Friday, 17 June 2016

Fat Cat Brewery Tap is the CAMRA Norfolk Pub of the Year

The Fat Cat Brewery Tap, on Lawson Road, in Norwich, has been judged as the best pub in Norfolk for 2016 by members of the Norfolk branches of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale).

Following on from their success in winning the N&N CAMRA Pub of the Year, the Fat Cat Brewery Tap took the award for Norfolk Pub of the Year, winning by a whisker from the West Norfolk CAMRA entry, The Kings Arms, in Shouldham.

Laura Hedley-White, landlady of the Fat Cat Brewery Tap had this to say, “Both Mark and myself are blown away by the support and votes from CAMRA Members. We work hard in order to create a unique venue and by receiving another accolade from such a prestigious organisation such as CAMRA really does mean a lot to us and our team. To have people from another district of CAMRA come, try us out and vote for us really is an honour.

“Now we have, City, Norwich and Norfolk and Overall Norfolk Championship status we relish the next round and it has made us even more determined to deliver the best and most fun venue we can, whilst concentrating on serving even more delicious treats of a beery kind!”

The Norfolk Pub of the Year is judged  on various qualities such as Beer quality and CAMRA aims by branch volunteers. Norfolk Area organiser Martin Ward revealed, “It was an extremely close competition, both pubs are to be congratulated on the standards of beer quality, service and welcome they provided, along with the excellent impression they gave to the judges.”

The Fat Cat Brewery Tap will now go on to the next stage of the competition, in which they will go up against the following in the East Anglian Pub of the Year competition later in the year.

Bedfordshire - Black Lion, Leighton Buzzard
Cambridgeshire - Falcon, Huntingdon
Essex - Compasses, Great Totham
Hertfordshire - Half Moon, Hitchin
Suffolk - Stanford Arms, Lowestoft

Monday, 6 June 2016

2016 Norwich Beer Festival logo revealed

It was third time lucky for Richard Smith, a planning consultant at NPS Property Consultants, who lives on Trafford Road, in Norwich, to be successful with his design for the Norwich Beer Festival logo competition.
The Norwich & Norfolk branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) are delighted to announce the winning entry for the 2016 Festival which runs from Monday 24th to Saturday 29th October at The Halls.
The winning logo will be widely used to promote the festival on souvenir glasses, pin badges and clothing.

Richard said “I'm really pleased to have won and it gives me a great excuse to spend even more time at the beer festival this year! The design was inspired by seeing and enjoying the rows and rows of real ales at the beer festival being served by the volunteers. I just wanted to do a simple design which showed a happy/merry dragon helping to pour a pint of real ale from one of the casks”.
The large number of entries to the annual competition were carefully considered and debated before the winner was chosen by the branch members at a recent Festival Planning meeting.
As always, the appeal of the various logo entries to the Norwich Beer Festival goers was the main topic, which is one of the largest CAMRA beer festivals in the country.
Rob Derbridge, Norwich Beer Festival Organiser, said Richard's design had a very colourful dragon, which is the only design requirement given to entrants, and was well balanced and an unusual shape. Richard wins £100, complimentary tickets to the festival and also a selection of merchandise including the glass featuring his logo.
Preparations have already started for the festival which will aim to provide an exceptional range of refreshments as ever. Over 200 cask-conditioned Real Ales from Britain's independent brewers will be on sale, with a few festival specials as always, along with draught and bottled beers from Continental Europe and over 40 real ciders and perries.
The 2016 beer festival runs from Monday 24th to Saturday 29th October at St Andrew’s & Blackfriars’ Halls in Norwich.
For further information about the Norwich Beer Festival, please see our web page: www.norwichcamra.org.uk/festival/festival.htm