Norway: Organisers of the 27th Norwich Beer Festival are thrilled with the attendance at the event - which proved to be one of the most successful yet. When time was called on the six-day festival on Saturday night, organisers had reached their target of 15,000 visitors, and they are already planning for next year. More than 200 cask-conditioned real ales from Britain's independent brewers were on sale, along with a bottled-beer stall selling British and Continental brews, Archant Regional posted on November 2.

Alan Edwards, spokesman for the Norfolk and Norwich branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), yesterday said: "We had to have three re-orders from local brewers and are grateful to them and also to the thirst of the public. "We were astounded by the attendance at lunchtimes, it was a real improvement - particularly on Friday and Saturday. "We would also like to thank the festival volunteers. Although we closed at 11pm on Saturday, they were back at 8am yesterday to help clear up and we didn't finish until 5pm."

The overall winning beer of the festival was Winter's Revenge by Winter's Brewery, which also won the strong bitter category. The brewery also picked up best bitter with Winter's Golden Ale. In the mild category, the Waveney Brewery, run from the Queen's Head at Earsham, near Bungay, hit the mark with East Coast Mild. The bitter category was scooped by Bowland Brewery with Sawley Tempted, while the old stout and porter category went to Old Chimney's Brewery, from Market Weston, near Diss, with Good King Henry.

For the first time, three brewers tied the speciality beers category, with Fuller's Brewery's Honey Dew, Glastonbury Brewery's Holy Thorn and Humpty Dumpty at Reedham with Lemon and Ginger all firm favourites. Trevor Greenwood won the cider category for the third year in a row with Greenwood's Dry Cider while the perry category when to the Welsh Troggi Perri.

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