Lager being brewed again in Norwich David Bale

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Amy Hancock and her business partner, Benjamin Thompson, who have started up the Redwell Brewery. with them is brewer David Jones, left. Picture: Denise Bradley Archant

Bosses at a new brewery near County Hall in Norwich claim to be the first to brew lager in the city for more than 30 years.

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The surge in the number of breweries starting up in Norfolk in recent years has generally been down to an increase in the popularity of real ales.

But the people running Redwell Brewery, in the Arches, Bracondale, are just as passionate about lager, and are confident that they are the first to brew lager in the city for three decades.

The first batch of Redwell Craft Pilsner is now on draught at the Norwich Tap House in Redwell Street, where the name comes from, and the brewery has been launched with three lagers - a pilsner with 4pc ABV, a 5pc ABV original lager and a 4.6pc ABV steam lager - plus a 4pc ABV pale ale and a 6pc ABV IPA.

The chief brewer is David Jones, who now lives in Norwich, but has been brewing in Scandinavia for about 25 years, and the brewery is run by directors Patrick Fisher, Benjamin Thompson, Michael Baxter and Amy Hancock.

Miss Hancock said: “While other microbreweries focus on ale we are focusing on lager, which makes us unique. I don’t think lager has been brewed in Norwich since Watney Mann in the 1980s.

“What we want to do is create a viable alternative to mass produced beer, and produce a product that Norwich can be really proud of.

“It’s crazy that there are not the same number of people passionate about creating good quality lager, as there are about creating ale. It will also help publicans reduce their food miles as we are just a few miles away from the pubs in Norwich.”

The brewing industry was one of the most important and lucrative industries in Norwich’s past, with its success stretching over hundreds of years, and she said it was great to be based so close to where it all began.

Mr Thompson said that the word ‘lager’ is German for ‘storage’ and their beers would be different to mass produced lager in that there would be “a lot of time, effort and care going into them”.

The four directors all live in the Norwich area and have been in the industry, although not directly involved in brewing, for a long time.

The design on Redwell’s bottles and other merchandise was created by third year graphic designers at NUA .

The news has been welcomed by the Norwich and Norfolk branch of Camra, whose spokesman Warren Wordsworth said: “Although lager does not come under real ales, we certainly welcome a new brewery in Norwich. Some breweries have ben producing light brews using lager hops, but I don’t know any in Norwich that are producing an ‘out and out copy’ of lager, as this one is.”

It comes as the legendary Lacons Brewery is reopening after being closed for 45 years and crafting three permanent ales.

Lacons started in Great Yarmouth in 1760, and the firm’s renowned ales were an integral part of life in the region and beyond until the late 1960s, when the national brewer Whitbread bought it.

Within the next 12 months, the new Falcon Brewery, in Main Cross Road, Yarmouth, will produce more than 28,000 pints of beer weekly using a 20-barrel brewing plant. However, production will initially start at 100 casks per week.

The new brewery is being launched on Tuesday, May 21, with a ceremony including an original Lacons dray. Lacons ales will be available to the public at the City of Ale launch party at St Gregory’s in Norwich on Thursday, May 23, and at the Great Yarmouth Beer and Cider Festival, which runs from May 23 to May 26, at St George’s Theatre.

Anyone interested in Redwell Brewery’s products can call them on 01603 624072, visit website www.redwellbrewing.com; Twitter is @redwellbeer, Facebook is redwell brewing