Fat Cat Brewery Tap laps up top honour

Norwich & Norfolk CAMRA Pub of the Year 2016 Results

The Fat Cat Brewery Tap on Lawson Road in Norwich has been voted as best pub in the city for 2016 by the members of the Norwich and Norfolk branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale), as well as the 2016 Branch’s overall Pub of the Year.

It is the first time that Landlords Mark White and Laura Hedley-White has been awarded the Norwich & Norfolk branch’s prestigious title and when told the good news Mark said “Laura and I are so proud that our pub has been chosen to be Norwich and Norfolk CAMRA Pub of the year 2016.  Not only have we got amazing staff that run the pub as their own, but also brilliant customers that have supported us throughout the last 5 years.

"Our aim has always been simple; seek out the best and most innovative beers the UK has to offer, then, serve them in the most fun environment we can create. We would like to thank all those at Norwich and Norfolk CAMRA for their support and CAMRA members for voting for us.  We really are so chuffed!”.

The Norwich & Norfolk Pub of the Year is chosen from the winners of the Branch’s Rural and City Pubs of the Year.  The 2016 Rural Pub of the Year was won for the first time by The White Horse in Neatishead.

The Landlord, Ricky Malt said “In just under two years since we have opened, this is our proudest moment.  We think we have shown that you can be different and still be successful.  This is what we have dreamed of and are thankful to all our loyal customers”.

The fact that there are two new winners for 2016 shows the strength in depth of good pubs in Norfolk.  The runner-up in the rural competition was The Star in Lessingham and in the city Pub of the Year, second place was the big sister to the Fat Cat Tap, The Fat Cat on West End Street who have won the National CAMRA Pub of the Year twice before, and third was the King's Head on Magdalen Street.

The Fat Cat Brewery Tap now goes into a head-to-head with the West Norfolk branch’s winner, The Kings Arms in Shouldham, who have also won the top accolade for the first time this year, and possibly Mid Anglia’s winner if that is a pub in South Norfolk, with the victor progressing to the Regional level of the competition.

Ian Stamp, Pubs Officer for the Norwich and Norfolk Branch, said “It's great to have two first-time winners of our Pub of the Year competition, and both are cracking pubs!  Mark and Laura at the Fat Cat Tap show how a back-street local can shine in the right hands, with a huge range of real ales, ciders, foreign and 'craft' keg beers, plus regular live bands, an annual beer festival and superb cheese-boards.

"Ricky at the White Horse has taken a quiet village pub, on the verge of closure, and, following a doubtless expensive and sensitive renovation, turned it into a destination venue not just for locals, tourists and diners, with friendly staff and excellent meals, but also for beer drinkers, and a range of real ales and other craft beers which far surpasses expectations.

"Congratulations to both pubs and I wish The Fat Cat Tap luck in the future rounds of the competition!”.

The winners will be presented with their award certificates at the respective pubs in the near future.

National Winter Ales Festival heads to Norwich for next three years.

Norwich has been named as the new venue for the Campaign For Real Ale's high profile National Winter Ale Festival.

After three successful years, organisers in Derby will be handing on the honour of hosting the national event, where the winner of the Winter Champion Beer of Britain is judged each year.

The event brings many thousands of visitors to the host city - keen to try hundreds of the best winter beers from across the UK.

NWAF will be moving to Norwich for the next three years, using St. Andrew's & Blackfriars' Halls (The Halls), which are currently home to the CAMRA Norwich Beer Festival; it is a beautiful venue with picturesque paintings dating from the 16th century of mayors, sheriffs and benefactors from the city forming part of the civic portrait collection.

Gillian Hough, festival organiser, said “The National Winter Ales Festival has been an honour for Derby to host and we wish Norwich well with the unique roller coaster which comes with organising a National Festival.”

The dates for the NWAF 2017 are 22nd–25th February.

Norwich and Norfolk Branch Chairman, Warren Wordsworth, commented: "This is a great honour and I am delighted that Norwich has been awarded as host such to a prestigious National CAMRA for the next three years.

"It will be a big boost for Norwich and hopefully it will add a lot to the local economy especially for the local brewers, pubs, hotels and Bed & Breakfasts in the locality and cement Norwich well and truly as a 'City of Ale'. I look forward to this festival coming to Norwich next year."

There was also a positive responce from our Branch Secretary and NWAF Organiser elect, Rob Whitmore, who was volunteering in Derby at NWAF 2016 and accepted the baton on behalf of Norwich and indeed CAMRA locally: "Today at the first day of the CAMRA NWAF in Derby, the baton to host this prestigious event was officially passed to Norwich!  The venue of choice will be of course the iconic medieval halls complex in Norwich, St Andrew's and Blackfriars' Halls and will be held in February for the following three years.

