A Norwich pub has been presented with its award for being named Camra's East Anglia Cider Pub of The Year 2012 – and is now in the last round of judging for the national award.

The White Lion in Oak Street, which has been run for 10 months by Ben Ackers and Becky Lakeman-Turner, was previously presented with the first Cider Pub of the Year award by the Norwich and Norfolk branch of Camra.

They regularly have more than 15 real ciders and perries available from Norfolk, East Anglia and beyond.

Mr Ackers said: 'We are delighted to win this award. Becky has always been a cider drinker, volunteering for the cider bar at the Cambridge Beer Festival for a fifth consecutive year. I have grown to appreciate how popular real cider is from my previous experience at two other pubs.

'We would like to thank our staff who have committed themselves fully to promoting real cider.'

Ian Stamp, pubs officer with the Norwich Camra branch, said that more 20 city pubs now sold real cider, which showed a significant increase on previous years. Real ciders and perries have become more popular in pubs partly due to the surge in popularity of mass-produced bottled drinks such as Magners, Kopparberg, etc. which call themselves ciders but contain other ingredients. The qualification for a 'cider' is that it contains at least 30pc apple juice.

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