Tuesday 14 February 2012

Introducing - Tiny Rebel Brewing


I said at the beginning of this year that one of my aims was to feature more Welsh beer and breweries, so to feature a brand new brewery from Newport pretty much ticks all boxes!!

Here in South Wales the Tiny Rebel Brewing team are about to make a splash onto the scene, with a unique look about themselves.

Certainly I feel a new presence can only be good in an area where one large company dominate and we only have those Otley boys to give us new beers. Exciting times for beer lovers.

 



I'd been in contact with one of the team, Gazz, via the beer social media platform Untappd and asked if I could put some 'Meet the Brewer' style questions to them, and here are the responses:

Where are you based and where did your name come from?

The name Tiny Rebel was originated from what me and Brad wanted to create and achieve as a brewery. 'Tiny' is our brewery size and 'Rebel' because our beers and image are far from traditional. Our base is in Newport where there hasn't been a local brewery for over 5 years so these are real exciting times.

Who is 'The Tiny Rebel Team' and what is the size of the brewery?

The Tiny Rebel Team is myself Gareth Williams and my business partner Bradley Cummings.

How long have you been brewing?

I have taken an interest in brewing since I was a kid due my Grandfather brewing endless amounts of exploding bottles of Ginger Beer, Mead, Wine & not so good beers, I was probably more interested in the exploding bottles! I started All Grain home brewing 6 years ago with a few Brew days with Micro’s here & there. Then I converted my brother in law Brad from drinking lager to cask and he has never looked back. Since the idea for Tiny Rebel was created we have spent the last 18 months researching & experimenting on our 50L system.


Tell us about 'Fubar' and your 'Urban IPA', what ingredients were used, hops etc.


Living in a small Urban city we wanted to give the Brewery that Urban City feel, hence the birth of Urban IPA. We have mixed up the Traditional English IPA with the popular US styles of IPA to create a well balanced alternative IPA. ‘FUBAR’ means Funked Up By A Rebel, not the other acronym! It's a pale ale that's got an English malt base and finished off with a healthy American hop flavour and aroma. Inspired by the pale's we love to drink.

What other beers can we expect in the future? you were mentioning a black IPA on untappd the other day?

At Tiny Rebel we massively believe in Researching & Experimenting, after all that’s what craft brewing is all about. We plan to have a permanent gang of about 6 beers & we will be brewing a wide range of speciality, limited edition and seasonal beers that will be small batch bottled on our in house bottling plant as well as cask & keg.

Which other beers and breweries do you admire currently.

Gazz – Probably ‘Thornbridge’ Everything these guys do is done with a bit of class & style, it’s not all about the hops!

Brad - So I guess that makes me the Tyler Durden of our team because I'm more of a hop junkie and love really unique beers, so it's Dogfish Head for me.

You open officially in March, what do you have planned?

Along with our beer launch event we will be having our official launch at the brewery early summer. The Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival will be a big event after last years success so expect a few interesting beers from us there. Keep an eye out for our Tap House opening early March ‘The Navigation House’ in Abercynon.

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Thanks to Gazz and Brad for making the time to answer my questions in an obviously busy period in this new venture.
The beer launch mentioned is at The Commerical Inn in Pontyminster 1800 hrs onwards. 
I'm going to be unable to attend (dammit!!!) so am looking forward to trying the Tiny Rebel beers at the next available opportunity.

 http://www.facebook.com/tinyrebelbrewingco

2 comments:

  1. I..er...wait, what?

    Nice article, good to hear of a new brewery in the area, I'm really looking forward to it but you really should get around the local breweries:

    * Rhymney Brewery, Dowlais near Merthyr. More awards under their belt than I care to mention and one of my favourite beers, the Dark.

    * Tomos Watkins Brewery in Swansea.
    * Brecon Brewing in Brecon, the sensational Buster Grant and his traditional recipes being born again from under the old name of the Breconshire Brewery. Some truly incredible beers.

    and if you want something more modern:
    * Zero Degrees, Cardiff.

    Those are just the ones that run off the tongue without trying.

    Looking forward to seeing the Tiny Rebels at the next Welsh Beer Festival - let's see if they can win some awards!

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  2. Hi Aled, thanks for visiting.

    I'd forgotten about Zero degrees, had an excellent pale ale there recently.

    Rhymney and Tomos Watkins I've drunk before, certainly I agree about their Dark, a cracking drink, but their others dont really do it for me, and Tomos have a good few solid beers too but nothing to exciting I thought.
    I've yet to try anything from Brecon, i'll keep an eye out for them

    Re:Tiny Rebel - Just this Sunday i found myself in 'The Coach' in Bridgend, a great ale pub (unlike so many others in Bridgend this didn't have an oppressive and threatening atmosphere) and they had Fubar on tap, an excellent pint it has to said, try it soon if you can!

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