The Time Has Come…

By Dawn Hopkins

Well we have been talking about this for some time now, regularly in meetings since November last year and now it is only a few days away – City Of Ale 2012!

So here it is – 45 venues across the Fine City, 35 local breweries, 219 local ales, literally hundreds of pub events, Ale Trails, a ‘Bloomin Ale Trail’, a vintage bus, heritage films, talks and walks, a Political Debate, an auction, I could go on (I usually do)…

The banners are up, programmes have been delivered to the pubs, the beers are settling in the cellars.  Musicians are rehearsing, barbeques are being prepared and the Morris Dancers are polishing their bells (possibly)..

Norwich is a very Fine City (the finest in my opinion) and this is going to be a very fine festival – we hope you come and enjoy it, tell all your friends, and come back for more!

And so, as we say in Norfolk – Chairs!*

*Norfolk for Cheers!

www.cityofale.org.uk

Posh Biscuits and Politicians

By Dawn Hopkins

We have had two meetings since the last blog, the first at the wonderful Whalebone on Magdalen Rd and the second at the very lovely Angel Gardens on Angel Rd.  A big thank you to both pubs and Landlords for hosting the meetings and providing sustenance in the form of posh biscuits and hot dogs (because we’re worth it)…

Well in this time a lot has happened – we now have 40 venues involved in the festival and 29 local breweries, with still a few days to go until the deadline of March 31^st to get signed up.  This year’s City of Ale website is now up and running and we are forging ahead with preparations to make this festival even more successful then the last one.

A full complement of Heritage events has already been planned to take place at The Forum and at other venues in the City, including walks, talks, displays, films, a night of traditional pub games and a heritage pub quiz.  Norwich has a wonderful pub and brewing history, and this year no-one will go home without knowing about it!

The Forum

Events being held at St Gregory’s Hall  have started to really take shape – we now have three MPs confirmed for the Political Debate on Friday 1^st June – Toby Perkins, Labour MP for Chesterfield and Shadow Pubs Minister, Chloe Smith, Conservative MP for Norwich North and Economic Secretary To The Treasury, and Simon Wright, Liberal Democrat MP for Norwich South.  We are looking to recruit one more member for the panel from the beer and brewing industry, and BBC East’s David Whiteley will be chairing the debate, which will focus on pubs and brewing. This event will be free to attend (and likely to be quite lively!).

The Pub Quiz Grand Final will be held on Tuesday 5^th June and we have a very experienced and dedicated Quizmaster, David McDermott, to host the event and ensure no foul play!  All pubs involved in the City of Ale are invited to send a team along and there will be a cash prize (as well as heaps of praise and much kudos) for the winners.

An auction will be held on Saturday June 9^th, and professional Auctioneer James Darwood will be encouraging attendees to bid for lots associated with beer and brewing, including ‘brewer for the day’ experiences and pub and brewery memorabilia.

And alongside the pub trails that proved so popular last year, the vintage bus will be returning (our unique version of the booze cruiser) and there will also be a ‘Bloomin Ale Trail’. Organised by Norwich in Bloom (did you know that Norwich is one of the 5 finalists in the Britain in Bloom competition?), City of Ale pubs are invited to take part, and entrants can vote for the pubs they consider to have the best displays.

So, we have pubs, we have breweries, we have politicians, we have heritage, we have masses of entertainment, we have a big red vintage bus and we now have flowers – looking like it’s gonna be a bloomin’ fantastic festival! (Sorry, had to be done…)

The next meeting will be held at The King’s Arms, 22 Hall Rd, Norwich on Monday 2^nd April.

They Came, They Drank, And We Conquered…

by Dawn Hopkins.

The weekend of 27 – 29^th January saw the arrival of six professional Beer Writers to our Fine City – Susanna Forbes, James Forbes, Adrian Tierney-Jones, Jeff Evans, Tim Hampson and Darren Norbury. They were invited to spend the weekend sampling our pubs, drinking our beer, eating our food and soaking it all up with a look around our lovely city. It was a tough gig – 22 pubs in under 48 hours, some on foot, and some via the lovely vintage City of Ale bus. This is what two of them had to say about it:

http://maltworms.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-do-norwich-in-weekend.html

http://www.insidebeer.com/articles/20120203_2

(Pretty sure the others liked it too.)

Foreground - Jeff Evans, James Forbes, Susanna Forbes and Darren Norbury

And so, after we’d all sobered up, it was time for another meeting, held at The Nelson on Nelson St – many thanks to Don for his warm welcome and hot tea!

