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Parliament award for a brave brewer by Willard Clarke, 07/11 Dave Wickett, founder of Kelham Island Brewery in Sheffield, and now confined to a wheelchair, was saluted by parliament on 13 July when the All-Parliamentary Beer Group presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Right: Dave receiving his award from Nigel Evans MP, Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. Adversity is a latecomer in his life. For many years he was the golden boy of craft brewing, a fact underscored when his golden beer, Pale Rider, was named Champion Beer of Britain in 2004. He had been active in the industry long before that award came his way. He was an economics lecturer in Yorkshire when he decided to open a pub in Sheffield in 1981 to pursue his love of good beer. He kept up with the day job until he added a small brewery in 1990 on the day the government announced the Beer Orders and the guest beer policy: "I saw an opening for a small brewery," he said. The brewery was built alongside his pub and he retired from his college and the "dismal science of economics". By now, the brewing bug had bit deep. As well as running the Sheffield site, he also launched a brew-pub, the Old Toad, in Rochester, New York State, a rare outlet for cask beer in the United States. Back home, his first beer, a traditional bitter, went on sale at a local CAMRA beer festival in 1990 to great acclaim. The bitter is still a regular part of his portfolio but he was acutely aware of the changing nature of the beer market and the demand from younger drinkers, women included, who wanted beers with flavour but less hop bitterness. Pale Rider went on to become a benchmark for the golden beer style and winner of the CAMRA national championship in 2004. Demand for his beer forced a move to bigger, purpose-built premises in 1999 with five times the capacity of the original plant. The old building has been converted into a visitor centre and museum that traces the history of brewing in Steel City where he kept the brewing flag flying as the likes of Bass, Wards and Whitbread pulled down the shutters. In 2007 the continuing clamour for his beers forced yet another move to a bigger brewhouse. He is a man generous with his time and talents. When he heard that the new owners of Thornbridge Hall in Derbyshire were keen to install a brewery, he threw himself with great energy into helping them create a plant there. Due in part to his inspiration, Thornbridge has also moved to new and bigger premises to brew its award-winning beers. Adversity struck last year when he was diagnosed with a serious illness that has confined him to a wheelchair. Lesser men would have given up, but he continues to run his business with his wife, son and staff. In May he opened a new brewery at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire where people attending courses on food and cooking can now watch beer being made and match beer with food. It's a measure of the affection felt for him that when, earlier this year, he had to stay in a private nursing home while his own house was remodelled for wheelchair access, the costs of the nursing home were met by friends in the brewing industry and by Sheffield United football club. He is a keen supporter of the club and writes a column for match day programmes. The club has responded by giving him free tickets for home and away matches and free parking at their ground. With his commitment to the finest ingredients and a steely determination that the beer drinker should be served beer at reasonable prices, he was considered a worthy courageous winner of the parliamentary award.

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