A glowing review from beer buffs has cast the national spotlight on Norwich's City of Ale Festival.

The spring edition of Beer, Camra's (the Campaign for Real Ale) quarterly magazine, recognises the masterminds of the festival as Real Ale Heroes, and suggests that the city-wide beer festival model is so successful it could be used elsewhere.

Phil Cutter, landlord of the Murderers pub in Timber Hill in the city, and Dawn Leeder are the co-chairs of the festival, and were delighted with the endorsement.

'We're really pleased,' said Ms Leeder.

'It's very important to us that Norwich is recognised as the must-visit real ale destination in the UK, and this provides very strong evidence that that's the case.

'CAMRA has got to be the most authoritative voice in the land on this, so we're very pleased indeed.'

City of Ale was launched in 2011 and continues to grow, encouraging people from outside the region to visit as well as those from across East Anglia.

And this year's event is set to be extra special.

'It's our fifth anniversary, so we're planning a big birthday atmosphere all around the city,' revealed Ms Leeder.

'We hope there will be some parties that spring up in pubs with function rooms, and we might get someone to bake us a big cake.

'We've got high hopes for this year, and the CAMRA interest has kicked off the year in a really good way.'

This year's City of Ale will run from Thursday, May 21 to Sunday, May 31.

Do you have a story about a local brewery or pub? Email samuel.russell@archant.co.uk