Hop In, North Walsham

A classic micropub in a narrow building and the beers in cooling jackets racked behind the small bar counter. Six beers on at the time of my visit but most of them were not known to me so the helpful and welcoming server went through them for me and I settled for the Tindall Galaxy Dream. It had just come on, I was told, and it was a little green and also not quite clear, but there was no doubting the flavour of those galaxy hops (NBSS 3, £4.80/pint). There's not much seating in front of the bar, but there's more upstairs (very steep - the toilet's up there too) and they seem to have created some outdoor seating too, though not in use on a rainy February afternoon. I might have to come back by train next time I stay at Sheringham.

The Hop In was my reason for visiting the Norfolk market town of North Walsham. Seeing that this micropub had won the Norwich & District CAMRA pub of the year and cider pub of the year competitions last year, I thought it had to be something special to beat all that Norwich has to offer. There is a small downstairs room with 2 or 3 tables and an overflow room upstairs where we sat. There are also tables outside on the pavement in nice weather. As such, most customers were drinking outdoors. Table service was still in operation here. This was fine apart from the fact that I had to venture downstairs to place an order. The 6 real ales are dispensed by gravity from behind the bar. These were Elephant School Aussie Blonde, Parkway Cheeky Monkey & Mumbo Jumbo, Billericay Vanilla Bark, Mr Winter's Twisted Ladder & Ampersand Pulpit Pale Ale. In addition there were 5 ciders - SeaCider Raspberry Ripple, Ginger Bread Cider, Bourbon Barrel Cider & Grapefruit Cider & Lilley's Rhubarb Cider. The Grapefruit Cider was very refreshing and the Vanilla Bark was my kind of beer. I'm a fan of micropubs and this was an above average version of the trend, but I'm surprised that this trumped Norwich hostelries such as the Fat Cat, the Plasterers and the White Lion.

Micropub as per; half-a-dozen local-ish ales served from jacketed kegs behind the bar, as well as a dozen ciders from all over and absolutely no keg of any sort. 4 small tables, each seating 4; there's even a sign saying "No Wi-Fi - talk to each other", so nothing at all here to irk the purist. It's all pretty basic, but friendly enough and my swift half was fine. No idea how this stacks up against North Walsham's other offerings, but it's worth a look-in if you're in town.