NORFOLK NIPS | Around the Breweries
WHO AND WHAT IS
BREWING IN NORFOLK! We hope all our lovely brewers have had a good start to 2020. I’m sure it’s going to be a busy year, with the 10th City of Ale coming soon, and growing demand for great Norfolk beer! Congratulations to Grain for winning gold for their ThreeOneSix 3.9% in the Golden Ale category for Champion of Beer of East Anglia. The beer will go on to the Great British Beer Festival in London in the summer, where it will be judged in the Champion Beer of Britain competition. Same goes for the Fat Cat, in their case they were awarded a Gold for their Marmalade Cat 5.5% in the Strong Bitter category. We have been able to sample several interesting dark beers in the different Fat Cat pubs in Norwich over the last few months like Mildly Arrogant 4% rich brown mild brewed with Chocolate malt, Ecuadorian cacao nibs and Madagascan vanilla, and its stronger version, Utter Arrogance 6%, which was quite easy drinking considering the ABV. The last seasonal brew is Earl Grey IPA 6.4%, a light drinking, zesty and fruity.
the finals of Champion Beer of East Anglia. And bronze in the Barley Wines category in the Champion Winter Beer of Britain at GBBF Winter in Birmingham. They are releasing their seasonal range for 2020, and are planning a 4.5% session IPA called Main Cross, an East Coast Pale Ale and a 4.4% hoppyy golden ale called Hop Mountain, plus as every year the golden 4.4% Jack Valentine will be available in lots of outlets too. Also their January seasonal 3.6% Norfolk Gem is a russet coloured bitter with a balance of malts, Marynka and Cascade hops proved quite popular. Wildcraft are back recently from Amsterdam where they were promoting their beers with other businesses from the region. They are planning more Wildfest events, the dates of which will be announced very soon. These will be the usual mix of great beers, live music and family entertainment. They have several new beers on the horizon, focusing on flavour with fruits and natural ingredients and will be bringing back some of their favourites, starting with Wild Sting their stinging nettle beer which will be available in pubs around the county.
Lacons are celebrating three new awards for their Audit Ale 8%. It won gold in the Barley Wines category, plus overall silver in
Wolf have just brewed their first ever gluten free beer, Coyote 4.3%, which is available in cask seasonally, and in bottle all year round. They have a new seasonal beer, a 3.9% best bitter called The Pack to celebrate the Six Nations rugby. At the Spring 2020 | 15
