Team Moon Gazer was well chuffed, (along with 3 other Norfolk brewers who collaborated with Belgian counterparts as part of this year’s City of Ale) to have our beer showcased at the annual British Guild of Beer Writers awards ceremony at a lavish event at The Big Penny Social, in London this week.
The brewers represented were ourselves, Poppyland Brewery, of Cromer, Grain Brewery of Aldburgh and Tindall Brewery, of Seething. The beers were served to the great and good of the beer world including the leading industry beer writers and experts.
Each of the beers was a collaboration between Norfolk and Belgian brewers.
To be at the event was a great accolade for the brewery and highlighted the interest created when Norwich and Leuven twinned as ‘beer cities’ back in May this year.
The original idea for the “twinning” of the cities through beer was the brainchild of acclaimed beer writer Roger Protz, who saw the synergises between Norfolk and Flanders as beer regions, and particularly the two regional cities.”
By bringing the 8 brewers together and creating new beers it was hoped to create new relationships and ties between the two regions and help promote our shared love of beers.
The collaboration saw us Norfolk brewers showcase beers at the world-renowned Leuven Innovation Beer Festival in May, followed by a return visit to the City of Ale by the Belgian brewers in the same month.
Sadly Mr Moon Gazer was unable to attend the event in person but Mike Tindall, owner of Tindall Ales stepped in to attend the event and convey the story to beer specialists and writers and further promote the two regions, saying:
It was a great honour to have our beers at the event, to promote Norfolk and Flanders and to show how by collaborating we can all make beer more exciting and inclusive.
The collaborative beers created were:
Dark Hare (Donkere Haas) (ABV 4.5%) was created by Moon Gazer Ales and the Adept brewery, whose aim was to take a very old Belgian style beer and fuse it with a more traditional British style beer.
Coffee Pale (ABV 4.2%) is a fruity beer created by Michael Green from Tindall Ales Brewery and Jef Janssens from Hof ten Dormaal , two young brewers working in their family breweries. Bo
Strangers No More (ABV4.8) is a Belgian-style dark beer created as part of a collaboration from Grain Brewery’s Phil Halls in Norwich and Braxatorium Parcensis’ Joris Brams located in Leuven.
Strangers WitBier (ABV 5.5) is a Belgian Witbier and is a creation from Poppyland Brewery and Distillery in Norwich fronted by David Cornell and Bart Delvaux from the De Coureur brewery.
We plan further collaborations and events in the coming year, so keep your eyes peeled.