The region's breweries and pubs are facing a harsh winter ahead, but will the pre-Christmas party season and football World Cup starting next month help save the sector? DERIN CLARK speaks to local breweries to find out their hopes for the coming weeks.
After a painful pandemic, breweries and pubs have had no time to recover before being thrown a host of new challenges as inflation and energy costs soar.
With the clocks set to fall back this weekend the sector is preparing for a bleak few months.
The biggest issue breweries are currently dealing with is spiralling energy costs, which is not only hitting their own businesses but also their customers and suppliers.
David Holliday, director of Norfolk Brewhouse, said that this is a "perfect storm" for his brewery.
"Our energy costs have risen by a minimum of £20,000 to £25,000 a year, even with the government support," he said.
"The bulk of who we sell to are pubs, which are seeing £50,000 to £60,000 energy increases themselves.
"All our raw materials are also going up.
"We use malting barley - which is all grown in Norfolk - but to malt the barley is energy intensive and their costs have also gone up.
"A big challenge is that although inflation is at 10pc, in reality our suppliers' inflation is at 100-200pc.
"Our cleaning chemicals, for example, went up by 300pc last month.
"We have passed on some of this cost to our customers, but we want to ensure that we support pubs, which are facing their own difficulties, so we will take a hit to a degree."
Jamie Prideaux, managing director of Barsham Brewery, said that his north Norfolk brewery has resisted putting up prices at the moment, but has seen its energy costs rise by at least 75pc.
"This is despite being on the best tariff we can be on," he added.
"We don't want to pass on cost increases to pubs as we know they are facing their own challenges.
"Our plan at the moment is to wait until early 2023, which is the traditional time for price increases to be made in the brewery sector.
"To do this we have looked at all our costs to get the best price.
"We've also been making sure the business runs as efficiently as possible.
"For example if we have a beer that is not selling well we brew it less frequently."
Prior to the pandemic the brewery industry had been growing steadily in the UK.
Figures from the Brewers Journal reveal that there were 2,542 breweries across the nation in 2018, this increased to 2,802 in 2019 and rose again to 3,018 in 2020.
Although Covid lockdowns severely affected the hospitality industry, most breweries managed to survive the pandemic.
With its strong agriculture industry, Norfolk and Suffolk is a popular region for breweries as there are a high number of farms able to provide crops for the brewing process.
Along with many independent microbreweries, East Anglia is also home to nationally recognised beer and ale brands.
Adnams has been running its brewery from Southwold, Suffolk, for 150 years.
Its CEO Andy Wood said that "quickly following along from the pandemic the current situation must rate among the most challenging the business has faced in modern times".
He continued: "We are not alone in this and across our sector, we are aware of everybody doing all they can to mitigate the worst of the impacts."
Both Mr Wood and Mr Holliday highlighted the political turmoil of the last few months as exasperating the challenges facing the industry.
"The recent mini-budget and its aftermath have only contributed to more uncertainty and we are hopeful that a new prime minister and chancellor will be able to restore confidence against the difficult economic backdrop the UK faces," Mr Wood said.
"In doing so we hope that customers feel prepared to visit pubs and bars to celebrate as this troublesome year draws to a close.
"Pubs in particular face yet another existential crisis and we and others in our industry are keen to speak to the chancellor to ensure a package of support is available that sees the thousands of small businesses that constitute the nation's pub estate make it through the winter period.
"Collectively pubs employ more than 2m people and are so important to local communities.
"Throughout, we continue to invest in our people so they feel empowered to deliver the great service and experience our customers have come to expect when they are a guest or customer of Adnams."
Mr Holliday said that at the moment all he can do is "grin and bear it", while "hoping for a light at the end of tunnel".
Despite the difficulties, he is optimistic that the region's strong tourism industry and upcoming World Cup and Christmas party season will help the sector.
"We are blessed we've got a very active tourism industry," he said.
"And we're fortunate we've got an active pub trade.
"We are facing a bleak winter and all we can do is our best."
Mr Holliday said that the brewery has been regularly bringing out new beers to try and keep drinkers returning to pubs.
"To coincide with the start of the football tournament we are bringing out our special World Cup beer - 'Skipper'.
"The World Cup is a great event that brings people together and into pubs and we hope that will happen again this year.
"We know it will be more challenging this year with the cost of living crisis, but we hope that people will want to go out to celebrate Christmas and the football."
Mr Prideaux is also hopeful that the combination of Christmas and the World Cup will draw people out.
"I really think it will," he said.
"Christmas party bookings are fairly robust from what I'm being told.
"We're optimistic that November will be a strong month for the sector."
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