The BeerCast

After our Hebridean Brewery showcase, we travel a few hundred miles south for our next BeerCast podcast, as we explore beers that come from East Anglia. Norfolk has more than a few breweries, and on a recent roadtrip there (with a hefty rail and bus trip thrown in) we sampled four local ales. Finding out whether it was worth the journey, our enlarged panel work their way through the Wolf Brewery’s Lavender Honey (4.0%), Humpty Dumpty’s Reedcutter (4.4%), Tipple’s Topper (4.5%), and finally Nelson’s Blood Bitter (5.1%) from the Fox Brewery. On the tasting panel this time are Shovels, Grooben, Richard, Andy and Jess. All of the beers were sourced from the enormous Beers of Europe, just outside Kings Lynn, along with a large amount for future BeerCasts. Watch this space…

1. Lavender Honey (4.0%abv)
The Wolf Brewery, Attleborough.
500ml glass bottle

Brewpubs really took off in the heady days of the 1980′s, and from the Reindeer in Norwich came owner Wolfe Witham. Moving up a scale, he opened the Wolf Brewery on the site of an old cider plant in the market town of Attleborough, in southern Norfolk. After a steady expansion over the next ten years they relocated to larger premises in Besthorpe. With six cask ales, six bottled and several seasonals, they are one of East Anglia’s steadiest producers. It was one of these seasonals we sampled – their honey beer is bottled between March and April.

What They Say – “Honey infused with lavender from The Norfolk Lavender Company is added during the brewing process to give this beer a delicate yet more-ish flavour.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Jess – Not to honeyish, I really like it 8
Shovels – It’s decidedly moreish 7
Andy – A little thin for my taste 6
Grooben – Subtle honey, which is the best place for honey to be 6
Richard – It’s very weak, doesn’t taste of much 5

2. Reedcutter (4.4%abv)
Humpty Dumpty Brewery, Reedham.
500ml glass bottle

Humpty Dumpty are a smaller producer than Wolf, outputting 30 barrels a week from their base at Reedham – a village on the famed Broads of less than 1,000. They started in 1998 from the outbuildings of a pub before moving to a bigger site in 2001. They also operate an off-licence which sells their bottled beers alongside a range of imported Flemish ales. Next to the brewery is Pettitt’s Animal Adventure Park, so a decent day for all the family can be had. Humpty Dumpty produce beers ranging from a 3.8% session ale to a 9.2% barleywine. Reedcutter is a golden ale that honours a historically important East Anglian industry.

What They Say – “A sweet, malty beer, golden hued with a gentle malt background. Smooth and full-bodied with a quick, gentle finish.” [Good Beer Guide]

What We Say…
Richard – Zingy, hoppy, fruity – I like it 7
Shovels – It’s bitter, but then I’m a bitter man 6
Grooben – It doesn’t surprise me in any way 6
Jess – I just wouldn’t drink this 5
Andy – There’s something it’s just not telling you 5

3. Tipple’s Topper (4.5%abv)
Tipple’s Brewery, Acle.
500ml glass bottle

Another Norfolk market town with a brewery is Acle, midway between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. The Tipple’s brewery were launched in 2004 by ex-financial worker Jason Tipple, another homebrewer who took the leap into full-scale production. Initially helped by David Porter of the Porter Brewing Company (now of the Outstanding Brewery in Bury), Tipple’s have spread more into cask ales after initially concentrating on the bottled side of the market for website sales.

What They Say – “Topper is a rich, traditional Stout that is amongst our finest offerings. Pour it into a glass and see why: The deep colour, with swirls of red and black; beckons. The strong aroma, full of complex chocolate and malt notes; tempts. And the flavour, wholly hearty and satisfying, with a long, distinct finish; harkens for another.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – Needs more chocolate to balance it out 5
Jess – They’ve burnt the coffee beans I think 5
Andy – I prefer Meantime’s Chocolate Stout 5
Grooben – I’ve never had as smokey and chocolatey a porter as this 4
Richard – This tastes like cold coffee 3

4. Nelson’s Blood Bitter (5.1%abv)
Fox Brewery, Heacham.
500ml glass bottle

Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, he of the Battle of Trafalgar, was born and raised in the small Norfolk village of Burnham Thorpe. Apparently he used to run down to the water as a boy and watch the boats sailing around – today there’s a pub in the village named The Lord Nelson in his honour. The Fox Brewery of nearby Heacham also produce something named after him – a rather interesting brew called Nelson’s Blood Bitter, combining their ale with the pub’s spiced rum. Another recent startup, they began in 2002 in the outbuildings of the Fox and Hounds, Heacham.

What They Say – “A deep reddish orange coloured ale with a malty, yet spicy aroma of cough candy, cloves, cinnamon and liquorice. The taste is smooth sweet and malty with light, spicy flavours along with a rich molasses, rum-like taste.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Grooben – Definite vinegary undertones 5
Richard – I’m not sure how it won an award 5
Shovels – Good for a while, then you get a bit sick of it 5
Jess – Does it have flowers in it? 4
Andy – Malt, vinegar, rum – this is a bit of a George’s Marvellous Medicine 4

5. Morrissey Fox Blonde (4.5%abv)
Morrissey Fox Inns Ltd, Marton cum Grafton, North Yorkshire.
500ml glass bottle

…and a fifth BeerCast beer! Just as we were getting ready to call it a day, Mr Shovels whipped out a special final beer for us to try – Morrissey Fox Blonde Ale. A notable newcomer on the scene, this beer began when actor Neil Morrissey and chef Richard Fox attempted to start a brewery from scratch for a Channel 4 TV series called Neil’s Risky Business. This beer was the eventual result, and having been taken on by the behemoths of Tesco had recently been rebranded for charity as a Red Nose Beer, with 25p from each bottle going to the good cause. But is the much-hyped beer any good?

