Three Points of the Compass embarks on a beer trail in the ‘City of Ale’. It is hard work, but someone has to do it!

Norwich is a city in the county of Norfolk, England. Until the late 18th century Norwich was amongst the most prosperous of English provincial towns. It is the traditional regional capital of the wider East Anglia region and surrounded by barley fields, a very necessary ingredient in beer. Norwich has a history steeped in shoe-making, engineering, printing, agriculture and livestock, and until 2018, was almost synonymous with that most famous of English mustards- Colman’s. In addition to having one of the country’s largest medieval cathedrals, Norwich lays claim to being the most complete medieval city in the UK, boasting many cobbled streets, medieval lanes and ancient buildings. The river Wensum winds its way through its centre passing the Norman Castle. There is much to keep a visitor occupied and I have walked its streets on many an occasion, but on this visit, it was sampling beers in a handful of its wide choice of pubs and inns that I was interested in. I have family in the area and it took little in the way of persuasion for a small group of us to gather one fine day to walk a few miles through the City of Ale’ with the required ‘pit-stops’ factored in.

“Norwich is the torch bearer. Since 2011, the city has promoted good beer, good pubs and good breweries and it has inspired many other cities throughout the country to follow in its footsteps”

Roger Protz

We were actually following one of the suggested beer trails pulled together for the annual city-wide Norwich City of Ale festival that celebrates regional craft, keg and cask beer in the Norwich region. The 13th of these ‘events’ took place over 2025. I have visited in previous years (2016 and 2019) to also walk a handful of the trails and there is usually a little variety between years, some trails featuring the same pubs, other trails might occasionally have new pubs included while others might drop out, with the various trails being altered slightly to reflect this.

One advantage of the multiple choices of route and establishment is that no trail has to be strictly adhered to, just glance at the maps provided by the organisers online and in the festival programme and format your own route. While there are various activities that take place over the festival period, most people will simply follow one of more of the beer trails that have been pulled together with the help of publicans and others. There are now digital resources that enable anyone to access, amend or design their own trail at any time of the year, and while a trail through the streets remains always accessible as such, beers will inevitably change considerably and most of those I list below are unlikely to be available as others are adopted.

From the seven different choices in the City of Ale programme, we chose the Finest Trail, as it seemed to offer the longest walk (OK, pub crawl) and a wide sample of pubs. A couple of other trails, notably the Extra Pale and Heritage might be longer, but I had completed the latter before and there were a couple of gems on the Finest trail that I particularly wanted to visit. In truth, none are particularly onerous.

Beehive:

Having driven in to Norwich and parked in the City centre, a large taxi then whisked our small group out to the outskirts, depositing us outside the first establishment in Leopold Road. The Beehive is an old Victorian establishment that hosts beer festivals each June/July and holds BBQs on Spring and summer, raising money for local charities. They have won CAMRA’s Branch Pub of the Year and City Pub of the Year and know how to keep a good pint. There are three bar areas, a small snug inside the door, a lounge and a simple bar area where we initially sat, before we discovered the small outside beer ‘garden’. We relocated to sit in the sun, polishing off good locally made pork pies with mustard alongside our various drinks.

So what was I drinking? There was a wide choice in what was quite a modest sized pub. This reflected a good constant number of visiting beer drinkers. Often, I’ll walk into a pub and when I see a good line of handpulls all operating, my heart sinks a little. A conditioned cask beer usually only has about three days before it begins to ‘turn’. It takes a skilled cellerman (cellerperson?), clean pipes and a good turnover of beers to keep all that is available palatable. The Beehive is popular enough, and has good trained staff, that the three beers I sampled were all excellent.

I asked for a pint of Lontra (£4.90). This is an American Pale Ale (APA) using lots of Big Simcoe and Centennial hops. It is also based around a Maris Otter base (more on that later), and comes from All Day Brewing, in collaboration with Mr Winter’s Beers, a Norwich microbrewery. All Day Brewing, is a North Norfolk Microbrewery working out of a 500 year old barn. In such surroundings, they had produced an excellent pint. I sat in the sun and savoured it. Enjoying the location, company and fine ale so much that I made that often fatal mistake. I went back for a second pint…

I suppose every organisation likes a hook to hang a repeating event around, to make it a little different from previous years. 2025 was a celebration of Maris Otter barley. 60 years old and a favourite with discerning brewers of beer. To put that in to context, available at the participating ‘City of Ale’ pubs and inns, there were sixty beers brewed locally that used Maris Otter. The beer styles varied from lagers to pale ales, IPAs, and bitters to stouts, milds and ‘Belgium style’ ales. And how is barley actually used in beer? Harvested barley grains are soaked in water, allowed to germinate, and then dried. This starts the conversion of the starch in the grain to sugars, which are used in the fermentation process. Each type of grain (malt) will have it’s own flavour profile. Maris Otter is sweet biscuit, toffee and a light nuttiness.

