Barrel rolling championships
Burtonians will be rolling out the barrel to celebrate the return of the town’s annual Barrel Rolling Championships on Saturday 5 October 2013 at the National Brewery Centre.
The Barrel Rolling Championships form part of a wider celebration of brewing heritage which will be supported by MP Andrew Griffiths, the Lord Mayor of Burton and SIBA (the Society of Independent Brewers), culminating in the Independent Brewers Beer Festival.
Organised by the National Heritage Brewery Trust, the competition will see teams from across the country compete for the prestigious title of Barrel Rolling Champions.
The winners will be presented with the coveted original silver trophy, an ornate trophy that was donated by the Burton Chamber of Trade for the first barrel rolling race which was originally held on 5 May 1933. 12 men from local breweries competed in the race which went down Station Street and High Street from the Town Hall to the centre of Burton. The first winner was employed by James Eadie and the trophy was last used in 1945.
The Barrel Rolling Championships were reintroduced at the National Brewery Centre in 2012 and have since gone from strength to strength. In 2013, competitors will compete in Men’s Singles, Ladies Singles and Mixed Doubles categories and the circuit will run around the National Brewery Centre.
Commenting on the competition, the Lord Mayor of Burton Michael Rodgers said: “It’s fantastic to see the original trophy being used again as this is a great piece of brewing heritage. It would be good to see as many teams from Burton as possible taking on the challenge to compete for the title of the UK’s Barrel Rolling Champions.”
The competition coincides with a special Brewery Worker’s Reunion Lunch which will take place at the National Brewery Centre on Friday 4 October at 12:30. The lunch is open to any former brewery employees and will provide a great opportunity to get together and celebrate old times. Tickets are priced at £9.50 which includes a sit down lunch and a pint of beer and are available from www.siba.co.uk/nbf.
The celebrations will continue on Friday 4 October from 4pm to 11pm and Saturday 5 October from 10:30am to 11pm with the Independent Brewers Beer Festival, where 25 brewers from across the country will on hand to serve up a selection of their finest beers and talk to customers about how the brewing process. Live entertainment together with food and a superb selection of real ales, will make this a great weekend.
Keith Norris, Chair of the National Brewery Heritage Trust and current Men’s Barrel Rolling Champion said: “I am really pleased that we have been able to re-establish the Barrel Rolling Championships in partnership with the National Brewery Centre and am looking forward to being challenged for my title! We hope that former brewery employees will really get behind the special reunion lunch in the capital of brewing and enjoy meeting up with colleagues and catching up on old times. The celebrations will finish in style with the region’s best beer festival. Hopefully, it will be a fitting tribute to Burton’s brewing heritage. I would like to thank ESBC for allowing us to use the original silver trophy and Marstons for providing the timber barrels.”
To register for the Barrel Rolling Championships and to find out more about the Ex Brewery Employees Lunch visit www.siba.co.uk/nbf.
For more information on the Brewers Beer Festival visit www.nationalbrewerycentre.co.uk
ENDS
