The Brewery Tap, Norwich

Probably the best brewery tap room I have visited and I have visited a fair few over the years so that is praise indeed. Well described by previous reviewers this place is known locally as “the Barn”, and although architecturally it probably is, it is much more than that once you are inside, and is much closer to a true pub experience than it is to drinking alongside the fermentation vessels that a lot of brewery tap experiences are. There were several things that impressed me with this one, but primarily it was the available beer choice which was frankly stunning. 16 ales were available, 8 on handpumps along the bar and 8 from barrels on stillage in a side room behind the bar. As well as four of the breweries own products there were guest beers from all over the place in all styles to suit nearly all tastes, including cask products from Arbor, Tiny Rebel and Cloudwater. I went for the Vocation Naughty and Nice Salted Caramel Stout and it was sublime. Then on top of these there were 18 keg products which included an eclectic mix of modern craft offerings at modern craft price points. What was also impressive was how busy with likeminded drinkers the tap was on an early Friday afternoon, giving the place a really good vibe. One of these fellow drinkers it turned out was a member of the local CAMRA branch committee who, on seeing a large bunch of mainly CAMRA looking blokes on a crawl, demanded to know who we were in case we were a rival branch looking to diss his pubs. On establishing that we were not a threat he then demanded to see our crawl, only to pronounce “what idiot came up with this ?”. “Er, well me actually “ . Fortunately the members of PuG who would probably have punched the bloke at this point could not make the Norwich crawl and we had the opportunity to establish that he would not have had us going outside his beloved NR3 post code,and when being informed that we had to start and end at the station he agreed it wasn’t a bad attempt and then proceeded to accompany us around the next few pubs, providing useful local bus information to those that needed it.

The Fat Cat Brewery Tap is an open plan flagstone floored single room barn-like space with an apex roof with beams across that are covered with hops. The bar up the left wall is lined with hand pumps and there is more cask on stillage. Available during my recent Friday afternoon visit were six cask ciders, 3 cask perries, Fat Cat Norwich Bitter, Tom Cat, Tabby Cat and Marmalade alongside Fyne Ales Jarl and Vital Spark, Arbor Ales My Little Sabrony, Neptune Brewery’s Ezili, Zapato Brewing’s Tent, Vaux Brewery’s Freeborn, Vocation’s Naughty + Nice Salted Caramel Stout, Tiny Rebel’s Very Cherry, Oakham’s Green Devil and Bishop’s Farewell, Cloudwater’s In Your Heart and Three Blind Mice Brewery’s Melon Bomb. Quite a line up! Also available from the bar are rolls from a plastic container. At the rear is a beer fridge full of cans next to the rear exit to a half patio and half grass covered picnic table seating area. Breweriana is found mainly on the walls at either end of the barn, and the casks on stillage can be viewed through a window to the left of the bar and the entrance. It was busy in here, and rightly so, but given the choice I would choose the Fat Cat pub.

Seated beneath a forest canopy of hop bines, this is a big improvement on your typical tap. A half of Fat Cat Tabby Cat came in at a very reasonable £2.00. Proof that you need not drink in a pub to have a good drinking experience, but the barking dog was a bit of a pain; why would I drink here when there’s the real Fat Cat pub to enjoy?

Much better than the average brewery tap, a nice hall, sensibly decorated and furnished alongside and separate to the brewery section, rather than being squeezed in amongst the fermenters. A modern building, but once inside it feels very publike. Outside there is a patio area one side and a lawned area the other, but both suffer a little from traffic. 16 cask ales were claimed, on handpump or from the stillage - 4 of their own and guests from all over the place. Well worth the trek out from town.