Poppyland BeerCromer's very own microbrewery
Now in its third year of operation Poppyland Brewery has gained a reputation for doing different. For me, Martin Warren the Poppyland Brewer, it is a challenge in semi-retirement, a means of self expression and it helps to satisfy my creative instincts. Hopefully I can make a small living too. As an ex-museum curator I cannot help myself from revelling in the character and culture of North Norfolk and I reflect this in my beers. I produce extraordinary ales that are far removed from industrial beer found in supermarkets or even beer found in British pubs. I am exploring just what beer can be, using the best ingredients and new techniques, seeking to innovate and aiming to really please my customers. I often draw inspiration from the local environment and local history. Where I can I use local ingredients - wild and cultivated. Where I can't, I get the best ingredients from all over the world - like hops and yeasts. I don't want people to say, Mmm, that's okay. I want them to say Wow! That's amazing!
Being a very small business I am able to brew small batches of different beer all the time, always creating great new flavours. This means that stocks will quickly run out but hopefully you will appreciate the uniqueness, quality and depth of flavours that I can develop when hand crafting beer. I hope you will be eager to try my next production, as every batch is unique and explores another facet of the multidimensional beer map.
At my scale I can't compete on price. I give you flavour and hand crafted quality. My beers may appear expensive but they deliver greater impact and satisfaction than ordinary beers, so they do represent value for money. See the warm appreciation of my customers. My beers have character. I am sure you will remember these beers and talk about them with your friends. A bottle should entertain you for quite a while. It's not just for quaffing. You drink less for greater satisfaction. If you can't manage to drink it all in one sitting, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that an opened bottle will keep a day or more on a cool shelf (pop the cap back on to keep the fruit flies out) and it will drink much the same as when freshly opened, just with a bit less condition (like a draft beer); not at all flat and tasteless as other beers may be.
Situated between Cromer town centre and the railway station, housed in a former motor garage, Poppyland Brewery is where I brew extraordinary ales - bottled Saisons, IPAs, porters, fruit beers and more. Belgian- and American-inspired, these beers are unusual, often with extravagant ingredients, fascinating flavours and aromas. These beers are not in the mainstream. Every brew is exploring just what beers can be.
Visitors are welcome.
You are welcome to come and look inside, see how beer is made, have a chat and maybe buy some beer. Knock at the brewery door, or call at Chesterfield Lodge a few steps up the road (just out of picture, to the left) or ring me on 07887 389 804.
Cheers
Martin Warren, The Poppyland Brewer
Here's a review of Poppyland Brewery and beers from Pints and Pubs.
Great brewery profile and beer reviews from Rob Derbyshire of Hopzine.
What's in stock?
Recent brews
 | Saison Alexanders IN STOCK |
 | Rhino Rye IPA IN STOCK |
 | The Lost World IN STOCK |
 | Hawkey Frolic IN STOCK |
 | East Coast India Pale Ale COMING SOON |
Gluten-free policy
For the benefit of coeliacs and customers with gluten intolerance all Poppyland beers are now treated during fermentation with Brewers Clarex. This is commonly used to reduce 'chill haze'. It contains an enzyme (a Proline specific endo-protease) that cleaves the long gluten molecules into their constituent peptides. It requires only a small dose and does not affect the drinking or other qualities of the beer but it does render the beer 'gluten-free', that is, less than 20 parts per million gluten. Every batch is tested with an competitive ELISA assay by an independent laboratory to verify that it is below the internationally recognised threshold of 20ppm and the results are posted on the web page for that beer. It is hoped that customers who suffer with gluten-related problems will enjoy these beers, even though they are made from 'normal' ingredients including barley and wheat. Those with especially serious sensitivity are advised to 'proceed with caution' until they are satisfied that it is safe for them to do so.
To re-iterate, these beers do not compromise on flavour or ingredients. They are same beer I would brew anyway. I simply render them gluten free with an enzyme. Maybe more brewers could do that.
Also see my Blog
Total ales Beer blog
http://totalales.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/celia-organic-gluten-free-lager.html
"There is a small range of gluten free beers doing the rounds in the UK from the likes of Stringers, St. Peters, Poppyland and even Mikkeller but when I spoke to the same friends about these options the complaint was almost unanimous, most gluten free beers they'd tried were too bitter for their tastes."
Comment:
Anonymous 12 November 2014 at 15:23
"Just to add, many new Poppyland beers are classified gluten free and that is a brewery that is very creative and pushing boundaries with flavours, best of both worlds!"
...and wearing my Northfolk Geology Walks hat, here's the 2015 programme
See my other website www.northfolk.org.uk/geology.html
MRW:24.10.2014
Brewing soon
Empress Elisabeth was brewed on 14 November 2014: An imperial porter; now barrel-aging in a 225 litre French wine cask. Not sure when that will be released.
Hawkey Frolic: strong harvest ale featuring Branthill Maris Otter and a 1958 Norwich yeast will be released on 17 September 2015 at the Maris Otter 50 Festival.
