Mandy

Poppyland Brewery was created by a man named Martin Warren, in 2012, in the heart of Cromer. His basic philosophy was:

"It has to be fun and it has to pay its way. Apart from that, there are no rules."

My husband, Dave, and I took over the business in 2019, wanting to perpetuate the rich heritage that Martin established, with the same philosophy in place. We brew a selection of innovative beers and our own gin and other spirits. We take pride in every bottle we make here.

Currently eighty percent of the beer we produce is bottled, with the remaining beer being casked for local pubs. We plan to increase the availability of our cask beers in pubs, as everyone likes to visit their local for a pint of 'the finest'!

Our small batch still, known as 'Sasha', is perfect for either one-off gins, or reproducing the same gin time and time again. The still is in our brewery and stands proudly against the backdrop of the original garage office area. We also produce a vodka - and being based in Cromer, by the seaside, it seemed a natural progression to produce rum. Our Caribbean Cane Spirit is especially imported from the West Indies to give a defined taste.

We've had some exciting news very recently: we have now obtained a licence to sell alcohol in the brewery, enabling us to show case some of our innovative craft beers and spirits. We might be the smallest brewery tap room in England!

I first came to Cromer forty years ago, fell in love with the place and stayed. I've run a few businesses since then. We're a small team here and we plan to keep it that way. Expansion brings with it certain headaches and we are enjoying what we're doing now, at the scale that we're doing it. We have a nice customer base that we are happy to continue to serve.