The White Hart Margaretting Tye is the  Chelmsford CAMRA Pub of the Year for the second year running. An award that is well-deserved with licensee Liz quite justly saying she was "delighted".
The pub's reputation for good ale has increased ever since ever since Liz took over in 2002  The beer was good enough for the pub to be voted into the CAMRA Good Beer Guide the following year - and they're still in it. This said, the excellent beer is in no small part due to cellarman Barry Mott, who is favourably known as the Smurf.
The White Hart is also renowned for its food and there are two beer festivals a year. The big one is the Summer Beer Festival and this year's dates are 18th June to 22nd.
Better known as the Tiger's Island beer festival, it has a superb reputation, serving over 60 Real Ales in a massive marquee. There's also Champagne and Pimms, live music and BBQ food. Campers are always welcome.
It's a deserved win and the presentation is on 18th June, the first night of the Summer beer festival. All are welcome, so why not come and see what makes an award-winning pub?

Refresh UK, best known for its Wychwood Hobgoblin brand has been bought by Marstons for a sum estimated to in the region of £15m.   The company also produces the Brakspear range of beers, still brewed using the original equipment from its native  home of Henley on Thames. They also own the Manns Brown brand.
  Initially there are no job or brewery losses planned so the brands will get a welcome boost but there must be a high chance of beers morphing or disappearing and ultimately, the brewery closing.
  Brewer, Chris Moss created Hobgoblin in 1988 to celebrate a local landlord's daughter's wedding. A good name backed by the clever tagline "What's the matter lager boy?" inspired ale drinkers. It helped make it a very popular beer - but it was probably their downfall as Marstons wouldn't have been quite so interested without the famous branding.

Rochford Rule-Breaker was  available at The Golden Lion in North Street after it won the CAMRA South-East Essex pub of the year for the second successive year. To mark the win, Crouch Vale brewery created the beer especially for the pub.
The new ale was so named because this is the first year the competition rules have been changed to allow the same pub to win two years in a row.

Budweiser, the US brewer is worried about a "lost generation" of beer drinkers. Strangely that's what's always worried us when people drink rice-brewed brands like Bud. They persist in keeping alive a practice that any self-respecting brewer stopped after the shortages of World War II were no more. Ironically a worldwide shortage could mean that rice becomes too expensive to use in beer.

The SELEX Sports & Social Club in Basildon is South East Essex CAMRA's choice for Club of the Year 2008. It stocks three changing, good value real ales. CAMRA members are welcome and the club is open to new members.