Our Beers

10,000 – 15,000 years ago man stopped being a nomadic hunter and turned to farming the land. He grew grains including barley and wheat. The oldest proven record of beer dates back 6,000 years to Mesopotamia. Barley was used by the locals giving a drink making the Mesopotamians feel "exhilarated, wonderful and blissful" – beer was born. It was a "divine drink" and certainly a gift from the gods.

Things progressed very nicely with techniques and quality improving until Norwich in the 20th century. Here a brewer called Watneys bought out two good breweries; Bullards and Steward & Patteson to gain control of most of the pubs in the city. In 1977 they tried to disguise themselves by changing their name to the Norwich Brewery Company. But the locals would not be fooled as the brewery still produced the same old keg beers which were insipid, bland and low in character and alcohol. In fact the locals started to be put off beer for life. In 1985 the locals refused to buy or drink anymore of this beer so the brewery thankfully stopped brewing and was demolished. About this time Mr. WHY NOT of Norwich was also suffering after being brought up on this beer so he decided to experiment with brewing himself. It took him 25 years to perfect techniques and recipes but today I think, that once you have tried them, you will agree that it has been worth the wait.

All tasting notes adapted from "The Good Bottled Beer Guide" 2006 by Jeff Evans