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May Vlog: East Anglia

I think we’re quite slick in a rather chilled out way on our latest Vlog.

Peter Amor takes his bow-tie to Elgoods, a brewery like you have truly never seen before, that’s over 200 years old.  The young whippersnappers who took it over are now in their fifth generation, and there’s a lovely laid-back feel to Peter’s brewery chat.

I got to go to the Fat Cat in Norwich.  Norwich is a bit out of the way so the Fat Cat doesn’t get talked about in the same breathless terms as North Bar, Rake, Cask & Kitchen, Sheffield Tap etc, but it’s been doing the same thing as those places for much longer – 20 years this year to be exact.  Thirty cask ales on at any one time, and over 50 bottled craft beers from around the world.  How can they get the throughput they need to keep so many casks on?  Well, despite being in a sleepy Norwich suburb, it’s packed – all the time.  We were filming on a Thursday mid-afternoon and it felt like a Friday night.  A truly great pub, worth braving even East Anglia Trains for.

Next month we’re going to Cornwall to visit St Austell brewery.  If you think there’s a pub as good as the last ones we’ve been to in the vicinity, let me know!

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9 Comments

9 Comments

TaleOfAle

The fat cat looks brilliant. I must try and get there some day. From the looks of it I could spend a few days visiting that pub and trying beer.
30 cask ales is just unimaginable considering few pubs in the world would even have 20 draught beers on tap.

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The Bocking Kellys

Well if you can't bear to drag yourself all the way from metropolitan sophistication to Norwich to visit the Fat Cat (and as an Ipswich supporter I would strongly urge you not to visit that hell hole) you could try the other Fat Cats in Ipswich and, even closer, Colchester.
Having said that it is a brilliant pub, I went quite a few times when my girlfriend, now wife, lived in Norwich. The Ipswich one is meant to be good (not been) and the Colchester one is – I have been there.

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Stono

@thebockingkellys a Town fan and you havent been to the Ipswich Fat Cat, forshame 🙂 its every bit as good as the Norwich Fat Cat, and definately worth the trek up the hill from the town centre (yes Suffolk has hills)and you might just be lucky and meet the actual pub cat too 🙂

and not to forget Colchester Fat Cat either, in fact in East Anglia we dont bother with the three peaks in a day challenge, its the three Fat Cats in a day challenge, visit each one Colchester/Ipswich/Norwich (maybe even throw in the fat cat brewery tap in Norwich),which is just do-able not because of "East Anglia" trains being rubbish, but because once you get to one its so very difficult pulling yourself away to leave to go to the next. we are very blessed to have such amazing pubs in these parts.

and brewers gold great beer, in fact hmm, suns out, I might just pop along to the cat now and have some 🙂

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Thomas

Fat Cat is a small micro in Norwich, a shame you didn't get to try their porter as it is eceptional. Crouch Vale Brewers' Gold is stunning. You need to try it at the Queen's Head in Chelmsford too. There is Amarillo also which is amazing.

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The Bocking Kellys

Also nice to see Crouch Vale being 'bigged up' – they really got a boost from the success of Brewer's Gold and now seem to have settled into a role of being a good local microbrewery.
I first encountered their beers as a 17/18 year old when half of their SAS combined with a bottle of Ridley's Old Bob was the tipple of choice for the discerning young drinker in the Smack in Leigh on Sea.

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