Christmas is a time when people tend to spend more money on alcohol to drink at home and I guess we usually spend most of that in the supermarket. I popped into Fakenham’s Tesco to buy some coffee today (they’re the only shop locally which stocks my brand of decaf) and took note of the ‘ale’ section of the Tesco booze aisle.

Disappointing choice, I must say – I’m sure it’s shrunk since the shop opened. Fakenham Morrisons’ ale section must be at least double that size! Waitrose in Swaffham usually has a decent selection too, I seem to remember.  Lidl’s is just a bit of an afterthought – they don’t even stock any good Euro beers.

So… it looks like a December pilgrimage to Beers Of Europe at Setchey near Kings Lynn is on the cards. Imagine a shop the size of Lidl, but full of hundreds of beers from all over the world, and you’ll get the picture. Absolutely amazing place. I’ll be on the lookout for Fullers London Porter and Vintage Ale, Krusovice Cerne, Bernard and Budvar Dark Czech lager and maybe some American ‘hop bombs’ too. Cheers!

The English Whisky Company at Roudham near Thetford have just released their first single malt whisky, a non-peated version called “Chapter 6″ - the first to be distilled in England for more than 100 years. The distillery was set up in 2006, but only now can their spirit be oficially called whisky, after being stored in oak barrels for 3 years.

They sell other whiskies and their own Norfolk liqueurs too. I ordered a bottle of their malt spirit last Christmas as a present for somebody and they were very helpful with the purchase, shipping my pretty-late order up to Lancashire safely and in time for the holiday with no fuss.

There – that’s another idea for a Norfolk Christmas present sorted for you!

Local pea and bean harvester manufacturers PMC have been chosen to represent the UK farming industry at London’s Lord mayor’s Show tomorrow. The Fakenham company will be proudly displaying one of their £350,000 pea harvesters in the parade, promoting the ‘Yes Peas’ campaign on behalf of The Worshipful Company of Farmers. Well done to PMC in Holt Road, putting Fakenham firmly on the UK agricultural map!

Did you know that 20% of pea production in the UK comes from Norfolk? Also, did you realise that although the pea season only lasts around 7 weeks, one of PMC’s harvesters could fill 3,000,000 packs of peas in that time? Oh… and PMC’s Engineering Manager goes by the name of Robert Plant – if that doesn’t rock, what does?

Fakenham sarà godendo il gusto del Mediterraneo a 2O Venerdì e Sabato 21 novembre, quando il mercato italiano arriva in città. “Italia in Piazza”, promette un sacco di specialità regionali, comprese pizze, pasta, formaggi, carne e pane.

I thought that’d make you look! Sorry if that’s an ‘iffy’ attempt at Italian, but what I was trying to say was…

I look after the website for The Real Ale Shop in Wells-next-the-Sea. They sell a range of over 50 bottled beers from Norfolk breweries – all ‘real ale in a bottle’ (bottle conditioned).

Teddy, the owner, just sent me a photo of their Christmas Case of real ales to put onto the site. They sound scrummy. If you’re stuck for a Christmas prezzy for a chap who’s into his ale, you could do far worse than to get one sent to his door in time for the festivities.

Well, a few beers to be more accurate. The Norwich beer festival opened its doors at 5.30 yesterday evening and I was in a 7-strong team forming part of the queue which meandered round the corner and down the road.

It didn’t take too long before we made our way inside to buy our festival glasses and stock up on beer tokens (no money changes hands at the bar). The place was packed, but we made our way to our usual ‘family spot’ between the two main halls. No seating, but a bit of space to move and lower background noise so it was possible to hold a conversation.

There’s a massive list of beers to choose from, but true to form the ones I’d singled out to find weren’t available. I’d been keeping an eye open for Timothy Taylor Ram Tam as it’d been recommended before. For the third year running it wasn’t on when I was there. Same went for one of my favourites, Fullers London Porter, although I’d managed to get a glass of that at last year’s event.

As each different ale was brought back from the bar, it was tasted by various members of the group – a nice way to sample even more varieties. We had ales tasting of orange, grapefruit, ginger, chocolate, coffee, and my personal favourite Theakstons Old Peculier – sweet and dark with hints of apples and liquorice. I also had my first glass of Kuppers Kölsch on draught – a light German (Cologne) beer which reminded me of an unfizzy lager (can you tell I was slightly underwhelmed with that?) which isn’t strange as that’s kind of what it is.

So, in all a nice afternoon and evening, which started in Wagamama with spicy prawns and sticky rice (thanks for treating us to the food Chris & Helen) and finished in a quiet pub in St. Georges Street supping a glass of Adnams Old Ale.

It’s Curry Central in the Hall household today. I’m donning the chef’s hat again in an attempt to use all our balti dishes for a single meal!

We have a visitor coming down from Middlesbrough, so he’ll probably need warming up with a couple of chillified concoctions before sending him out to sample our local beer tonight!

On the menu: lamb rogan, chicken balti, dhal, saag aloo, mushroom bhaji, Bombay potato, Gujerati carrot and cabbage (that’s the missus’ speciality) and naan bread. Should keep everybody quiet for five minutes!

It’s that time of year again – the Norwich Beer Festival is held every October at St. Andrews & Blackfriars Hall, this year (the 32nd annual event) it runs from 26th to 31st of the month.

With over 200 cask-conditioned ales from independent brewers across the UK, a wide selection of draught and bottled foreign beers and 25 kinds of cider & perry to try, it’s a great place to visit. It’s become a bit of an annual pilgrimage for our family and there’ll be at least half a dozen of us in attendance on Monday. Always a friendly atmosphere there – it gets jam-packed but there’s never any bother. Everybody’s too engrossed in tasting the ale!

The latest industry publication, The Cask Report, reveals some interestings facts about the real ale market. Cask ale had…

Real ale is a comparative success story at a time when beer sales are in decline and pub closures are running at 52 a week.

I was chatting to a local publican the other day and asked him why he only offered a single brand of ale. He intimated that his ‘wet’ turnover was too small and that if he stocked more, he’d end up throwing half away (it needs to be fresh and in good condition to sell). I suggested he might be able to offer more choice of ales by approaching local brewers and stocking smaller polypins instead of 9-gallon barrels. That might also give his business a Unique Selling Point – purely locally-brewed ales and locally produced food. Would that be viable, I wonder?

A subject close to my heart – beer. Lager to be more precise – and Norfolk Pilsener lager to be even more preciser. Norfolk brewer Uncle Stuarts at Wroxham Barns have just brewed an authentic-style Pilsener which they hope will attract lager drinkers to their products.

I’m not sure it’ll appeal to the majority of lagerites, as I’m guessing the flavour may be a little too challenging for them – the major brands available in the UK are bland and characterless compared to craft beer. However, I’d like to try some (even though I usually prefer darker ales) as it’s probably a quality brew. I’ll look for it when I next visit The Real Ale Shop in Wells.

Read the whole story at the EDP website