by Rich Gabe
West Dorset Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) are pleased to announce that the Sailor’s Return in East Chaldon has won the CAMRA Beer Drinkers ‘Pub of the Year’ award.
This is a new award that reflects the pub in the West Dorset CAMRA region which consistently serves the best well kept cask conditioned real ale and has different qualification quality’s than our Pub of the Year winner. It is a unique award that CAMRA members judge throughout the year through a national beer scoring system via the CAMRA website “Whatpub?” Members can enter a score of 0.5 to 5 for the cask ale they are drinking, 0.5 being the worst undrinkable beer possible to the rarely awarded 5 which is the perfect pint. Every month the scores are presented at CAMRA branch meetings (which all members can attend) by an unbiased coordinator and throughout the past year the Sailor’s Return has led the way, standing out as consistently good.
On hearing of winning the award, Sailor’s Return owner and landlord Tom Brachi said:
“We’re very surprised, but thrilled to be awarded this accolade!
“As much as it’s CAMRA member’s recognition of quality, hopefully it reflects well on some great people in the South West producing a lovely product. Bar one well known Irish product, all our beers, lagers and ciders are made here on the South Coast and, in our eyes, we want to support these great people without the need to look at larger or international brands. Cheers to you guys!”
West Dorset CAMRA Chairman Bruce Mead said:
“This is a new award for this year which recognises the pub that serves real ale of the highest standard across the year. The Sailor’s Return is a thoroughly deserving winner and I can’t wait to visit again soon to sample one of their excellently kept beers.”
This award is run in conjunction with the launch and publication of the best selling CAMRA ‘Good Beer Guide 2025’, available now from all good bookshops or the internet, which is on its 51st edition. The book this year has two special cover variants which soap fans will love: Coronation Street’s ‘The Rovers Return’ and Emerdale’s ‘The Woolpack’! The book is split into all the counties of the UK and west Dorset will feature around 32 of its pubs that serve consistently presented cask ale alongside the allocation from the East Dorset CAMRA branch. The publication also incorporates a comprehensive directory of the UK’s breweries and a cask ale index.
Alongside the award winning Sailor’s Return, some other pubs in our area that made the 2025 Good Beer guide are the Rock Point and Pilot Boat inn Lyme Regis, our current West Dorset CAMRA Pub & Cider Pub of the Year, the Woodman in Bridport, to Dorchester’s Copper St Brewery Tap and the Convivial Rabbit micro pub, with the Weymouth and surrounding area offering the Spice Ship, Preston, William Henry, Weymouth and the George Inn, Portland. The guide is not just town based but also gives direction to rural village pubs such as the Spyway, Askerswell and the White Lion in Broadwindsor to the west of the county, while to the north the Kings Arms, Thornford and Bradford Abbas. The Piddle Valley area gives us the Thimble Inn at Piddlehinton and the Gaggle of Geese at Buckland Newton.
The Sailor’s Return, East Chaldon, Beer Drinkers Pub 2024. Publicans Amelia & Tom Brachi with Bruce Mead, West Dorset CAMRA Chairman, centre.
