Branch Contacts

Mike Coombes - Branch Secretary, Branch Contact & Festival Organiser

Click here to email Mike

Born in 1969 in Luton I missed out on the infamous Watneys Red Barrel days but I still started my drinking career on the ubiquitous rubbish lagers due to lack of education I suppose. I thought a change might be in order and tried Whitbread Best (keg) and decided it was OK. I discovered real ale by frequenting the Cock's 'dedicated' real ale bar - it was amazing that I wasn't put off for life considering that half of what they sold there was virtually vinegar! The same applied to my next regular haunt, the Fedora and Firkin in Chapel Street. I stuck with it however, I got hooked on the Firkin ideal and organised several pub crawls around the many London Firkins (and no, I was never even a full time student). Until 2007 I lived in the Leagrave area of Luton but now I've become a country squire (I like to think) in the far north of our region in Maulden. One day I'll get time to have another go at the art of full-mash brewing but in the mean time we have had a lot of success with making our own cider.

Branch Posts Held:

I'm also the CAMRA Area Organiser for Bedfordshire - which basically means that I try to help out the CAMRA East Anglia Regional Director who has twenty-two branches in six counties to look after.

I try to get to as many different pubs as possible throughout the year - especially those in the Good Beer Guide - and not just in our area.

My other interests are canal boating (lots of good pubs on the canals), bird watching (not twitching) cycling (no, I'm not THE intrepid cyclist) and walking.