Pub Watch: The Fat Cat (Norwich, Norfolk)

A couple of weekends back it was Bank Holiday Monday over here and Anna and I decided to get a hire car and drive up to Norfolk for the weekend. First stop was Norwich, where surprise surprise, I had heard there were a number of very fine pubs. After we arrived late Saturday afternoon, we set off in search of a few of these pubs that sat out in the suburbs. Little did I know the great pub I was to come across - maybe the most impressive I have ever been to.

Of course, I had done some research and I did know The Fat Cat was going to be a good one. The CAMRA Good Beer Guide had said "a treasure trove of a pub and a real ale drinker's paradise". It has also twice won the CAMRA National Pub of the Year (1998 & 2004), so its credentials were there. After already having a couple of pints at our first pub (The Alexandra Tavern) it was only a gentle walk a couple of blocks to The Fat Cat.
From the outside it doesn't look anything too special, a standard red brick building (of which there were plenty in Norwich) with a few tables outside. But is was inside that the fun began....

Walking into the pub it was clear they weren't kidding when they said a real ale drinker's paradise. At the bar, there looked to be about 15 handpumps with many beers I hadn't seen before. And then I noticed that there was another room behind the bar where there were a number of casks lined up serving gravity fed ale (where the ale is served straight from a tap in the cask). It was then that I noticed the blackboard listing all the ales available and fell into a mix of astonishment and euphoria.
You can count them - no less than 27 real ales listed, and in fact there was another four on a specials board, so it was really 31. Add to that the keg beers they had on draught (which ranged from the usual Guinness and Stella Artois to Belgium beers like Liefmans and Leffe), and there was over 40 different beers to choose from. I didn't even bother looking at the bottled beers, but I am sure they would have had a fair range there too.

So without further adieu, I got cracking to sampling some new ales, including some from the their own Fat Cat stables. In all, four new ales tasted by myself, the best being the Fat Cat Pussy Galore, a cask pilsener - which is unusual - with a light citrus hop aroma and good peach and citrus flavours. Anna had a couple of half pints of the Fat Cat Meow Mild (after being recently converted to the joy of Mild Ales) - which had a strong chocolate flavour with a little cherry fruit and a tangy mouthfeel l that belied its 3.8%.

Apart from having an incredible selection of beer, the Fat Cat was also simply a great pub, with lots of rooms and nooks and crannies, and a good atmosphere inside. It was also very popular and locals obviously make the effort to go out to this beauty. And why not, I doubt there is a better pub for many a mile, if at all. It was difficult to pull myself away with so many beers not sampled, but the rest of Norwich (including a superb dinner) beckoned....