A Brierley Hill pub has been announced as the Dudley and South Staffordshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale's pub of the year.

The Vine, also known as the Bull and Bladder, in Delph Road came out on top in judging by branch members.

A winner's certificate will be presented to the pub, part of the chain of Batham's pubs on a date to be arranged.

The Vine is next to the Batham's brewery and has established a reputation for great lunchtime food.

The runner-up in the competition was the 2024 winner - the Beacon Hotel in Bilston Street, Sedgley.

Another former winner The Bird in Hand in John Street, Wordsley took third place.

The branch is presenting its rural/South Staffordshire pub of the year award to The Cross Inn in Church Street, KInver, for the second year in a row.

There are nearly 350 active pubs in the branch area. Beer scores for all of them are taken into account in determining the finalists.

The finalists are then assessed for quality of beer, decor, welcome, community focus and alignment with CAMRA values.

The Vine will now be judged in the West Midlands county round and the Cross in the Staffordshire county round of CAMRA's national competition.

The former Wheelie Thirsty in Old Hill is opening as The Old Bank on Friday 28 March from midday.

The micro bar in Halesowen Road was previously owned by Fixed Wheel Brewery. It has undergone refurbishment ahead of opening under its new name.

It will continue to offer cask ale.

We're on a trip to Lichfield for the last Saturday of this month. The cost of the travel is £15 - although this is free to anyone who volunteered at Dudley Winters Ales Fayre.

There are pick-ups in Kingswinford, Dudley and West Bromwich.

See https://dudley.camra.org.uk/viewnode.php?id=246174

All the minutes from our branch meetings are available to you via the Branch meeting minutes page You will need to log in via your CAMRA membership number at the bottom left to view and download, however, before you can access them.

The Mill in Windmill Street, Upper Gornal is currently closed.

It is one of Holden's Brewery's pubs and the brewery is currently recruiting for a new licensee/manager.

The pub will then be re-opening. No date for that has yet to be announced.

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The Dudley and South Staffordshire branch of CAMRA has presented a cheque for £750 to Action Heart at Russell's Hall Hospital, Dudley.

The money was raised from donations of unused beer tokens and other donations from members at the 2024 Dudley Winter Ales Fayre.

Collection tins at the festival raised £67 which had already been received by Action Heart. Action Heart was chosen as the festival charity after branch member Terry Astley began rehabilitation there after a heart operation.

Chairman John Corser, festival organiser Robin Shields and treasurer Andy Cartwright visited Action Heart with Terry to hand over the money to director Russell Tipson after he gave them a tour of the facilities at the centre which is a registered charity.

The centre has more than 130 pieces of exercise equipment that are used by up to 300 patients a day on cardiac rehabilitation or lifestyle management programmes.

It has been decided that Action Heart will again be the festival charity for the 2025 Dudley Winter Ales Fayre which will run in Dudley Town Hall from November 27 to 29. February is also Action Heart's annual appeal month.

Details of how donations can be made to the charity and how to get involved as a volunteer are on the website at www.actionheart.com

Dates have been set for the 2025 Wolverhampton Summer Festival of Beer and Cider.

It will be running in the Newhampton Arts Centre in Dunkley Street from July 24 to 26.

This year the Dudley & South Staffordshire branch hopes to work closely with the Wolverhampton branch to support this Black Country summer festival and encourage their members to help with the Dudley Winter Ales Fayre as the Black Country's winter festival.

Branch members will be welcomed to help with setting up and volunteering at the summer event. We also hope to share skills between the two festivals.

The next planning meeting for the summer festival is taking place upstairs at the Lych Gate Tavern in Queen Square, Wolverhampton on Sunday, February 23 at 4pm.

The first planning meeting for DWAF 2025 is on Tuesday, January 28 in the Courthouse, Dudley at 7pm.

Dates for DWAF will be November 27 to 29 - once again in Dudley Town Hall.

Any branch members that would like to help will be welcome at the January 28 meeting.

After an announcement by CAMRA today, we're pleased to show our new logo (albeit in a colour variant): In time, our website will be updated to reflect the new design.

A beer brewed in Sedgley has been announced as the Campaign for Real Ale's Champion Beer of the West Midlands.

Dark Ruby Mild from Sarah Hughes Brewery came out on top following a year of judging of different categories at festivals across the region.

The six per cent strength ale also won in the red, brown, old and strong milds category. Another of the beers brewed by Sarah Hughes at the Beacon Hotel in Bilston Street also won gold in the barley wine and strong ales category.

Snowflake - eight per cent - had won the national winter beer competition for CAMRA earlier in the year.

Operations manager and director Simon Massey was presented with the gold awards at West Midlands CAMRA's regional awards at the Firs Suite in Codsall on Friday.

Regional director Shelly Bentley announced Best BItter from Brierley Hill-based Batham's as silver winner in the Champion Beer competition with Titanic Brewery's Plum Porter winning bronze.

The Firs is the West Midlands club of the year for CAMRA and is through to the final four of the national competition with the overall winner to be announced in the new year.