2014 Norwich Beer Festival hailed a great success!

Judging by the positive public feedback and the crowds who flocked to the 37th Norwich Beer Festival, the organisers from the Norwich & Norfolk branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) have hailed this year’s festival as a great success.

The annual event, held in St Andrew’s and Blackfriars’ Halls in Norwich during the week commencing Monday 27th October, again proved to be very popular with over 19,000 festival goers coming through the door.

The warm weather helped attract good numbers of new and regular visitors alike. The use of social media sites, such as Twitter, enabled organisers to provide updates on each session’s entrance price and time, entertainment acts and of course the refreshments available. A list of all the real ale was available online which was well received by drinkers who were also able to rate beers too.

The featured ales from Marble Brewery from Manchester proved a big hit with the excellent range of styles because all the beers had been drunk by Saturday night, and also the tutored tasting sessions proved popular again this year.

Furthermore it was a record-breaking year for the local CAMRA Branch’s Charity for 2014, the Hamlet Centre Trust of Norwich. Charity staff, trustees and volunteers attended to collect donations and unspent beer cards from Beer Festival attendees and collected a total of £9,500, with some funds still likely to come in. This amount is nearly double the figure that has been raised in previous years.

Pauline Morgan, Chief Executive Officer commented: “We are overwhelmed by the generosity of CAMRA and the attendees of the 37th Norwich Beer Festival. We are so privileged and grateful to be nominated as the Norwich and Norfolk CAMRA Charity of the Year and the amount raised has exceeded all expectations.”

Pauline continued: “We would like to thank CAMRA and everybody who both donated and supported us in raising such an amazing amount.” The money raised will go towards providing ongoing support for families of children and young adults with disabilities across the trust.

A formal presentation of the cheque from the Norwich & Norfolk CAMRA branch will be arranged for early 2015.

Two local breweries took the top two honours of the 2014 Beer Festival. The awards for the favourite beers, ciders and perries of the festival are voted each year by the drinkers at the festival. The overall Gold winner was Old Stoatwobbler by Beeston Brewery (based in Norfolk), Silver place went to Slate from Grain Brewery (Norfolk) and Marble Brewery’s (Greater Manchester) Earl Grey IPA won Bronze.