I’ve returned from a few days at Norwich City of Ale with a book full of notes, a phone full of photos, and a head full of the most fantastic memories.
The City of Ale launch party bar, featuring local beers and four special Belgian collaborations
Let me be honest. There’s a lot to write about, and I want to do the event justice to fully recognise the hard work that goes into City of Ale, from the efforts of the organising committee, to the licensees in the fantastic Norwich pubs.
My plan, then, is a series of blogs, over the next day or two, reflecting on my time in the Fine City, and I’m going to start at the beginning, with the launch party at the Adrian Flux Waterfront venue on Thursday.
City of Ale was launched in 2011 (I was there!). It was the pioneer of a style of beer festival I’ve come to love. A festival with a huge line-up of beers spread across a host of pubs — this year, 59. It is co-chaired by publican Phil Cutter, who runs the fampous Murderers pub in Norwich city centre, and brewer David Holliday, who makes Moon Gazer Ales at the Norfolk Brewhouse, with his wife, Rachel.
As well as being a top brewer, David is also a champion fundraiser for Norfolk-based testicular cancer awareness charity It’s On The Ball. Last year he pushed a cask of his ale 149 miles, from his brewery to the oncology unit at St Bart’s Hospital, in London. This year, he’s pushing the cask again, this time while completing seven marathons in seven days. Read more about David’s fundraising efforts here.
The launch party was held in bright sunshine, swans taking in the scene from the River Wensum, which flows by the Waterfront. David welcomed press, licensed trade guests, and brewers to “the biggest City of Ale we’ve ever had”. Over the course of the month, until 25th June, the event hopes to generate between 15,000 and 20,000 extra pub visits. “It’s a chance to show the public how pubs are important to te community,” said David. “Let’s get our voices together and shout what a great place Norwich is to come an drink. We brew amazing beers. We just want this festival to get better and better each year.”
David thanked City of Ale committee members and had a special word for Caz Jones, who has designed badges for those who complete each of the festival’s nine ale trails while coping with illness. She had also designed the glasses for the launch party’s small but perfectly formed mini-beer festival. This featured some great local brews, but also four special collabortion beers, made by four Norfolk brewers and four Belgian counterparts.
These collaborations were the idea of beer writer Roger Protz, who was guest of honour at the launch party. He went to the Zythos beer festival in 2019, staged in Leuven, which is known in Belgium as ‘Beer City’. It was here that the idea of the collaboration was born, and earlier this year team members from the Hof Ten Doormal, De Coureur, Braxatorium Parcensis, and Den Adept breweries came to brew with counterparts from, respectively, Tindall Ales, Poppyland Brewery, Grain Brewery, and Moon Gazer Ales.
The following evening Roger hosted a Beer With Strangers event where he talks about the collaboration project and led a tasting of the beers. Leuven and Norwich share an historic bond dating back to the 14th century, when refugee weavers from Flanders and the low countries fled to Norfolk due to the religious persecution for their protestant beliefs. Norwich provided sanctuary for many of these refugees, who were also known as ‘strangers’, inspiring the name of Norwich’s Strangers Hall, where refugess are known to have lodged. The twinning was supported by Visit Flanders.
The launch party was terrific — in what was to become a major theme of my stay, I was made very welcome. Good to catch up with friends, too, such as the aforementioned Mr Protz, and fellow beer writers Phil Mellows, who blogs a lot these days on beer and travel, and Martyn Cornell, beer historian and curator of the endlessly fascinating Zythophile blog, parts of which I’m often to be found quoting from. Martyn’s also the brother of Poppyland brewer Dave Cornell, one of the collaborators in the Belgian project.
Good to see Frances Brace, whose Red Flame Communications helps to promote City of Ale far and wide. And a lovely conversation, too, with Norwich beer stalwart Emma Pinder, of Boudicca Brewery, whose Three Tails Bitter I enjoyed from the launch party stillage.
It’s always great to be able to put a face to a name, and that was the case as I shook hands with Phil Hall, of Grain Brewery, another of the Belgian collaboration quartet. And I have him to thanks for introducing me to the larger than life Dimitri Staelens, of Brewery Den Adept, who also has experience with big brewer Duvel Moortgat. His passion for brewing radiates from him, and he clearly loved the chance to work on a British-style cask beer. He and David Holliday crafted a very tasty mild, which had those wonderful rich Belgian notes despite its local production.
Oh, and a special shout-out to the band Those Deadbeat Cats, whose energetic rockabilly-style covers of, sometimes, very non-rockbilly songs tunes (Erasure’s Stop! will linger long in the memory) really made the party go with a swing.
City of Ale is sponsored by accountants Farnell Clarke and Norwich Business Improvement District (BID). They were thanked by Phil Cutter as the festival got under way. He was delighted that support such as theirs has helped to make Norwich the beer festination it is today. “This is all about collaborations,” he said. “City of Ale has been a great showcase for Norwich.”
• Coming soon: I take to a few pubs, try a few beers, and make a lot of new friends!