Before leaving I fell into conversation with a young couple at the bar. I mentioned the trail we were on and they were immediately intrigued. I suggested they ask the barman if he had any of the event programmes. Later, we continually met them further on ‘down the trail’ as they had immediately taken it on themselves to also complete the trail.

Hop Rocket:

Feeling very comfortable, and reluctant to leave such pleasant surroundings, with equally as pleasant staff, but knowing a third pint was the road to ruin, we somehow found our way back on to the road outside and set off for a fairly long walk section between pubs, heading down Unthank Road to our second halt, the Hop Rocket, a recent addition to the City of Ale trails. This craft beer and bottle bar has quickly built a solid rep in a short time.

Assistant Manager Daryl welcomed me and was interested to hear I was walking the beer trail. While I know the Hop Rocket wasn’t part of this particular trail when I walked a version of it back in 2019 (then called the Unthank Trail), she was pretty sure they had been part of the event in 2024 when the pub first opened, but she hadn’t actually been working, having sustained a broken ankle while attending the Cambridge Beer Festival. This is a dangerous pursuit my friends!

The bar area is immediately accessed on walking in the front door of the Hop Rocket and extends to a raised floor section at the rear and no doubt gets pretty crowed at times. It had a few punters in watching a Bath v Leicester rugby final on the TV, but most of our party were more interested in chat and the various drinks on offer.

The pub serves both cask and keg beers, alongside a decent choice of ciders. Mrs Three Points of the Compass opting for a Lilley’s Apple Select cider from Somerset, pronounced a decent traditional medium cider. 4.8% at £5/pint. The Hop Rocket usually have two regular beers from the local Fat Cat brewery and I had a pint of their Unthank Bitter ,4% ABV £4.10. This is a classic bitter; copper coloured, with good earthy malt aroma. It slipped down all too easily and I had difficulty in not having a second. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we had other places to visit.

Garden House:

It was a bit of a wiggly, find our way, route to the next. Hidden away in a back street and situated on a corner, the Garden House free house in Pembroke Road could be like many a similar establishment found in a myriad of towns across the UK, however Tanya and Jonathan have worked hard to add more to the establishment’s attractiveness and their efforts have ensured a good local, and not so local, reputation. Despite the pub having a deceptively small frontage, and perhaps unsurprising given the titular name, beyond its two bar areas and separate pool room, it conceals a large beer garden, with large covered marquee, complete with multiple bench tables. Despite being known as a ‘student pub’ it still attracts the locals and has a real community buzz, hosting music nights and quizzes. The pub does a lot of charity work, also operating as a food bank.

The Garden House is part of the Craft Union, who operate over 440 pubs across the country. Now part of the Stonegate Group, the Group have won Community Pub Operator of the Year at the Publican Awards multiple times, no doubt achieved by their business model which gives individual pub operators the freedom to run their pub as their own business with the support and backing of the Company.

The Garden House seemed reasonably busy when we visited, but it was just mid-afternoon, and by all accounts, it would be heaving at the seams later. The place is very popular with students especially, and the canny managers have ensured that there are always reasonably priced good quality beers on offer. Four ‘standard’ beers, priced at £3.15, are always on. In addition to Rev James ‘Gold’, I saw one had an original Skull Attack beerclip, a beer subsequently given the perhaps more acceptable vanilla name Brains S.A. Other than those, there is a large number of other beers and ciders on offer. Lacking sufficient cellar space, those on gravity stillage at the front are kept cool by jackets and bottles of frozen water.

There will be as many as 200 students drinking here on occasion, all consuming vast amounts of alcohol, and this means beers being left to go past their best is almost unheard of. They also sell Bass at £3.25 a pint and I was told some drinkers travel considerable miles to drink it here.

It is unsurprising that the pub managers wanted to be part of the City of Ale programme. Despite having to pay around £120 for banners and advertising, they have easily recouped this by increased footfall. Jonathan had previously managed The Boundary, part of a City Of Ale trail back in 2018. Despite having been a bit of a dog-leg off the route back into the city centre it had been a more than worthwhile diversion and we all enjoyed our halt here. Perhaps it isn’t the most attractive of places inside, being more functional than aesthetic, but for the beer drinker, it is heaven! Certainly a place for friends and family to hang out.

I spent quite some time chatting to pub managers Jonathan and his partner Tanya. Jonathan had been in the trade for donkey’s years and used to manage a pub in Great Yarmouth. Our conversation veered widely around the subject of beer and our only moment of disagreement was regarding Woodforde’s beers, brewed at Woodbastwick, just outside Norwich. I have long been a fan of both their standard Wherry bitter, and, when I can find it, their Nog dark ale, however Jonathan has a low opinion of them. Which shows there is always going to be disagreement amongst beer aficionados as to the merits on any particular brew.

