National Winter Ales Festival

The National Winter Ales Festival (often shortened to NWAF) is a yearly event organized by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). The purpose of the event is to showcase the best real ales available in the UK in the winter months (for example stouts and porters). It was first held in 1997 to give more exposure to these styles of beer as they are often not available during the summer when its sister festival, the larger Great British Beer Festival, is held. NWAF is also home to the Champion Winter Beer of Britain awards. The festival will not just have dark heavy winter ales though and will aim to cater for everyone's palette

The festival is generally held in January or February of each year; however there were two festivals in 1997, one at each end of the year. The first one gave the awards for 1996/7 and the second for 1997/8; there was no festival in 1998. The 2011 festival was held January 19–22. Derby was the host city for 2014 to 2016 where the event was held at the Roundhouse, right by Derby Rail station. Allocated on 3 year cycle national CAMRA branches around England were asked in November 2015 to pitch for the event from 2017. Branch Secretary for Norwich and Norfolk CAMRA, Rob Whitmore, led the bid from Norwich. http://www.norwichcamra.org.uk/

The bid was successful and the city of Norwich will host the national event from Feb 2017 and for years 2018 and 2019. The 2017 event will be held at the iconic venue known as the Halls. https://www.thehallsnorwich.com/Pages/home.aspxA Medieval Halls complex in Norwich consisting of St Andrews Hall and Blackfriars Hall.

Important dates for your diary then - February 21st to the 25th, the dates for NWAF 2017 in Norwich.

Venues

External links

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