What They Say – “We spent nearly a year developing the Blonde. It’s what we call a hybrid – somewhere between a lager and an ale. The aromatic fruity hops give it an amazing nose and the lager malts add to the unique flavour. A distinctive and individual beer that we’re very proud of.” [Official Website]

What We Say…
Shovels – A lovely sweet, hoppy flavour 8
Jess – Smells of damp dishcloths but tastes very nice 8
Grooben – Shovels I applaud your taste 8
Richard – The vanilla might make it a bit sweet 7
Andy – I like it but it’s not bowling me over 7

BeerCast panel verdict
Morrissey Fox Blonde (38/50)
Lavender Honey (32/50)
Reedcutter (29/50)
Nelson’s Blood Bitter (23/50)
Tipple’s Topper (22/50)

Panellists – (from bottom right) Grooben, Shovels, Richard, Andy, Jess

• Listen to the episode here: BeerCast #31 – Norfolk Roadtrip
• Subscribe to the podcasts in iTunes or our site feed

We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with our next podcast. Stay tuned for details…and please leave us comments on the blog or iTunes, or emails. Cheers!

The Midlands can be a joyful place for the real ale drinker – from the city pubs of Birmingham in the west to the original trailblazers of Burton-on-Trent in the…north? (We’re based in Scotland so forgive our geography). But the East Midlands can also hide some great beery secrets, if you know where to look. Take a train to Derby and turn right out of the station, and a few minutes walk brings you to a long, pointy brick building with high walls – the Brunswick Inn. Originally built as the centrepiece of a railway village, it closed in 1974, but was rescued and restored in 1987. After an on-site brewery was added it became one of the best known freehouses in England – so of course the BeerCast had to pay a visit.

The multiple rooms of the historical layout strike you as soon as you enter, with a ‘family parlour’ immediately on the right. The bar is round a corner to the left – but what a treat for the real ale drinker. Seven handpumps for their own range of beers, and another half-dozen guest ales from other breweries (many from Everards, who bought the Brunswick in 2002). The wooden fittings and flagstone floor give the place an authentic feeling of age – unlike so many ‘restored’ pubs that have the look, but not the character. A glass window on the way to the beer garden (which sadly we didn’t experience) shows the brewing equipment, the kettle and wooden mash tun.

But what about their beer? Well, between myself, Shovels and honorary BeerCaster Gillian (our Cointreau expert) we got through their entire range, plus a bonus from another producer. First up from the blackboard – and priced at a stunningly reasonable £1.70 a pint – White Feather (3.6%), the Brunswick’s latest addition to their stable. It’s very light, as you’d expect given the abv, with a classic sessiony citrus hop taste. It reminded me very much of Harviestoun’s Bitter and Twisted, which has won global awards. White Feather is just as good – to be honest I didn’t want to switch to anything else – plonk me in the beer garden with four or five of those and I would be very, very happy.

But switch we did, and then went for Second Brew or The Usual (4.2%), as it had two names. This was a ruby bitter, malty and very flavoursome – think my Dad would have loved this, as did our Cointreau expert. Being hop fans, we had to sample Triple Hop (4.0%) which with the Second Brew is their other regular offering. It had something of the hops about it at first, but the dryness soon took over and it faded in the aftertaste somewhat – which was a shame as that almost held it back a bit. It has hops in the title, but I actually preferred the weaker White Feather. It wasn’t at all bad though, and neither was Old Accidental (5.0%), another drinkable copper-coloured bitter, with that hint of banana these malty beers sometimes have. At this point I was eating an excellent bowl of chilli, and it brought out the malty sweetness of the ale really well.

Being a railway pub, the Brunswick are almost obliged to produce a porter – Railway Porter (4.3%) ticks all the boxes in the classic British style, dark, coffee, a bit of chocolate, light taste – session beers don’t have to be straw-coloured and hoppy. Valour, the abv of which I missed, is seemingly a seasonal of theirs, and gets the biscuity flavours going right at the start. It’s nice at first, but the relentless dry malty tastes do make it tough going after a while – don’t get me wrong, I love dry beers, but this one was maybe just a touch too much. Speaking of which, Black Sabbath (6.0%) is their strongest ale, although it really doesn’t taste like a 6%er. Viscous and black it may be, but it tastes like a regular porter – albeit towards the coffee end of the spectrum. Malty and very moreish, this one’s very dangerous.

Finally, a quick word to the only non-Brunswick beer we tried, due to a changing barrel near the end of the night. At random from the guest selection we went for Fox Brewery’s Grizzly (4.8%). Despite the animal references it turns out this is a special ale brewed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. The Norfolk based Fox are located in Heacham, which is the birthplace of John Rolfe – who apparently helped establish the Jamestown colony, became the first to plant tobacco over there, and infamously married a native American called Pocahontas. Anyway, whatever the reasons behind it, Grizzly is a real treat – floral hops, with citrus and grapefruit, this is a classic refreshing session beer.

With that, we were pretty much done – hopefully one day we’ll return to the Brunswick and sample some more of their en-site brews, all of which are worth drinking, and the vast majority truly excellent. There’s plenty of space, the food is basic but tasty, and the most expensive pint of the night (Black Sabbath) was a seriously reasonable £2.70. If only every city had somewhere like the Brunswick.

The Brunswick Inn
1 Railway Terrace, Derby DE1 2RU
Open 11-11 Mon-Sat, 12-10:30 Sun
Official Website