Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Hull & East Yorkshire Branch NEWS RELEASE

Tennants of Town-Centre Local are Chosen for Recognition Award

Issued 9th November 2008

Press coverage of this award in the Hull Daily Mail

Bill and Lou Cowen, tenants of the Tiger Inn in Driffield, have received a ‘Committed To Cask Award 2008’ in recognition of there “Continuing Commitment to Quality Real Ale”.

The ‘Committed To Cask Awards’ recognise those licensees in the Hull and East Yorkshire area that have demonstrated a "Continuing Commitment to Quality Real Ale" at a time when they are under great pressure to remove distinctive, tasty real ale and replace it with ‘easily kept’ heavily advertised, bland tasting nitro-keg beers. The awards are for the licensee’s personal commitment and are not a pub award as such. They also acknowledge the specialised art of cellermanship. This is because real ale requires expertise to prepare and maintain it in good condition whereas nitro-keg beer only requires connecting to a mixed-gas cylinder before selling.

The Tiger Inn is situated on Market Place in the town-centre. Bill & Lou Cowen purchased the lease on the pub in May 2005. It is featured in CAMRA’s new Good Beer Guide 2009.

John Smith’s Bitter and 4 or 5 regularly changing guest beers are available at the pub. The guest beers are sourced through SIBA – the Society of Independent Brewers. Locally brewed beers are a speciality, but beers from all over the country are also featured. A beer festival with 20 real ales is held annually on the bank holiday weekend at the end of May

Bill believes that real ale should be properly conditioned in the cellar and therefore he doesn’t rush to put them on, preferring to give them at least 3-5 days in total to settle and condition. The serving temperature is also important, cool but not chilled, so that you can really taste the beer.

The ‘Committed To Cask Award 2008’ was presented to Bill by CAMRA Branch Chairman, Alan Canvess on Saturday 8th November during a Good Beer Guide survey crawl of pubs in the area. A large gathering of regulars and CAMRA members attended, including Chris Robertson, CAMRA’s Pubs Officer for Hull, who nominated Bill and Lou for the award.

The pub attracts a very mixed clientele with no loud music. However, they are very actively involved with the local folk scene through organiser, Margie Mcnaught, and her committee.