We now have 32 pubs signed up for this year’s festival, one more than last year already, and including seven new pubs. Discussions were mainly focused on who we could get to do what – who would officially open the festival (Roger Protz was fantastic last year), who would be on our panel for the pub and brewery based Political Debate on Friday June 1^st, who would sponsor the vintage bus, the events to be held at St Gregory’s Hall and maybe even the T-Shirts and glasses. It was agreed that local breweries would be given first refusal for these opportunities.

We were also introduced to EnjoyNorwich, a website promoting all things awesome in Norwich, and it was agreed that this years’ festival would be featured, not only on the site, but through their Twitter and Facebook profiles and their phone apps.

Finally it was decided that the Awards Ceremony, which was held on the final day of the festival last year, would this time around be held several weeks later – this will allow more time for ale trails and the proposed treasure hunt to be completed, as well as for the feedback forms to be collated (and for us to catch our breath!).

The next meeting will be held on March 1^st at The Whalebone on Magdalen Rd.

Beer Swaps And Sausage Rolls

By Dawn Hopkins

The 5^th Norwich City of Ale 2012 meeting was held on Thursday 5^th January at The White Lion, owned by Milton Brewery, on Oak St. Landlord Ben Ackers provided tea, coffee and homemade sausage rolls, all well received. Thanks Ben!

The Beer Writers Preview Weekend is fast approaching (Jan 27) and many details were discussed, including the welcome reception at The Forum, which will include a Norwich Pub & Brewery Heritage presentation, and the plethora of pubs that will be visited – 22 in total! There will be two pub walking tours, and two tours using the City of Ale vintage bus (I will of course have to attend these, purely in the interests of blogging…)

To date, 25 pubs have signed up to this year’s event, which is well on the way to beating last year’s total of 31. We anticipate having 40 pubs involved (though 50 would be nice!)

This year we are very keen to emphasise the wonderful heritage of Norwich, and throughout the festival there will be guided heritage walks as well as Open Days in a number of the city’s historical buildings, such as The Dragon Hall, The Curat House and the old Steward & Patteson offices.

Dragon Hall

Many events have been planned for St Gregory’s Hall during the festival, including the Pub and Brewing Political Debate on Friday 1^st June,  the Pub Quiz Grand Final on Tuesday 5^th June, an auction on Friday 8^th June, and the ‘Barrel of Laughs’ Comedy Night on Saturday 9^th June. The Brewers Market will be held outside The Forum on Saturday 2^nd June.

Of course the pubs will be holding their own events, and a fantastic effort was made last year to provide quizzes, barbecues, music, ‘Meet The Brewer’ sessions and food and beer matching evenings, and we anticipate many more this year.

We would also like to get involved in some ‘twinning’ activities with our twin towns of Rouen and Koblenz, including a ‘Beer Swap’ – so it looks like Phil Halls from Grain Brewery and Phil Cutter of The Murderers may be taking a little European road trip to drop off and collect beer – of course I couldn’t possibly make any comparisons between them and ‘Thelma and Louise’…

This year’s City of Ale Festival is really beginning to take shape as an event that not only showcases Norwich’s wonderful pubs literally bursting with real ale, but also its historical past, its beautiful buildings and surroundings, and its sense of fun. What’s not to love?

The next meeting will be on Thursday 2^nd February at The Nelson on Nelson St. We genuinely look forward to you being a part of it.

Beer Talk and Bacon Baps…

By Dawn Hopkins

The 4^th Norwich City of Ale 2012 meeting was held on 24^th November at the oldest pub in Norwich (the building dates back to 1249), The Adam and Eve, on Bishopgate.  As usual there was a fine turn out of local publicans, brewers, CAMRA representatives and beer aficionados, to discuss the finer details of the festival. The added bonus was the wonderful (and much appreciated) bacon baps provided by Landlady Rita McCluskey!

And so…

Invitations to take part in the festival have been sent out to breweries and pubs – it is hoped that as many as possible will sign up by the New Year, with an ‘Early Bird’ incentive.

This year 31 city pubs took part – can we make it 50 next year?

A sub-group have already met to discuss the itinerary of the ‘Beer & Travel Writers’ Preview Weekend in January (pubs, beer, breweries, food & more beer!), and invitations have been sent out.  We are very pleased indeed to have already had acceptances from Mark Dredge, Pete Brown, Jeff Evans, Tim Hampson, Darren Norbury and Adrian Tierney Jones (but we would like some ladies along too!).