But with such a choice, what to drink? I sampled a few that looked interesting and settled on a quite superb dark session ale- Black, from the Stancill Brewery. It is amazing how much flavour the brewer has managed to pack into this easy drinking dark mild. At only 3.7% it is lesson to other brewers. It was smooth, malty, with sweet caramel aroma. It has three hops; Goldings, Fuggles and First Gold, but appropriately for a mild, they do not dominate.

Mrs Three Points of the Compass had almost as bewildering a choice of ciders, eventually settling on a medium Elderflower Cider from Lilley’s. She pronounced it crisp, clean, not at all sharp or cloying. It was at this point on the trail, four pints down, that I lost the ability to remember what other people were drinking.

From the Garden House it was a bit of a walk to our next destination. A couple of our number took it on themselves to act as navigators, promptly being fired and replaced when they proved incapable of the task. Beside quiet town streets, the busier A1074 Dereham Road has to be crossed and, thankfully, a pedestrian crossing makes things a good deal easier, and safer. It was far enough, and with enough drinks already consumed, that the pubs w/c was a first port of call on arrival for most of our party.

Fat Cat:

Found a little way down West End Street, having to pass another attractive pub on the way, the Fat Cat Free House has an amazing rep amongst beer drinkers. It has been voted National Pub of the year twice and was 11 times Good Pub Guide – Beer Pub of the Year. There is normally at least 30 real ales on and the bar staff were patient with me while I made up my mind. At least for a while!

I tried two tasters before settling on what to drink. My samples were an orange flavoured Orange Wheat Beer from the Suffolk based Green Jack Brewery (not to my taste) and an unremarkable blonde with lemony notes (also not to my taste). This was Knowle Spring (4.2% ABV) from Timothy Taylor and I was surprised at how very average it was, as they produce some outstanding beers, including the old staple- Landlord. As an aside, take what you read on Untappd with a pinch of salt- “Knowle Spring is a full-bodied blonde beer brewed with Golden Promise barley malt, Strisselspalt hops from Alsace, and UK-grown Minstrel, Cascade and Chinook hops. It’s an easy-drinking beer with floral and grapefruit aromas, spiced orange on the tongue followed by aromatic citrus hop flavours to finish“.

Fat Cat Brewery’s 5.5% ABV Marmalade Cat had been voted winner in the Premium Bitter category by Norwich and District CAMRA in 2024 and I am glad I chose it. I obviously had something going on with choosing fruit flavoured beers at this point as the marmalade notes are very much to the fore, I felt slightly overshadowing malt notes, but marmalades can be characterised by their bitterness and the Goldings and Progress hops had been used well. Smooth, but not a session beer for me, especially at that strength, but enjoyable nonetheless.

This pub has a lovely interior, with lots of old signage and pub paraphernalia and I wandered around, taking it all in. There are various snugs, cosy corners and back room tables. A place to meet up with friends for a natter, secret trysts, a long session on the ale, or just to read a newspaper or browse the phone in peace with a pint.

Leaving the Fat Cat behind, and noting that the day was drawing on and pubs were beginning to fill up with the early evening crowd, we walked back to the Dereham Road and headed downhill, toward the city centre. The next, and final, three pubs on the Finest Trail are found in quick succession.

Ten Bells:

The up-market Ten Bells is a 17th century city corner pub, in St Benedicts Street, and is now a popular, laid back but stylish place. Looking at it from the outside it is all too apparent how the original public house has been twice extended into the buildings next door. There is an on-site distillery, producing gin, and I dare say many of the clientele are after cocktails, or alternatively, the craft beers on offer, but they also serve a rotating selection of usually four cask beers.

I had a pint of Amplified, a 4% ABV “limited edition” pale ale (£4.60) from Green King Brewery. I found it pleasant enough- malty, with a bitter hop aftertaste but could not get excited over it. I also felt it was served a degree or two too warm, possibly the first out of the barrel this afternoon. A good pub nonetheless and I wish I had been able to sample what else was on offer, another time.

“We do have tasty beer, fun cocktails, mediocre chat and some fuppin exceptional burgers”

Ten Bells

The staff couldn’t have been more pleasant, including the natty bouncer. While beer was very much on the agenda, more importantly, at last we were able to get some food. It felt a long time since those pork pies back at the Beehive. A very good bacon cheeseburger with fries accompanied my pint. It was calorie rich, filling, and very satisfying. Lining the stomach and preparing me for the remainder of this trail. An army marches on its stomach you know.

