It’s human nature to collect things. Many’s the youngster who has started his or her teens by meticulously logging locomotive numbers.

It could be coins or stamps we collect or teddy bears and ticket stubs and we all bring souvenirs back from holiday, covering fridge fronts with garish magnets.

And it could be argued that climbers collect mountains not out of pure enjoyment but “because they’re there”. There’s a certain logic and excitement to collecting and objects dear to us make us feel comfortable.

But without probing too deeply into psychology, let’s revel in those who hoard things, who catalogue and compartmentalise, who call themselves numismatists, lepidoperists and bibliophiles, and who believe that philately will get you everywhere.

Matt Debinski collects brewery and beer badges. His isn’t a vast haul, as he’s only been at it for a couple of years, but he’s got the bug. He is also toying with miniature beer glasses – the real things take up too much room.

Matt and another Newcastle-based beer glass collector are the UK coordinators of the inaugural Brewery Collectables World Convention which will take place in Martin in Slovakia in October. Collectors from all corners of the globe will assemble there over four days to swap and barter and buy and sell breweriana that will add value and significance to their collections.

Matt, originally from Poland, was working as a hotel receptionist in Zywiec when he met an avid beer glass collector from Newcastle. They kept in touch and when he decided to come to the UK, he looked him up in Newcastle – beer glass collection and all.

“It was a big shock for me seeing them,” says Matt. “I thought it was some kind of joke at first. Then we went to the pub and he introduced me to real ale – I’d heard about it but had never tried it.

“I thought it was lovely, smashing, and then I saw there was a Campaign For Real Ale (Camra) meeting coming up, so I signed up straight away and started to try all kinds of beers.”

Matt – proudly quoting Camra membership number 331396 – is still the only Pole in the Tyneside & Northumberland branch.

The Brewery Collectables World Convention will be hosted by the Martin Porter Club in the town that lies close to the Polish and Czech Republic borders. It will attract collectors of every hue; enthusiasts who garner beer mats, bottle labels, beer glasses, crown caps, openers, key rings, playing cards, pump clips, cans, bottles and postcards.

The organisers, led by former army general Jan Pokrieva, have arranged accommodation – some of it ridiculously inexpensive – as well as transport from hotels to the Martin sports hall where the event is centred, and have put a social programme together, leaving nothing to chance.

Collectors are expected from virtually every nation in Europe, plus representatives from Australia, US, Canada, Brazil and Argentina have already booked. Several small, independent Slovak and Czech breweries will be serving their beers, which is presumably part of the social programme. With beer in Slovakia costing around €1 (86p) per half-litre, it’s yet another reason to
be there.

“People form international bonds through collecting,” says Matt, who works in a factory and saves up all of his holidays so he can explore Europe in blocks. “I enjoy living in Newcastle – I love the culture and have met a lot of people.

“I love Newcastle Brown Ale too. I wasn’t really that interested in beer in Poland even though our town – Zywiec – is very proud of its brewery and its beer.

“In Martin there will be a dozen or so languages spoken around one table – and after several beers that becomes the same language.”

Martin is a centre of culture in Slovakia. It has a national library and a major history museum. Several of its townsfolk – invited by Matt Debinski – have visited the Newcastle Beer Festival, driving all the way.

Matt says: “We have beer festivals in Poland which people go to mainly for the music, but they’ll taste some different beers while they’re there. Here the beer festivals are different – nothing but beer.

“I got into real ale first then got interested in the manufacture of beer, then the history – now anywhere I go I always look out
for real ale pubs.

“My first badge was from Young’s Brewery. I collected badges when I was young but they were rock and roll and things like that. I’d like to start a collection of glasses, some are really amazing, but they take up so much space. Badges are easier, but I collect mini beer glasses, which a lot of breweries produce.”

Perhaps collectors are obsessives, but being passionate about your subject is to be admired. There are people who accumulate manhole covers and cereal boxes. There are also those who stockpile collecting guides. Brewery badges and miniature glasses seem quite normal after that.

Matt Debinski is assistant UK coordinator for the Brewery Collectables World Convention in Martin, Slovakia (October 3-6). If enough people are interested in heading there with their collections he would happily organise a coach. In the first instance, register your interest at

info@cheersnortheast.co.uk 

For further information visit www.porterclub.szm.sk

Tyne Bank Brewery is offering three-bottle gift pack for Fathers’ Day (June 16) priced £8.50 and offering a tour option including T-shirt and glass for £25. The tour is planned for July 7.

Brewery owner Julia Austin says: “We are also getting involved in the Ouseburn Festival on 6/7th July 6 and 7, opening up the brewery for tours and tasting on the first day.

