About Our Events
The Shrewsbury and West Shropshire branch of CAMRA have numerous events on each month, including meetings, beer scoring trips and socials. These are listed on our What’s On page. All members are welcome but some events will need to be booked in advance with the organiser, as there may be a limited number of places available. Non-members are welcome at all the events apart from Committee meetings, which are members-only.
For an explanation of each type of event that we organise, please see below. If you have any questions, please get in touch by using the General Enquiries form on the Contact Us page, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Trips Out
Beer Bus Trips
These are trips by minibus either to visit more remote pubs in the branch area that aren’t easily accessible by public transport, or to visit one of the larger towns. As well as being great social events, we also aim to get round quite a few pubs to assess beer quality and to ensure the pub’s details are correct on the WhatPub website.
Beer Bus trips are usually once a month on a Friday evening, and a minibus and driver will be hired to drive us from pub to pub. Occasional Saturday daytime trips are also organised. A different area of west Shropshire is visited each time.
Places on these trips must be pre-booked with the organiser, as minibus places are limited. If the minibus is already booked up, you can ask to go on a waiting list so if a place does become available, the organiser will contact you to let you know. Minibus hire is quite expensive, so a contribution of around £15 is asked from everyone on the trip. Due to the cost of the minibus hire, some trips will be cancelled if not enough people have signed up.
The Friday minibus sets off from outside the Salopian Bar in Shrewsbury at 7pm, and will usually be back in Shrewsbury before midnight. If you have a last train to catch to get home from Shrewsbury, please check with the organiser before booking to see whether it will be possible to get you back in time. Saturday minibuses set off from the Salopian around 11am but this time can vary so please check the event details a couple of days before to get the exact departure time.
Brewery Trips
Occasionally, we have a minibus trip out to one of the breweries in the branch area. We normally get a tour of the brewery, and also get the chance to chat to some of the people who run or work at the brewery.
There is usually no cost to members for the tour, but we still have to pay for the minibus hire, usually £15 each. Places book up on these trips fairly quickly, so advance booking is essential by contacting the organiser.
Public Transport Group (PTG) Trips
These are weekday daytime trips to the larger towns and villages in west Shropshire, in order to assess beer quality and to ensure the pub’s details are correct on the WhatPub website. The results of beer scoring help in determining which pubs make it into the yearly Good Beer Guide, and which get put forward for our Pub of the Year awards.
In January and February, we typically have trips to other places outside of our branch area, such as Liverpool or Chester. We still score beers on these trips but obviously they will be registered against a different CAMRA branch’s pubs. The rest of the year’s trips are always within west Shropshire to score beer in our own pubs.
These trips are done by public transport, and usually start out from Shrewsbury. For people living nearer the destination, they can either join us en-route, or at the far end. There’s no need to book onto these trips, but it helps if you let the organiser know that you are coming, so we can look out for you.
Due to frequently changing bus and train timetables, and pub opening hours, the scheduling of PTG trips may be subject to last minute changes. Please check the details on our What’s On page the day before the trip to get the latest information.
Even though we aim to get round quite a few pubs on these trips, they are quite relaxed as far as drinking goes. A lot of people just drink a half pint in each pub, enough to score the beer and check out the pub. These trips are also very sociable events and are a great way to get to know other branch members if you are new to the branch.
Meetings
Branch Meetings
Branch meetings are monthly meetings where committee members are able to update everybody on recent news affecting the branch and answer any questions. Also, branch members can also bring up anything they would like to discuss with the rest of the branch.
Everyone is welcome at these meetings, especially new or prospective members. We are all very friendly and there is no pressure to get involved further with branch activities.
For more information on what happens in Branch meetings, please see the Branch Management section in the Our Branch page.
Committee Meetings
There is a committee meeting every month, and these meetings are used to discuss branch business. They are generally attended by committee members but all branch members are welcome.
For more information on what happens in Committee meetings, please see the Branch Management section in the Our Branch page.
Festival Working Party
We have monthly meetings throughout most of the year of the Festival Working Party to discuss the organisation of the Shrewsbury Beer Festival. These increase to fortnightly meetings in the two months leading up to the festival in September.
Anyone is welcome at these meetings, usually held in a pub in Shrewsbury on a Tuesday evening. Please come along if you are interested in how the festival is organised, or if you feel you can offer any kind of expertise or help.
Social Events
Branch socials are mainly sit down get-togethers in a nominated pub, and are a bit more relaxed than pub trail-based trips. They are a great opportunity to sit and chat with other CAMRA members, and enjoy decent beer.
Walkabouts
We have regular pub trails round Shrewsbury town centre, usually focusing on pubs in a particular area of the town. These are partly social events and partly for beer scoring. They happen roughly every couple of months and are usually on a Saturday afternoon to allow people to come who can’t usually make the weekday Public Transport Group trips.
Beer Festivals
Shrewsbury Beer Festival
Once a year we organise and run the Shrewsbury Beer Festival, which is usually on for 4 days in September. For more information on the festival, please see the Festival page.
We are always looking for volunteers to help out, so if you can spare a bit of time, that would be much appreciated. For information on the types of things that volunteers can help with, please see the Getting Involved page.
Recent Events
To see photos from some of our recent events, please click on the button below.
Socials