Three Points of the Compass carries a journal on just about any trail walked, including my beer trails. I attempted to remember to scribble tasting notes on beers, often forgetting to do so, increasingly as the level in each subsequent glass sank.

Plough:

A very short distance away was the Plough, our next halt, also in St Benedicts Street. Occasionally hosting BBQs on finer days, this is one of just two Grain Brewery establishments and is effectively a brewery tap, carrying most of their beers, occasionally supplemented with a guest ale. As soon as I saw they had their Lignum Vitae on I had to have a pint. The place was getting busy and there were a number of thirsty drinkers at the small entrance bar. But Ab and Isaac were cool and unstressed and efficiently worked through everyone.

My journal notes record my initial impression of my pint: “a superb beer, best of the afternoon…”. This is perhaps unsurprising as it was East Anglia Champion Beer of Britain in the British and New World IPA category in 2023. Also Champion Cask Beer of Norfolk for 2024 as voted for by Norfolk CAMRA members. At 6.5% I was a little wary of having a pint of this strength at this point in our beer trail but threw caution to the winds and am thankful I did. It’s lightness belies it’s strength. but it has aroma, upfront bitterness, the usual (these days) over-notes of citrus and tropical fruit, with a lingering aftertaste. As with many other beers these days that eschew traditional bitterness in favour of the all-pervading supposedly inoffensive “citrus notes”, I was pleased to see this was a decently hopped and not too fruity beer. As a brew, it began life way back in 2010, then called Tamarind IPA, but was renamed as people confused it with a hot sauce, like you do!

The Plough is another popular place for the ‘in-crowd’, situated in one of the most trendy areas of the city. It is a small place, cos that is what the trendies like, and has a Mediterranean inspired courtyard that we never experienced as we somehow found space inside. But much (much) as I would like to have had a second pint of that superb beer, we tore ourselves away to walk the short distance to our next place.

Strangers Tavern:

Renamed and reopened in 2019, the Strangers Tavern in Charing Cross, is named after a group of 16th century Protestant refugees, called the Strangers, who settled in Norwich, having originally arrived from Flanders, in Belgium. This was the seventh and final pub on our trail.

Unsurprising, given its location, we found this to be another popular place. There were quite a few people sitting at the tables outside, enjoying the fine early evening and we wondered how busy it would be inside. But there was almost no one sitting inside. I received the rudest welcome in a long time when I approached the bar. Perhaps Adam had endured a long day, perhaps he was fed up with foolish questions, but he took immediate offence to my asking if they had any real ale on. Nope, this is strictly keg and bottle ‘craft’ ales. He mellowed eventually, and we even managed to get our commemorative pin badges from him when obtaining our stamps in our programmes.

As expected, the beer was expensive, far too cold, but perfectly palatable. I had a pint of M’ango Unchained, a mango flavoured beer from the Brew Toon, a Scottish brewery operating out of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. It is a hazy fruit beer, infused with passion fruit and mango. Sounds awful, but not as sweet as I feared and quite refreshing.

Well, our ‘Finest Trail’ might have been completed but remarkably we wanted more. So we strode off to St Andrews Street in search of an old favourite, the St Andrews Brewhouse, which is actually on another of the City of Ale beer trails, the Barley Trail.

An extra- St Andrews Brewhouse:

This is a Grade II*-listed building refurbished to give a distressed industrial look. It combines bar, brewhouse and restaurant with “an eclectic food menu”. It was an ideal location for us to conclude our little jaunt around Norwich. The secret, if there is one, to extended daytime drinking is to take your time and eat food. I felt fine and enjoyed another pint, or two.

Following local advice, I had a pint of their Tombland Porter, 4.8% ABV, from their St Andrews House brewery, followed by a second. This is a lovely dark smoky pint. It is a complex drink with a lot going on, a lovely way to finish my day. I felt as though I could have stayed another hour or two, drinking this easy session beer, but it was definitely time to go home, well, someone else’s home (thanks sis).

And that was it. Our trail was over. Amongst our number was the most praiseworthy, one who had stuck to soft drinks and with remarkable patience, accepted our gradually deteriorating behaviour with good humour. Our designated driver will hopefully get the opportunity to participate more fully in the future, as it is a laudable event and the organisers, publicans, brewers and many others that enable this to occur year-on-year are to be congratulated. Norwich is a lovely city and a wander round its pubs sampling some of the very finest of beers and ciders, scratches at least one surface. There is considerably more to be discovered. Certainly two amongst our small group returned a couple of days later to complete a second trail.

While each year’s City of Ale event officially lasts just the one month, each trail exists all year round. It is only the programme handstamps and badges that are phased out, and the actual beers to be found in each pub are certain to alter.

Beer trails:

• Birmingham
• City of London