Several breweries have confirmed they will be sponsoring events held at St Gregory’s Hall during the festival – Wolf Brewery will be sponsoring the ‘Barrel of Laughs’ Comedy night, Norwich Bear Brewing Co will sponsor the Pub Quiz Grand Final and Woodforde’s the Political Debate.

The Political Debate will be an ‘Any Questions’ style format with questions from the audience to the panel focused on pub, brewing and licensing issues.  We have still to confirm the panellists, but have had a positive response from local politicians as well as a Shadow Minister, and are hoping for a local celebrity chairperson too!

A number of other ideas were also discussed: a local Norfolk Wherry Skipper giving talks during the festival; a beer swap trip, with a video blog to our twin towns of Koblenz and Rouen; and a festival Treasure Trail.

The next meeting will be held on 5^th January – mmmm, Full English?!

Beer Festival Banter…

By Dawn Leeder

Phil Cutter and I manned the City of Ale stand at the 34th Norwich Beer festival last week talking to anyone and everyone about Norwich City of Ale. It was amazing how many people had actually heard about City of Ale. Not a single soul professed ignorance of City of Ale 2011; a few had been unable to make it, but the vast majority had been there and some had been there AND got the T-shirt! Many said they would be taking part in 2012, some said that they were away for 2011 but had rearranged stuff now they knew the dates, some even seemed to be arranging their summer around the City of Ale event!

One bloke said that it was time to prove beyond any doubt that Norwich was the capital of real ale….and prove the other cities wrong…..that’s a real challenge, but it’s certainly achievable.

We’re really grateful to Norwich CAMRA for letting us take space at the Festival. Together we can surely prove that Norwich is the indisputable UK Capital of Real Ale.

Phil & Dawn at Norwich Beer Festival

And news from the latest meeting…

A draft itinerary has been drawn up for the Beer & Travel Writers’ Preview Weekend – let’s just say they are getting spoilt!

Events held at St Gregory’s during the festival were discussed including a ‘Political Debate’ on matters relating to pubs and brewers, as well as talks, a quiz finale, comedy show and auction.

The Fusion Gallery at The Forum has been secured for the festival to display a mixture of Norwich heritage, pub and brewery footage.

The idea of a ‘Twinning Town Beer Swap’ was discussed – a beer swap between Norwich Breweries & those in Koblenz and Rouen.

As usual fantastic ideas and fantastic commitment from those attending the meeting – the next one will be on November 24th.

What’s happening, when and where (with the odd ‘why oh why?’ thrown in)

Well, if you’re lucky enough to live in or around the beautiful yet hugely underestimated city of Norwich, it will be no surprise to you that we have some of the best real ale establishments in the land, run by extraordinary people, serving wonderful ales, many from the abundance of local breweries to be found in these parts.

But to some this has been a well kept secret – until now! The inaugural Norwich City of Ale Festival took place last May, with 31 pubs and 35 local breweries presenting a city-wide beer festival. Roger Protz opened the festival (and heaped it with praise), and Norwich was taken over by ale-trailers, beer tastings, live music, pub quizzes and a big red vintage bus!

So of course we are doing it again and at the moment are in the first stages of planning and meetings, and this blog has been designed to keep you up to date and informed.

And so…

Firstly, the £1 fee for the Festival Programme has been scrapped; it will be totally free of charge next year.

St Gregory’s Hall, the wonderful venue for the Opening Party, will play host to the City of Ale throughout the festival, and will be used as an information hub, a meeting place and a venue. Events proposed to take place at St Gregory’s include a stand-up comedy contest final, a pub quiz grand final, a political debate, live music and a fund-raising auction.

The Brewers’ Market will return at The Forum, on the first Saturday of the festival – June 2^nd.

We will be producing some promotional videos and set up a YouTube channel with the help of 3^rd year students from NUCA (Norwich University College of Arts), with the first footage being filmed at the Norwich CAMRA Beer Festival – which runs from 24^th – 29^th October (this is another reason Norwich is so wonderful – a beer festival not for the faint hearted and not to be missed!).

Perhaps one of the most interesting ideas to emerge from the meetings so far is a ‘Beer Writers Preview Weekend’ – we will invite beer writers and bloggers to the city for a weekend to be ‘wined and dined’ – or whatever the real ale equivalent is – they will be shown around our fine city, with plenty of pubs, ale and great food on the way (and then obviously tell the world how wonderful it is and to come to the festival!).

The next meeting is planned for November 3^rd.

“.. a brilliant event that has taken the enjoyment of beer on to a new plane” Roger Protz, Editor, Good Beer Guide