"It's a great honour to take this national event on and we hope this help cement Norwich as the UK's City of Ale.  Let's make this a great event for brewers, publicans and of course lovers of real ale from around the UK and maybe even the world!"

The Owl Sanctuary awarded Asset of Community Value status

The Norwich and Norfolk branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) received the good news  on 4th February 2016 that The Owl Sanctuary, Cattle Market Street, in Norwich, has been successfully listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) by Norwich City Council.

Neil Bowers, Pubs Protection Officer for the branch, said “We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone (2,500 people) who submitted an application for the pub to be listed. This took everyone within the branch by surprise and it was, and still remains, an unprecedented number. So from the branch we thank you for your support and hope you continue to support The Owl Sanctuary and the pubs within Norwich and the surrounding area".

There has been a pub on this site serving the community since 1845. Originally the brewers Steward, Patteson Finch & Co owned the pub but since 1945, the pub has been known under different names including The One and Only and Marquee at the Shirehall and then under the name The Owl Sanctuary from March 2014.

Since refurbishment and re-opening in 2014, The Owl Sanctuary developed a big following in the music scene and was supported by the huge number of people who either contacted the local CAMRA branch or Norwich City Council once the sale of the building and the closure of the pub as The Owl Sanctuary was announced, as a pub and a unique venue with an impressive list of genuine touring bands from around the world visiting.

As soon as a pub is nominated as an ACV, the owner must obtain planning permission to change it to any other use, or for instance, demolish it. Also if they want to sell the pub to anyone who wants to use it as anything other than a pub, e.g. Tesco or the Co-Op, the community will be given the chance to find someone to buy it as a pub.

The removal of permitted development rights is considered by CAMRA as vital to protect the future of public houses in the light of around 29 pubs closing a week.

The Norwich and Norfolk branch of CAMRA have been focusing on ACVs in the last year and has successfully had ACVs granted by the respective council on over thirty pubs in the branch area such as the King Edward VII, Number 12 and Kimberley Arms in Norwich, the Nelson Head, Horsey and recently in Norwich, The Gatehouse on Dereham Road.

Also parish councils and community groups can nominate pubs for an ACV with such success as the Marlpit in Costessey and Blofield’s Kings Head.

Beer and Cider Awards Evening tickets now available

For the very first time, the Norwich and Norfolk branch of CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) will be presenting all the 2015 Beers of the Festival awards, along with the Norfolk Cask and Bottled Beers of the Year awards, at a single event which will take place on Friday 26th February 2016.

The event will be held in the Weston Room at Norwich Cathedral's (Church of England) The Hostry.

The winning breweries from the 2015 beer festival as well as Norfolk breweries, who won't know the results until the Awards evening, are advised to note the date in their diaries and further details along with tickets are now available via the branch website.

Also, in another first for the Norwich and Norfolk branch of CAMRA, a new beer competition to find the Champion Winter Beer of Norfolk has just been launched which is open to all Norfolk breweries who brew a Christmas or Winter beer.

Local brewers can put forward their beers to Alan Edwards, chairman of the local branch Tasting Panel (via email to arted1@ntlworld.com).

The winner will be chosen from the beer scores registered on the What Pub website, run by  national CAMRA which uses the National Beer Scoring Scheme (NBSS), before the end of February 2016.

The website encourages members to report on beer quality where ever they go and includes information on pub opening times, the beer available, a location map, nearby bus routes and the pub features and facilities.

2016 Norwich Beer Festival logo competition is launched

The annual competition to find the new logo for the 39th Norwich Beer Festival, which will take place from Monday 24th
October until Saturday 29th October 2016, has just been launched by members of the Norwich and Norfolk branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale).

The preparations for the popular annual event, which will be held again in St Andrew's and Blackfriars' Halls in Norwich and receives around 19,000 festival goers over eleven sessions, and takes ten months to plan and organise.

The members and volunteers have only just recovered from running the 2015 Beer Festival but launching the logo competition is one of the first tasks for the beer festival and the winning design will be one of the prime marketing tools for the festival.

Rob Derbridge, the festival organiser for 2015, said "We are hopeful that as ever we will receive a large and fantastic array of entries. We always receive entries on various themes, although they must include a dragon in some form, but the entrants can choose a setting or background of their choice. We always look forward to having a tough decision yet again in selecting the eventual winner!".

