Hamish Champ: Chew on Champ's Christmas Challenge!

In case you'd not noticed it's nearly Christmas - ho ho bloody ho - and in an effort to get into the festive spirit I thought I'd go with my own take on the Christmas quiz.

Below you'll find 20 questions on subjects close to - or in the vague vicinity of - my heart during the past year, stuff that has been in the news or related to the news in some way. Or just questions for the hell of it.

Have a go and, if you feel so inclined, send me your answers (via the usual email address). Alternatively you can ignore the whole thing and do something far more interesting with your time. The choice, as they say, is yours.

1.​ BrewDog, the feisty brewer from Fraserburgh, produces what it claims is the world's strongest beer, 'Tactical Nuclear Penguin', at 32 per cent ABV. However not all its products are so 'chunky'. One, Punk IPA, is described by the company as a "post modern classic". What is Punk IPA's ABV?

a) 5.5 per cent

b) Six per cent

c) 8.2 per cent

2.​ What was the combined total of the remuneration packages paid to the chief executives of Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns in 2009?

a) £1,205,000

b) £1,310,000

c) £1,492,000

3.​ Tory MP and (then) prospective culture minister Tobias Ellwood told an audience of ALMR members earlier this year that his Bournemouth East constituency was regularly 'invaded' by people from which UK town?

a) Glasgow

b) Liverpool

c) Belfast

4.​ How many pubs did Punch Taverns sell in the first 16 weeks of its current financial year?

a) 289

b) 301

c) 352

5. ​ Midlands brewer Marston's announced a rights issue in July. How much did it hope to raise by the move?

a) £176m

b) £193m

c) £211m

6.​ Following Heineken's takeover of Scottish & Newcastle, who did the Dutch brewer install to run the group's new UK business?

a) Stefan Orlowski

b) Jerzei Balowski

c) Jacob Bronowski

7.​ Rounded up to the nearest thousand, how many UK pubs does Brulines claim its 'controversial' beer flow monitoring system is fitted into?

a) 19,000

b) 22,000

c) 27,000

8.​ Which former Punch Taverns executive joined nightclub operator Luminar in March this year?

a) Ronald MacDonald

b) Robert MacDonald

c) Malcolm MacDonald

9.​ In his opening comments at the recent BIS Committee (BISC) evidence hearing, MP and BISC chairman Peter Luff said some sections of the trade press had referred to the Business & Enterprise Committee hearings in December 2008 as a what?

a) Las Vegas wedding

b) Mexican divorce

c) Spanish Inquisition

10.​ According to Mike Benner, chief executive of the Campaign For Real Ale, duty on beer has gone up by how many times since Labour came into power in 1997?

a) 52

b) 67

c) 114

11.​ The retiring (but not so shy) David Elliott will be exiting Suffolk brewer Greene King at the end of January 2010 after how many years with the business?

a) 11

b) 16

c) 25

12.​ Triumph Motorcycle's pre-2005 Sprint ST bike has an engine capacity of how many cc's?

a) 750

b) 875

c) 955

13.​ Punch Taverns shares closed at 67.8p last Friday, down more than six per cent. What was the highest the stock reached in 2009?

a) 157p

b) 165.5p

c) 173p

14.​ JD Wetherspoon plans to spend approximately how much on opening new pubs in the next five years?

a) £100m

b) £250m

c) £400m

15.​ Brigid Simmonds, the chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, told MPs recently she was hoping for more time to get the industry's house in order. How long was she asking for?

a) Six months

b) 18 months

c) Two years

16.​ Deep Purple's 1972 album 'Machine Head' incontrovertibly spawned the greatest guitar riff in music history, ever. In which town was the album recorded?

a) Montrose

b) Montreal

c) Montreaux

17.​ In September Enterprise Inns boss Ted Tuppen said the group might end up selling how many pubs under a sale and leaseback arrangement?

a) 100

b) 300

c) 700

18.​ Assuming there are approximately 50,000 pubs in the UK and that pubs are closing at a constant rate of 52 a week, theoretically how long will it be before there are technically no boozers left in the country, give or take a month or two?

a) 15 years

b) 18 years

c) 20 years

19.​ Joe Lewis, the billionaire businessman, owns how much of Mitchells & Butlers?

a) 21 per cent

b) 23 per cent

c) 27 per cent

20.​ Anti-pubco campaign group Fair Pint claims to represent how many licensees across the UK?

a) 19,000

b) 25,000

c) 27,000

Good luck and may I wish you all, whatever your views on the future of the pub trade (and pub trade hacks), whatever football team you support and whichever band rocks your world, a very merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year.