Last week's Norfolk jaunt took me and my better half to topering venues old and new with a none-too-Reluctant Scoop or two. Here's the top ten highlights in no apparent order.

Humpty Dumpty - Wherryman's Way IPA

It may be brewed in sleepy Reedham but this IPA has USA stamped all over it. Caramalt gold with assertive levels of Target, Centennial and Simcoe, a bomber of 7.4% hopped gorgeousness was my first beer of the holiday and the one that left the most lasting impression. When a brewer hands you his beer, when you both sip and both smile, it feels darn fine. More about this beer in a Bottled Up feature soon.

Humpty Dumpty - Little Sharpie

Drank this with the brewer at his local, drank it by the river at one of England's remotest pubs, drank it again at the pub we stayed at later in the week. I've bought bottles to drink at home for whenever I want that relaxed Norfolk feeling. Little Sharpie is a GBBF-medal-winning bitter that proved time and again to be perfectly sessionable.

Crouch Vale Sonnet

I went to Yarmouth in search of local beer and found this instead. Magnificently pale, smooth citrics and just the Saaz-ish effect that I hoped the Sonnet hop was capable of delivering.

Adnams Spindrift

On our day trip to Suffolk, a bottle of this served at the Adnams Cellar and Kitchen store in Southwold was exactly what I needed on a hot day. Just enough wheat in there made for a refreshingly soft mouthfeel alongside delicate notes of oranges and lemons.

Grain Harvest Moon

My first visit to Grain's new Norwich pub, The Plough, was a highlight of the week. Harvest Moon was one of the reasons why - sweet malts, grassy hops, lemon edges and a slightly pine finish.

Wolf Golden Jackal

After a meandering riverside walk that had me crying out for a cool, calm, low-ABV beer, this was spot-on. A full fruity hop flavour with lingering bitterness.

Woodforde's Wherry

The very definition of Norfolk session bitter. Drinkable almost everywhere you find it, it really comes into its own at the Three Horseshoes in Warham where it's served on gravity from behind the bar. And it's borderline warm. And I swear it tastes all the better for it - like warm toffee apple with a subtle spicy dusting.

Fox IPA and Fox Branthill Pioneer

Having carped on before about how more cafés ought to serve local bottled beer, it was good to see just that in Norfolk. Fox brew a solid range of bottled beer; I found their robust, marmaladey IPA at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve and their dry, fudgy Branthill Pioneer in the Stables Café at Holkham Hall. Top marks to the latter for keeping the beer in the fridge - the IPA was still good but oozed everywhere like a warm, yeasty volcano. Both beers were accompanied by one of the finest pork pies in England, from Bray's Cottage.

Aspall Draught Suffolk Cyder

Yes, I know it's from Suffolk. But it's my just-so cider; just dry enough, just refreshing enough. And there are times when a cask beer, no matter how clean-cut and calm-flavoured, just doesn't cut it. When only a crisp cider will do. And Aspall's does it perfectly.

Whin Hill Medium Sparking Cider

Once I've got a taste for cider, mind, it's hard to satiate that apple itch. A trip to Wells-next-the-Sea gives it a damn good scratch, though. In a hillside car park, you'll find cider nirvana. Jim Fergusson and Pete Lynn sell a range of carefully crafted ciders, perrys and apple juices that are made and sold on the premises. Their 'medium sparkling' is possibly the finest artisinal cider in the UK. It actually tastes apple-fleshy, it itches along and offers up just enough tartness to let you know what you're drinking.

There were plenty more besides, but they're the ones I'd keep an eye out for if you're Norfolk-Suffolk-bound. There'll be more tomorrow about the places where I drank them. >

It's British Pie Week- apparently - so what better way of celebrating this thinly-veiled marketing campaign for JusRol pastry by ignoring their product and having a proper pie instead? And beer, of course. After all, pie without beer is like, er, any other food without beer. Pointless. With the possible exception of cinnamon yoghurt. But that's not realy food, that's just milk that's gone off in the vicinity of spices. Anyoldhow, back to pies. Mmmmmm, pies.....


Let's take a look at the ingredients. Pukka Pies are the choice of chip shop drunkards and canteen diners across the land. I was tempted to buy some taste-the-finest-special supermarket jobbo, but I can't resist a Pukka portion. Especially the black-tray all-steak version; after all, last year's Publican Food Report named steak pie as the best selling pub food dish, so it seems fitting to have one today. I'd have made some lazy mash (bake potatoes, mash them with butter) but I plumped for an even lazier version - Asda readymade with just enough cheese mixed in. And you can't have pie and mash without mushy peas, although at 47p a tin I'm assuming they were mushed by choirs of seraphim and cherubim wearing raw silk slippers stained with saffron.

Now the hard part, which beers to choose. Pints, definately. Something robust enough. I don't fancy anything stoutish, though. There were some bottles knocking around the back of the cellar from last year's trip to Norfolk... they looked as if they'd do the job. Fox Branthill Best seeemed big and bittery; Elveden Ale looked, er.... like a stone flagon, so I was assuming it would have big bittery insides too.



The Branthil Best was cracked open first whilst the pie was baking. I bought this at The Real Ale Shop last year, the malts in the beer being grown at the farm where the shop is based. It poured with a good, rough brown body and gave huge carbonation on opening. There was certainly a tasty malty wash to it with some nuttiness and fleeting oats eeking out. And only 3.8%; it carried a fuller body than I'd expect at this ABV. I was thinking about how those rich malts would work with the deep steak gravy in the pie. Sadly, I was drinking more that I was thinking and managed to down the pint five minutes before the meal was ready.

So I was forced to open the Elveden Ale. To be honest, I only bought this because of the stone bottle - when I'd put together a box of beer at The Real Ale Shop, this looked too good to leave on the shelf. It was advertised as "strong ale with a fruity aroma and hoppy finish" but - WOW! - it was so much more than that. A literally brilliant body, marmalade gold iridescence, a wispy white head. Then the most sublime melon liquour nose, sweet fruit salad edges, hints of strawberries near nettles, hop prickles in the finish. Only one problem with this beer - it was too good to enjoy with steak pie.


The beer was left to one side, then, as I tucked into a plate of pie-mungous lovliness. The Pukka pie had decent chunks of meat slavvered in a sticky gloop that may have been gravy.. but as it was tasty enough, it's best not to enquire. The cheesy mash was cheesy enough without being overpowering. The mushies were... OK, but probably needed a bit of vinegar in there to give them an edge. But it's great to have a Pukka pie that's not been sat in a chipshop hotbox for three hours, slowly steaming itself to death. The pastry had plenty of bite and the filling hadn't been skimped on.

To make things even better, once the nosh was out of the way I got to spend twenty minutes savouring the Elveden Ale. Tons of gentle melonish flavours, undercut with sweet citrics. Herbal notes too - couldn't nail which one, but it gave the whole beer a lift up. More Pukka's are needed with more beers. And I've just thought of pairing a fish pie with the Nelson-Sauvin-like Thornbridge Kipling. Can every week be pie week, please?
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