Travels With Nate

For years and years my beer geek friends and I have dreamt of this day; the day that anarchic Scottish brewery Brewdog open a bar in Norwich. We called for it, we crawled the streets trying to find a suitable venue for them to move into, alas no luck but finally, about 9 months ago we got the news that we were waiting for, the news that Brewdog would open up in the former Hideout/Knowhere nightclub on Queens Street in Norwich. Friday 15th April, at Midday, Brewdog Norwich is finally opened to the public with craft beer, food and a bottledog shop. I mean, as if the need for Brewdog Norwich wasn't enough, it has a goddamn shop with around 200 bottles... something the centre of Norwich has been crying out for, for a long time too. I was lucky enough to be invited to a secret friends and family opening on Wednesday night, by my good friend and Brewdog barman Jay, as well as the EFP/Press Launch on Thursday night. Walking through the door, it's the same yet different as othe...

I was meant to post something completely different tonight, but I couldn't, because I saw Beerenalia's post on his top 10 Norfolk beers and I just had to post something similar. It'd be rude not to. So what are my top 10 Norfolk beers? 1) Grain Brewery India Pale Ale (6.5%)  - It's a big, hoppy grapefruit and orange tasting IPA. What's not to love? Whenever I see it, I have to drink it. 2) Golden Triangle Black Hops (4.6%) - For me, this is the perfect Black IPA. It retains all of the flavours you want in a regular IPA... grapefruit and orange, but adds red berries and a slight roastiness. Simply phenomenal! 3)   Humpty Dumpty WWIPA (7.4%)  - Alright, another IPA. Sharp gooseberry, floral hops, a bit of orange and grassiness. Brilliant. 4) Ole Slewfoot Dragon Saison (4.5%)  - Lemon acidity and spiciness with the classic funky funky funky saison taste! AWESOME. 5) Norfolk Brewhouse Dewhopper Lager (3.8%)  - Amazing session lager. It's very clea...

A few weeks ago, I got an email asking if I wanted guestlist for Evile & Wolf at Open in Norwich. I instantly replied because I knew it would be an awesome gig; then a couple of days later I got confirmation and asked if I want to interview Evile. At first, I said I’m not sure and I’ll get back to the record label but a couple of weeks later I had a brainwave – my blog isn’t just about music, why don’t I see if the band are up for a Norfolk Beer Tasting? I already knew that Joel is quite into his beer so it would be perfect. I got a reply saying it sounds like a great idea. We’re onto a winner! So, along with my good friend Rob, I took 5 beers from 3 different Norfolk breweries to taste them with Joel Graham, the bassist from Evile. Evile are a thrash metal band hailing from Huddersfield in Yorkshire, England. They currently have three studio albums, have appeared at many different heavy metal festivals, had headline tours and have supported some pretty big names. In f...

So I’m doing fantasy (American) football with the NFL in Norfolk guys. Thought it would be a fun thing to do. I’m blatantly going to fail, I am thinking; now that I’m looking back at my picks. Fuck it. It’s all fun, right? Wanna criticise my team? Go ahead...

A few days ago, Boak & Bailey posted a blog entitled “ Four Beers, Three Write-offs ” in which they said that a friend had recently returned from their holiday in Norfolk and with them they brought back some bottle conditioned real ales from Norfolk.                                                                                                                   Three of these beers were “absolutely foul” and one was “...

So, the past weekend saw Dragon Hall Beer Festival 2 and it was a massive success. We had pretty much the whole crew of volunteers back plus some new additions which was great. We’re a great team. We had about 30 cask ales and bottled beers from Norfolk as well as 4 kegged beers and 9 bottled beers from Ghent in Belgium. Basically, if you missed it you’re an absolute fool. My two favourite beers of the weekend: Van Steenberge Gulden Draak 9000 Quadrupel – A wonderful example of a quadruple. 10.5% but definitely doesn’t taste it. Got nice caramel and malty aromas. Flavours are caramel, bananas & custard, light yeast and spice. Norwich Bear Platinum Blonde – A premium bitter. Pours a lovely golden orange colour with a bubbly off-white head. Biscuity malt aromas with some citrus. Tastes citrusy (possibly lemon) with that same buscuity malt flavour. Definitely my favourite cask ale of the weekend. See Dawn ’s impression of me here: https://twitter.com/#!/Nat...