“We will also have something a little bit different for the children and children at heart with Professor Brainstorm doing science experiments related to brewing – including making alcoholic and non-alcoholic ice-cream. The price is £5 per adult, children free.”

Julia also says the 9 Diamonds brewed for The Free Trade Inn on speedway nights is going down a storm and may become a permanent feature.

Alarming news from Pete Fenwick of Mithril Ales, based in Aldbrough St John, near Darlington. Pete has been found to have infringed a trademark for a popular and award-winning beer he produces, Route A66 (the road runs near the brewery).

He says: “I received a letter from a firm of patent attorneys stating I was infringing their client’s community trademark Route 66. Their client, Lodestar Anstalt, had registered it for use in Europe for alcoholic, non alcoholic drinks and sodas.

“It was requested that I cease using the trademark on my beer Route A66, and I was also invited to offer a proposal for financial compensation.

“From internet searches we found there has been a protracted legal case in Australia involving Lodestar Anstalt and whiskey names Wild Geese and Wild Turkey.

“As a small microbrewery, I unfortunately had to take a pragmatic approach, and decided to change the beer name to A66.

“The beer is exactly the same but the pump clip has been redesigned.

“Obviously I’m not suggesting that trademarks should be infringed – but I was probably more upset that the letter stated ‘you are providing a premium lager under the sign Route 66’.”

Sacked workers at Cains Brewery in Liverpool have called for a boycott of the company’s beer and pubs following last month’s closure of the brewery.

The plant has been mothballed while the owners, Ajmail and Sudarghara Dusanj and their families, go ahead with plans to turn the redbrick Victorian site (above) into a Brewery Village. The £50m project is set to include a hotel, cinema, flats, food market and spa, creating 80 new jobs.

Thirty eight sacked employees – half the workforce – held a demonstration outside Cain’s flagship Doctor Duncan pub in Liverpool, supported by their union, Unite, which backed the sacked workers’ demand for a boycott. The brothers are in talks with another brewery to see if some of their beers can be produced under license.

The workers claim they have not been paid all the money owed them since the Dusanj brothers closed the brewery. Though some had worked for Cains for 20 years, they were told by phone not to report for duty. Our information is they have not been paid redundancy or holiday money or all their back pay.

Instead, managing director Sudarghara Dusanj told the dismissed workers to apply to the Government’s Redundancy Payment Scheme – which usually only pays workers when a company has failed.

A spokesman for Cains said the brothers “deeply regretted the loss of jobs but were forced to close due a decline in supermarket orders”.

A new whisky distillery is set to open in the heart of The Lake District. The Lakes Distillery, the first of its kind in Cumbria in more than 100 years, is planned for the edge of picturesque Bassenthwaite Lake – and could create a much needed boost to the local economy.

The £2.5m venture, which has been founded by a consortium of private investors who include Nigel Mills, who sold his North East chain of newsagents to Tesco, and Geoff Hodgson, former chief executive of the Federation Brewery (and before that marketing director at Newcastle Breweries). It will be headed by Paul Currie (pictured above), co-founder of the award-winning Isle of Arran distillery. He said: “The water is ideal, flowing from a source at Sprinkling Tarn – one of the most beautiful in Cumbria – through the foothills of Scafell Pike which are rich in peat, and will give the whisky a unique flavor and depth. Combine that with the purity of the air and you have the perfect raw ingredients for distilling whisky.”

The distillery will be housed in a converted Victorian model farm and aims to produce around 300,000 bottles of single malt whisky per year with the creation of 27 jobs. The development of the site – with visitor centre, bar, bistro and shop – is scheduled to start this summer with plans to begin whisky production in December.

Villagers’ hopes of buying their local pub got off to a flying start with more than £60,000 pledged for the share purchase in three weeks – £20,000 of that within the first 24 hours.

Potential shareholders at the Rose & Crown at Slaley, Northumberland, need an initial target of £130,000 to be raised by July 24 to proceed. Slaley Community Assets Trust (SCAL) is seeking a minimum of £500 each from investors. If they raise that, a mortgage will bring up the remaining money towards the final £250,000 purchase.

SCAL director and steering group chairman Norman Watson says: “We need to raise the £130,000 by July 24 as we have to complete in August – and we are confident we will.

“We have already got the mortgage arranged, so it is now a question of raising the money. I would guess we need around 160 people.”

Brewery owners Marston’s agreed to sell the 18th-century coaching inn with Slaley Community Trust lodging an application to make it a community asset. The village co-operative would appoint a manager and oversee essential renovations, with the pub restaurant hopefully being back up and running by the end of this year. In the long term, the villagers hope to see the Rose & Crown used as a meeting place for clubs and societies.

“This is such an exciting plan,” says David Allsop, steering group secretary, “but we do need help, not just from local villages but the wider society of people who value the whole experience of pubs serving good food and real ales at affordable prices. But we need to act quickly.”

