Region & History

East Anglia is the name for England's flat eastern corner, a wide land of barley fields, marshes, and coastline. It mainly refers to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, with Cambridgeshire often included. Ask about beer here, and you'll land on barley first—and the brewery only after.

The coastal ports were tied to trade across the North Sea as far back as the Middle Ages. In King's Lynn, merchants of the Hanseatic League kept a trading post, and their warehouse still stands today. The hops in English beer are considered a Continental import, often linked to immigrants from Flanders.

In Bury St Edmunds, a market town in Suffolk, Benjamin Greene founded the brewery that would become Greene King in 1799, according to the company. Today it's the biggest name in the region, with Greene King IPA and Abbot Ale in its range. In 2019, CK Asset Holdings, a Hong Kong property conglomerate, took over the company, which also owns a large pub chain.

The coastal town of Southwold offers a counterpoint. George and Ernest Adnams bought the Sole Bay Brewery there in 1872, and the firm Adnams was established in 1890. By its own account, it remains independent and family-owned as of 2026. The operation also includes the Copper House distillery, which produces gin, vodka, and whisky.

Smaller but just as well known is Woodforde's in Norfolk. Two members of the Homebrewers' Society founded it in 1981 in Drayton near Norwich, and in 1989 it moved to the barns at Woodbastwick. Its name recalls Parson Woodforde, an 18th-century clergyman whose diaries recorded much about eating and drinking.

There is no protected beer name from Norfolk or Suffolk. Only Kentish ale and Rutland Bitter from England are listed in the EU register, and both are from elsewhere.