance, but saw two local pubs recognised in the prestigious Pub of the Year award. 

The winner of this award was The Grainstore Brewery and Tap, while The Plough Inn in Caldecott were runners-up.

Peter accepting his award for The Grainstore. Image credit: Rutland CAMRA.

Read more about The Grainstore's recent awards here.

Chair of Rutland CAMRA, Rich Harris, also updated those attending with news on the latest branch activities including the upcoming 10th Rutland CAMRA Beer Festival 22-25 June to be held at The County Museum in Oakham and the much-anticipated re-launch of the branch magazine Tiny Pint.

Find out more about the upcoming beer festival here.

Time was also spent explaining Rutland CAMRA's pub and club awards schemes to those in attendance, along with how pubs were selected for entry into their Good Beer Guide.

Broad discussions on a variety of matters continued and a social media initiative coordinated by Rutland CAMRA for the sharing of events and information amongst licensees and available to their customers is to be progressed. 

Rich Harris said afterwards: "This is exactly the sort of thing we had in mind when we decided to host these events. Rutland CAMRA want to support and help preserve all of our pubs in any way we can, and we need to be continually looking at new ways of doing this in addition to our traditional pub awards and Good Beer Guide entries."

The very enjoyable evening concluded with the presentation of Rutland CAMRA's annual awards to their Pub of the Year The Grainstore Brewery Tap, Oakham and the runner-up The Plough Inn, Caldecott. 

Debbie and Gene from The Plough Inn welcoming their award from Rich and the team. Image credit: Rutland CAMRA.

Read more about The Plough Inn here.

Special mention was also made of Empingham Cricket & Social Club which was awarded Rutland CAMRA's inaugural Club of the Year award in recognition of the continuing excellence of the range and quality of ale served.

Congratulations to all involved.

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