The main winner will be judged by the organising committee at the planning meetings in the New Year and will receive £100 along with a selection of merchandising at the festival featuring their logo.

There will be ten runner-up prizes of complementary festival tickets and also the best under-18 entrant will get a book voucher.

Entrants are asked to specify "Adult" or "Under-18" and include their name, contact details and age (if under-18) on the back of the paper design or within the email.

As always, the most important element is that a dragon must be included within the design, although abstract is acceptable, also a maximum five colours (four is preferable), including any black or white parts of the design.

Emailed entries should be in a computer readable format (JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PDF, Postscript, GIMP, Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw); no MS Word document files please.

Entries (one per sheet or email and with a maximum size A4) can be sent to 2016 Norwich Beer Festival Logo Competition, 4 Rectory Close, Newton Flotman, Norwich, Norfolk, NR15 1PZ or email to beerfestival@norwichcamra.org.uk by Monday 22nd February 2016 at the latest please.

All entries will become the property of the Norwich & Norfolk branch of the Campaign for Real Ale and may be used for display and publicity purposes.

Norwich and Norfolk Branch of CAMRA’s 40th Anniversary Party

The Norwich & Norfolk Branch of Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is 40 years old this year and to celebrate the branch are holding a party.

The 40th Anniversary party will take place in Duke Henry’s Room at the Narthex Centre, St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Cathedral on Saturday 28th November from 7.30pm until midnight.  It is hoped that local branch members, committee members past and present, publicans and brewers, as well as other familiar faces will come together to have a beer and banter about the good, the bad and very different times of real ale over the last 40 years in the Norwich and Norfolk branch area.

CAMRA is a national consumer organisation with over 170,000 members with the Norwich & Norfolk Branch, which covers roughly two thirds of the county of Norfolk and centred on the city of Norwich, currently having over 3,000 members CAMRA is a volunteer-led organisation and all local events, including Norwich Beer Festival, are organised by volunteers in their own time.  Our main concern is with the promotion of good-quality cask conditioned beers (commonly referred to as “real ale”) allied to traditional British breweries and pubs.

Tickets for the party are only £10 each including one free pint and a free buffet catered by The Narthex.  Commemorative pint glasses can also be purchased for £3.  Any profits from the evening (after costs) will be donated to the current branch charity, St Edmunds Society, who are based in Oak Street, Norwich.

At least fifteen local ales will be on the bar, along with some ciders.  There might even be some tunes from the 70s played to get everyone feeling nostalgic!

Tickets are available online from here.

Norwich Beer Festival music line-up announced

The Norwich & Norfolk Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) are delighted to announce the line-up of the music entertainment for the 2015 Norwich Beer Festival with some exciting new performers to the annual festival.

Local Invidia Voices Rock & Soul Choir will make their first appearance during the Wednesday early evening session which will be the first choir to perform at the beer festival.

Also two new bands will be at the festival, local modern English folk band Addison's Uncle will perform in the Friday early evening slot and the Norfolk band Sophie G and the Good Times will play early on Thursday evening in their first performance at the Beer Festival.

Sophie G and the Good Times guitarist Adam Darricott said “We were delighted to receive the request to play and also I have dreamed of playing at the Norwich Beer Festival for years as I am a regular customer”. 

As usual, brass bands play the late evening slots due to restrictions on amplified music but Norfolk is home to so many brass bands which certainly helps keep the lively atmosphere going in St Andrew's Hall until late in to the evening sessions.

We are also delighted to welcome back the Sheringham Shantymen on Saturday lunch session who always entertain the crowd.

The full schedule is listed below:
Monday late evening: Hellesdon & Sprowston Brass Band
Tuesday lunch: Minstrels Gallery
Tuesday early evening: Hayley Moyses Britgrass 3
Tuesday late evening: Music Free
Wednesday lunch: Music Free
Wednesday early evening: Invidia Voices, The Rock & Soul Choir
Wednesday late evening: Cawston Brass Band
Thursday lunch: Dave Thomas Band
Thursday early evening: Sophie G & the Good Times
Thursday late evening: Norfolk Wherry Brass Band
Friday lunch: Vivace String Quartet
Friday early evening: Addison's Uncle
Friday late evening: Norwich Brass Band
Saturday lunch: Sheringham Shantymen
Saturday early evening: The Harvs
Saturday late evening: Cawston Brass Band

Rob Derbridge, the 2015 Norwich Beer Festival Organiser, said “the wide variety of entertainment is always appreciated by many of the thousands of visitors to the Norwich Beer Festival, however music-free sessions are scheduled into the programme and also Blackfriars' Hall is always music free”.