retiredmartin

 

You’ll know that Norwich are doing some City of Beer thing this week because they shout about it a lot.  Essentially a “my city’s got more pumps than yours” shout-out, to which Derby, Sheffield and (regrettably) Manchester respond like a seven year old child.

Luckily Dick and Dave aren’t suckered in by this nonsense, heading for Halifax, Burton and Worcester where it’s all about quality beer and curry.

But Norwich has some fine pubs, even if they mirror Cambridge in a certain homogeneity of punter.

And beer quality, as opposed to range, varies a lot these days.

But I was in Norwich not for pubs, but for “New Noise“, a musical category I just made up and will sell to the NME for a fiver I can then use to watch Thyla again..  Thyla, you’ll remember, are the sort of long haired power posters you can still see for a few quid before they get featured in the Guardian music section.

So well done Norwich Arts Centre and ADM & Dork for putting this on in competition with the Blossoms at the UEA.

But first of all, some gorgeous Norwich churches,

and a record shop for Pub Curmudgeon and BRAPA (no Dylan mind),

and strangely normal street art.

Just to remind myself that Norwich is a real place, I visited the Anglia Square, which fans of shopping centres will enjoy.

You can’t come to Norwich and not meet its most famous beer blogger Nate, responsible for the Campaign for Excellent Lager and an excellent recent guide to the Nuremberg bar scene.

The Cat & Fiddle looks the best bet for excellent lager, but is permanently closed. Typical.

So the Cottage it is, then.

The Cottage scored those precious 3 ticks for beer quality last time out, so gets a return visit to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t.

Being anti-Norwich, it was almost entirely populated by 25-35 year old Nor-folkians and their toddlers, listening to some supremely un-punk acoustic strumming.

You’ll have seen the craft/cask line-up before, but I thought this was a particularly good one, and the staff seemed extraordinarily enthusiastic their beers, eventually flogging me the Cloudwater Baltic Porter I so enjoy.

The house Grain beer was a masterpiece; cool and foamy (NBSS 4), maintaining the record for quality in north Norwich.

Nate was good company, judging from my notes, which simply say “Bo Ningen v Boris – must listen”.  They’re Japanese doom metal bands even my lad hasn’t heard of.  I resisted the opportunity to join the Campaign for Excellent Lager.

Norwich looked very Norwich on the way back to the Arts Centre.

And Thyla were Thyla, the best noise on the planet.  Apart from the noise that Simon makes when he sees a Twild, of course.