BRANCH REPRESENTATIVES
The people in these 'Branch Representative' pages form part of the current South Bedfordshire CAMRA Branch Committee.
Please feel free to email any of us or approach us if you see us in your pub. Landlords, you can always try a bribe of good ale/cider for that extra bit of publicity!
Newsletter Editor - Steve Pullan (Contact by email)
Profile:
Born: 4th October 1961 in Hayes, Middlesex
Joined CAMRA: 1982 (?) Can’t remember exactly when but it was a long time ago
Home: Houghton Regis
Occupation: Market Research
Favourite local pubs: Oddfellows Arms, Toddington, Globe, Dunstable
Favourite Ales: Porters/stouts and light hoppy ales. Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale is a current favourite.
My formative drinking days were in the Blue Lion in Bracknell and my alcohol intake consisted mainly of keg JC (John Courage) and rum and blacks. A University education in Leeds followed which turned out to be an education into ale. In the late 70’s/early 80’s the Leeds pub scene was dominated by Tetley with small amounts of Webster’s and Sam Smiths...and then there was The Eagle in North Street. It was a CAMRA Investments pub (yes CAMRA owned/leased four pubs in those days) and The Eagle was an oasis in that Tetley desert. 10 real ales including three or four of Timothy Taylor’s finest ales helped to convert me into a fully fledged real ale drinker (not that I took much persuading).
I joined CAMRA ‘officially’ after leaving University and also got a job with a Market Research company in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire in 1984. I became active within the Mid-Chilterns branch of CAMRA shortly after.
In 1988 I got married to Sharon (my non-beer drinking wife!) and we moved to Houghton Regis where we have lived ever since.
I became active within South Beds CAMRA and one of my first introductions to South Beds CAMRA life was the last Beer Festival held at Luton College. My only memory of that event was straining vast yeast lumps from the Blue Anchor Special through a J Cloth – needless to say we never served it to customers but it tasted fine! I have worked every Luton Beer Festival since.
I joined the committee as Membership Secretary sometime in the mid 1990’s, and in 2005 switched jobs to become Newsletter Editor, replacing Dave Francis who had occupied the post for many years (even though he’d moved back to Wales in 1999!). I’d never written a newsletter before, but even though it takes a good amount of time to produce it, I strangely and masochistically quite enjoy it.
As well as real ale I am a devotee of Belgian Beer and in particular the Lambic family of beers (Cantillon Kriek is possibly my favourite beer) and have previously organised eight local CAMRA beer trips to various cities in Belgium.
Outside of CAMRA I enjoy holidays and seeing the world and have an ambition to celebrate my 50th birthday in a few years time in Machu Pichu in Peru.
I also enjoy walking and cycling and am a keen Arsenal fan, but sadly of the armchair variety (have you tried getting tickets for the Emirates?)
Other Branch Representatives: -
Chairman - Roy Chatto
Secretary, Webmaster & Pubs Officer - Mike Coombes
Membership Secretary - Ros Coombes
Newsletter Editor - Steve Pullan
Branch Contact and Treasurer - Dave Oakley
Social Secretary - Paul Sharp
Young Members Secretary - Adam Croft
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