Themed Norfolk Holidays
OK, I’ll come clean; the theme that usually underpins most of our UK holidays is... beer! My husband’s a real ale enthusiast and so whilst most people rely on Sat-Nav when touring the countryside, he relies on his internal ‘vat-nav’ to lead him safely to the nearest tavern (no prizes for guessing who ends up driving)! Norfolk has revealed some of our favourite watering holes in the past, so we have lots of reasons why you might like to have a similar ale-based theme for your Norfolk holidays!
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It’s a great way to support ‘local’, UK-based industries.
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East Anglia is a veritable harvest of home-grown brewing ingredients, which cascades into local recipes and traditional local brewing methods.
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Many of the breweries offer tours. This really isn’t a case of “seen one, seen them all” as brewery premises themselves are as varied as the range of real ales that are sold across Britain. Some exist on old, well-established premises, growing out from their ‘ale-house’ inception whilst others, such as Wolf Brewery is a relative kiddie in Norfolk brewery land, boasting a spanking new built-for-purpose brewery and visitor centre, following its humble origins in the old Gaymers Cider brewery.
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If they don’t have a visitor centre or offer tours, many of the other breweries do offer an abundance of their produce in the brewery shops that are dotted about the county, including the capital city of Norwich.
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As the quality of all ales directly reflects the quality of the water used in brewing, Norfolk ales have a real edge due to the availability of natural springs in the area. Woodforde brewery is one which uses water from its own natural spring, whilst others, such as Engel Fine Ales insist on local sources being used in their brewing process.
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Beer themed Norfolk holidays don’t restrict you to the usual weeks and weekends of high-season holidays with their high-season accommodation prices. Many breweries hold events out of the mainstream holiday season, such as Woodforde Brewery’s Open Day on the 26th November, and the Open Weekend at Humpy Dumpty’s Brewery on December 11th and 12th – an excellent time to sample those special edition winter ales and stock up for the Christmas season! Out of season also offers the Octoberfest at the Real Ale Shop near Wells, where local ales come under the judges (and all comer’s) discerning palates - a real education in ale that’s not to be missed!
Lastly, incorporating the beer-hopping with sight-seeing is easy by taking advantage of holidays on the norfolk broads (again, out of high-season is much cheaper than you would expect) and it’s a great way to get around, so having a beer theme to your Norfolk holidays could offer something for everyone in the family!