Forty litres of the Hawkey Frolic is currently aging in a 'new' Theakston's oak firkin (that was remade by their cooper Jonathan Manby at Masham from old barrel staves and new hoops and new Bavarian oak headers).
Oak aged East Coast IPA in 275ml bottles are coming soon.
Latest News
Poppyland on the Beeb
Poppyland Brewery received some very welcome publicity when Martin Warren was invited to make a film with David Whiteley for his regular Monday night show Inside Out East. David wanted to film a beer being made, so a plan was hatched to create an old fashioned harvest ale - Hawkey Frolic - using the famous 50-year-old Maris Otter variety of barley malt and an historic 1958 Norwich yeast from the National Collection of Yeast Cultures (NCYC) and this would be debuted at the Maris Otter 50 Beer Festival. You can see the result on BBC iPlayer here or on Youtube here and you can read about the beer here.
Poppyland Gets Gold!
Poppyland has medalled for the second year running in the CAMRA Bottled Beer of the Year Competition. The extremely rare Days of Empire received a GOLD in the unique category (for one-off brews) and On the Edge won SILVER in the Speciality Beers category. I must be doing something right. Sadly, neither of these beers is currently in stock but there will be more On the Edge later this year and if I can obtain some more Chevallier malt I will create another beer to showcase it.
Britain's Brewing Revolution
Poppyland Brewery was highlighted in a book celebrating the most influential locations in the nation's flourishing beer scene.
"Britain's Beer Revolution, published by the Campaign for Real Ale, includes the brewery at Cromer. The book is a contemporary look at the most influential breweries, places and people and what makes them so special." So said the Evening News.
The book was published on 23 October 2014 and is available from the CAMRA website www.camra.org.uk
The Norfolk Gluten Free Shop
I am delighted to announce that as of 9 October 2014 Poppyland Beers are stocked at Louisa Kiddell's Norfolk Gluten Free Shop at Hellesdon Barns, just off Sweetbriar Road, Norwich. See their Facebook page. Stocks are small, so call them first to check what's on offer: 07872 529379
Poppyland East Coast voted Joint Winner of 10th Anniversary Ale Competition
The Real Ale Shop on Branthill Farm near Wells next the Sea celebrated its 10th anniversary on the weekend of 31 May-1 June 2014 and farmer Teddy Maufe invited his micro-brewer suppliers to create a 10th Anniversary Ale. I am delighted to announce that Poppyland was awarded Joint Winner with it's East Coast IPA 7% ale, alongside Beeston Brewery's Village Life. This ale features the Maris Otter malt grown on Branthill Farm and floor malted at Crisp's not far away at Great Ryburgh. The mash tun was loaded with all the malt it could hold and this was balanced with oodles of American and New Zealand hops to create a huge American IPA. It proved popular at the Cambridge Beer Festival in cask as well as in bottle and has become a regular Poppyland brew.Read about it in the EDP.
Review of three Poppyland beers
Here's a great review and brewery profile on Youtube from Hopzine's reviewer Rob Derbyshire (Hole in the Rain, Indian Summer and Black Poppy):
https://www.facebook.com/PoppylandBeer/posts/10152354799441535
Open Brewery
Come to the brewery on most days. You should be able to have a look around, see the brewing kit and talk to Martin Warren, the Poppyland Brewer. You can also buy beer any day of the week (7am-11pm). Just call at my house (Chesterfield Lodge, West Street) near the brewery or ring 07887 389804 and I will be pleased to serve you.
Poppyland out and about in 2015
See you at Cromer Christmas Market
CAMRA Bottled Beer Competition 2013
Poppyland picked up two awards in the Norwich and Norfolk CAMRA Bottled Beer of the Year Competition 2013. Poppyland Beers were awarded a silver in the speciality beers section for its Crab Saison and a bronze in the strong bitter section for Happy Valley IPA. This was the first competition Poppyland has entered, so thank you to all those volunteer judges who had to drink their way through all the bottles of the 43 beers (three bottles each), from 12 breweries, that were entered. It must have been a labour of love. Full results here.
Poppyland gets welcome publicity from CAMRA
The autumn of 2013 saw Poppyland gaining widespread recognition from national beer writer Roger Protz, who ran an article in What's Brewing (CAMRA's national newspaper) on the revival of the Chevallier variety of barley by scientists at the John Innes Centre and the brew called 'Days of Empire' (see below). This was followed by two articles in the Winter Edition of Norfolk Nips one featuring the Chevallier malt (see page 14) and the other profiling Martin Warren and the Poppyland Brewery (see page 20). Many thanks to guest writer Roger Protz and editor Mike Baldwin.
Days of Empire - the taste of history
Sold out!
