The Four Chesnuts in Chichester is having a beer festival from July 21–23. More details are available at the Four Chesnuts website — currently the site still has the beer list from the last festival. There will be a range of Belgian beers this time, too.

edit: The beer list is now up.

The Rising Sun in Epsom is under threat. Please take a moment to sign the petition.

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Greene King have agreed to buy Hardys & Hansons for £270m. No news yet on the fate of the brewery. (Call me Captain Cynical if you like, but I doubt it’ll last long…)

More details in articles at the Publican and the Morning Advertiser.

We’re having another Bus Cruise on June 10, taking in various Hampshire pubs including the Hawkley Inn. More details of the Bus Cruise, including pickup times, can be found here.

Unfortunately it clashes with England v Paraguay, so some sort of portable radio might seem to be in order — we can’t guarantee that the pubs will be showing the match!

The Three Moles, Selham is having another beer festival from June 16–18. The chances are excellent that various branch members will be in attendance throughout the weekend :)

On a more cheering note, the results are in for the Beer of the Festival vote:

 Joint 3rd: *Milestone* Harry Porter & *Oakham* Bishop's Farewell<br />
 2nd: *Dark Star* APA

and the winner is: Millstone True Grit.

Another one bites the dust — Young’s is to close its brewery in Wandsworth (the site is believed to be worth up to £100m) and merge with Charles Wells. The resulting company will be known as Wells & Young’s Brewing Company Ltd.

Another bit of brewing history down the toilet. Will the beers still taste the same? Will the bottled range be as extensive? (And what will happen to all the horses, come to that?)

(from thepublican.com)

(Edit: more in this article in the Times)

You can now view the beer list for Yapton 2006 online. There may be some last-minute changes, as ever, but this is looking fairly definite.

(Edit: and no sooner had I put the list up, then some changes came in! If you checked the list before 2pm Saturday, it’s changed :)

Thank you, Network Rail — there will be engineering works between Barnham and Littlehampton / Angmering / Arundel on the weekend of Yapton Beerex.

This means if you’re not coming from the west, you’ll have to use a substitute bus to get to Barnham station. Sadly, I doubt they’ll be able to drop you off on the way!

Good news for Harveys fans in Midhurst — the Harveys Bottle & Jug is now open, with the full bottled beer range available, as well as draught Best and a seasonal beer. It’ll make a nice change from Veuve Cliquot if you’re heading to Cowdray Park for the polo :)

Opening hours are 9:30 — 17:30 Tuesday to Saturday. It’s apparently next door to the Swan.