Humpty Dumpty Brewery

Open Weekend - Reminder

Don't forget our Open Weekend, Saturday and Sunday 28-29 November, 2009 from 12 Noon to 5PM.

Map to the brewery (NR13 3TZ)  

Christmas Crack 2009, 6.0%

We are launching this year's bottled Christmas Crack at our Open Weekend at the Brewery, 28-29 November.  This year's beer is a malty brown English ale at 6.0% abv, spiced with a subtle blend of vanilla, orange and spices.  As one customer said of a tasting last week, "Christmas in a glass!"  Supplies are limited. 

We're also planning to have Christmas Crack on draught for the open weekend, as well as our new Swingbridge Stout and several other draught beers available for the Open Weekend.  Don't miss it!
 

East Anglia Pale Ale (EAPA), 4.6%

We were very pleased to learn this week that our East Anglia Pale Ale, a beer we produced especially for this year's India Pale Ale (IPA) competition at The Real Ale Shop  in Wells-next-the-Sea, took a joint gold medal. 

EAPA (the name plays off of East India Pale Ale, and pays homage to our East Anglian home) is a dry amber bitter at 4.6% with a strong finish from Amarillo hop flowers giving it a fresh, citrussy bouquet.  Beer experts Pete Brown and Mark Dorber pronounced it "an ale full of the quintessential IPA hoppiness."

We are thrilled with this success, but were not expecting to bring this beer to market so quickly, so we're still a little bit behind the curve.  Initially we'll have a small volume available only in bottles at The Real Ale Shop.  We'll also have a small volume available in casks this Christmas as "Santa's Surprise", after which we will have a more formal launch and regular availability of this beer in the New Year. 
 

Open Weekend 2009 28-29 November

We would like to invite you to visit the Humpty Dumpty Brewery for our 4th annual Open Weekend on 28-29 November from 12 Noon to 5PM both days. 

This is a great opportunity to take a closer look at our 11-barrel brewplant, meet the brewery team and taste a great range of our beers including this year's Christmas Crack,  a lightly spiced brown ale at 6%abv, and our new Swingbridge Stout, at 4.1%.

In addition to our own beers, we'll be offering samples of local country wines and ciders (including mulled cider), and we'll be sure to have some soft drinks and coffee for those who prefer to take it easier. 

We'll be featuring a number of foods made with Humpty Dumpty beers, including our own carbonnade recipe made with Railway Sleeper, perfect pork pies by Bray's Cottage made with our Humpty Dumpty Ale and chipolata sausages made with our award-winning Porter, made by Carters Butchers of Acle. 

Our shop will be open and well stocked with a wide variety of great Christmas gift ideas, including three-packs, mixed sampler cases and hampers with a variety of other local produce including honey, jams and chutneys. 

We hope you'll come by for a chat and a look at what we do at Humpty Dumpty Brewery.  We're located at Church Road, Reedham, NR13 3TZ.  If you're driving, follow the signs to Pettitts Animal Adventure Park -  we're right next door.  You can also come by train from Norwich, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. 

Radio Norfolk Treasure Quest - 1 November 2009

With the help of listeners, Treasure Quest brought Radio Norfolk presenter Jenny Kirk to the brewery exceptionally early this past Sunday, though Mary Anne was on the case and waiting to help Jenny away with her next clue.

The clue that led to Humpty Dumpty Brewery:

"The words never state the shape we think of, some say brandy and some say a gun. This small-bladed engine is a basket case, on sale but the clue is free for you."

The first line refers to the nursery rhyme, which never states that Humpty Dumpty is an egg - an association that came later from Alice in Wonderland. "Some say brandy and some say a gun" - refer to the obscure origins of Humpty Dumpty either as an ale-and-brandy drink of the 17th Century, or a cannon used in the siege of Colchester castle during the English Civil War. 

The small-bladed engine refers to our beer, Little Sharpie, which is named after an old class of locomotive, the Sharps.  The small blade reference is just to little and sharp.  And the basket case, on sale referred to the fact that the clue was in our "sale basket" where our award-winning Little Sharpie was the special of the month.  The clue, which took Jenny away to the Acle Coffee Shop, was free for her.

We really enjoyed participating in the Treasure Quest and you can listen again until November 8th if you're so inclined.