You won't have tasted anything like this before. No one in living memory has tasted beer like this; made from a variety of malt that was popular and widely used in the 19th century but commercially extinct by the Second World War. It is the taste of beer that was enjoyed when the Poppyland Brewery premises were built as a motor garage in 1905. It is the flavour of beer when 'Poppyland' was first coined by the writer Clement Scott in the 1880s and it was the flavour of beer swigged by the poet Charles Algenon Swinburne when he was drawn to Poppyland in Clement Scott's footsteps. Now those flavours of malt, complimented by old landrace varieties of hops have been revived by Poppyland Brewery and you can savour them too.
The Chevallier heritage variety of barley dates from the 1820s. Some was grown up from a small amount of seed stored at the John Innes Centre in Norwich as part of a research project and has been floor malted by Crisps at Great Ryburgh in Norfolk. Now a tiny quantity of this barley has been made available to Poppyland Brewery and made into a batch of strong ale to showcase the incredible malty flavour. It isn't available in any retail outlets. If you want to taste this very rare beer - only 50 bottles were made - the last I heard they have some at Bacchanalia Cambridge, The Curious Hop, Otley and Beautiful Beers, Bury St Edmunds. See the Buying section for address details.
Progress at the brewery
The brewing kit from Brendan Moore of the Iceni Brewery is pretty well complete and we have a working brewery. The third vessel - a fermenter - came on 22 July 2013 and it was immediately put to good use fermenting a new Saison IPA fusion Indian Summer.
Brewery launch in 2012
See the article in the Eastern Daily Press about the launch of Poppyland Brewery at the end of June 2012. At that time I was gypsy brewing. I was slightly non-plussed to see that on their website that have tagged the article with the keywords 'local shopping' and 'odd'. What a cheek I thought, although my wife totally agrees.
Now I am brewing on the premises, the EDP has done another article (click here). They are very good to me.
Brewing Britain: The Quest for the Perfect Pint
Published in October 2013, Andy Hamilton's "Brewing Britain, The Quest for the Perfect Pint and How to Make It" is an excellent read and is full of useful information. I was delighted to learn that the author has selected Poppyland Brewery to be included in the book, one of only 64 chosen from more than 1000 breweries in Britain today. He relates the following experience, dating from 8 September 2012:
Seafood Lovers' Ale, 7.1%, Poppyland, Cromer, Norfolk
"One of the whole reasons for creating a Saison chapter in a book about British beer was not just to be thorough, but to mention this beer. I'd headed east as far as you can go and still be in Britain, and was exploring Norfolk by train. Unfortunately the pubs we were finding either sold beer that I'd already tried, had closed down or were shut for refurbishment. We were starting to lose heart as we soberly traipsed the streets of Cromer. Then, on a residential street, we saw a shop window full of beer neatly displayed in baskets along with a note asking passers-by to call a number. I did so and a rather short, red-faced man came bounding across the street with a basket full of beer. He took us to where his beer conditions - a rather dusty looking room with home-made shelving laden with beer, more shelving in bits waiting to me made, and barrels gurgling away with a secondary fermentation of On the Edge. Martin (the brewer) remarked on the smell. This was the first time I had smelt Saison actually brewing - a smell that filled the air with the haybarns of Wallonia.
"I took the beer away. This time I was forced to wait for it, as not long after this trip my son was born and beer had to take a back seat for a while. When I eventually popped the cork, the room filled again with that haybarn smell.
"When I drank it, I was amazed. Had I found my perfect pint? It was not far off, and was certainly the perfect pint of Saison."
Poppyland is catching on
"Update - I'm being increasingly impressed by Poppyland. If they were from East London rather than North Norfolk then craft wankers would be having a collective nerdgasm over them, as it is they still seem to be too underground for the underground. But yeah, I've had some excellent hoppy saisons from them, a good American style IPA and a fairly mega Austrian Imperial Stout - I've had 6.6% of the world's total supply of the latter." Slothrop on Dissensus
Follow me
Have a look at my Northfolk Project website to see what else I am up to, including Geology Walks in North Norfolk, or visit my blog. You can also see me on Facebook and Twitter (@cliff_bunny and @poppylandbeer).
Cheers. Talk to you soon...
Martin
Visiting the Poppyland Microbrewery at 46 West Street, Cromer, Norfolk NR27 9DS
If you would like to visit, call me on my mobile 07887 389804 or make a booking by email: martin.warren[at]talktalk.net.
The Bittern Line - Norfolk's pretty railway line connecting Norwich with the coast comes to Cromer. The train station is only 180 metres away.
The Coasthopper Bus runs the length of the North Norfolk coast. The bus station is only 130 metres away. If you are doing a pub crawl along the coast, why not visit the brewery too and pick up something to take home?
If you are coming to Cromer to do your shopping the brewery is only 180m down the hill from Morrison's supermarket and 200m out from the dead centre of Cromer. We are 140m from the Meadow Car Park and 350m from the beach.
Get a map of our location. Grid reference: TG 21635 42082
Funding
The majority of financial investment in the business is my own but I am very grateful for training and continuing support and advice from the Barley to Beer Project which is led by Brendan Moore of the East Anglian Brewers Cooperative. The Barley to Beer Project receives financial support from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE). The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) is funded by Defra and the EU.
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