More information and details of how to apply for shares at www.slaleyroseandcrown.co.uk or phone 01434 673686

 When Glasgow’s West Brewery decided to expand its production facilities the easiest and cheapest route would have been a shiny new industrial unit. 

But these folks – headed by German-born Petra Wetzel (pictured above at the Hotel du Vin, Newcastle) – love a challenge, so they have settled on the derelict Port Dundas Cooperage, close to the M8 motorway.

This is due to be up and running during 2014, but don’t worry, the brewhouse and beerhall at Glasgow Green will remain.

June’s events for the West team include having a ringside seat for the Stone Roses concert on June 15 on Glasgow Green. The restaurant is fully booked but the beerhall and garden should be popular (understatement).

View Petra Wetzel’s Cooperage tour at www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yw_rkCr3vo

 A folk singer steeped in the traditions of travelling musicians has been on a marathon series of gigs at pubs along Hadrian’s Wall.

Steve Bonham’s “Get Your Boots on Tour” started at the Ireby Music Festival in Cumbria on May 25 and will end in Wallsend on December 1, with performances having taken place at the Borders Beer Festival, Bellingham, as well as The Robin Hood at Eastwell Houses on the B6318 Military Road; the Twice Brewed Inn, Twice Brewed; the Boatside Inn, Warden, Hexham; The Angel Inn, Corbridge, and The Swan at Heddon on the Wall.

Steve, who has walked from venue to venue, is promoting his latest single “Steady” which, like the album, is in aid of ataxia, a progressive neurological disorder for which there is no cure. It affects motor co-ordination, walking, vision and speech. A musician friend of Steve’s developed ataxia which curtailed his ability to perform.

Steve says: “I want to do something about this ataxia thing – so people don’t think those affected are drunk or stupid.”

Steady is available for free download with donations to Ataxia UK (www.ataxia.org.uk) at www.stevebonham.net/steady or to view http://youtu.be/eHg-x4ubk3g

Imagine the surprise that Bishop Auckland-based brewer Phil Whitfield got when an order dropped in to supply the House of Commons.

Phil, proprietor of the Black Paw Brewery took a call for his beer after the Archbishop of Canterbury put in a request for it to be supplied to the Strangers’ Bar at Westminster.

Archbishop Justin Welby, who until his recent promotion was the Bishop of Durham, officially opened the Black Paw Brewery in June last year and has since developed an interest in Black Paw ales – though he has always been passionate about all things North East. When Phil heard of Bishop Justin’s promotion to Archbishop of Canterbury he started planning a new brew in celebration, aptly naming it Archbishop’s Ale (4.1% abv), a dark ruby bitter brewed with English hops with rich malty flavours and a satisfying bitter finish.

“Obviously, it’s a tremendous compliment to have Archbishop’s Ale at the House of Commons and we’re thrilled to have one of our beers on show to all the MPs around the country,” he says. “It’s a great boost for brewing in the North East and we’re very grateful to Archbishop Justin for all his support.”

Phil visited the House of Commons last month to meet Archbishop Justin and Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman at the Strangers’ Bar.

He says: “It was great fun being there and seeing people not only drinking Archbishop’s Ale but thoroughly enjoying it too. It made me feel very proud for the North East.

“Justin and his entourage spent about an hour with us and even with all the things he has to do he found time to tweet how much he enjoyed seeing us again.”

Phil, an ex-manager in the NHS, started brewing at the Black Paw Brewery in July 2011 and supplies pubs in the region and all around the country with his cask ale.

 With labels by illustrator Ralph Steadman and the “gonzo” spirit of the late Hunter S Thompson, Flying Dog is definitely not your average brewery. 

Both were friends of Flying Dog (now based in Maryland, US) founder George Stranahan while the illustrations and words have become part of beer folklore.

“Every time we receive label art from Ralph we’re like kids on Christmas morning,” says the company’s chief executive Jim Caruso. “The artwork for Raging Bitch was extra special to us because it was for a beer commemorating Flying Dog’s 20th anniversary. We absolutely loved it from the moment we saw it.”

Caruso offers these sentiments in the foreword of a new, 160-page catalogue of Ralph Steadman’s work – including the original artwork for Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA – that accompanies STEADman @ 77, a retrospective of the artist’s work over the past 50 years and a present-day celebration of his wild creativity.

“We are honored and forever grateful that Ralph has left his indelible mark on our labels for the past 19 years,” says Caruso. “He is not only an artist, but also a principled genius and possibly the one true artist in the world. Thank you, Ralph, for making a noticeable dent in the universe. And for your friendship.”

STEADman @ 77 is at the Cartoon Museum, Little Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1A 2HH until July 21