Monday 11 May 2015

Tomos a Lilford 'Gaucho'

Another new brewery here in Wales to spring up in the last year is Tomos a Lilford, based in Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Last year the excellent Grill and Barrel blog did a little piece on them, you can read it here.
He's sociable and actually speaks to people unlike myself.

I've been able to buy a couple of beers from them, bought in the Elephant and Bun deli in Cowbridge. The ones that I was able to get last time was their Rosemary infused beer, and Gaucho a pale ale with Yerba Mate tea. No, me neither!

Mate tea is a very popular drink in South America, an infusion of hot but not boiling water, into a gourd containing the dried mate leaves and twigs. You may add sugar, and it contains caffeine.
So why would a Welsh brewer be using this? I assume its because of the link between the area of Argentina known as Patagonia and its Welsh history.

Onto the beer, a pale ale 5%, 500mls, bottle conditioned.
Well conditioned too, its a light gold colour with small head retention. Its aroma is light, some herbal and mineral elements, wet grass. Medium bodied, light across the tongue and crisp, yet some sharpness and again the mineral touch. A nice bitterness throughout, which apparently can be obtained when the Mate is boiled.
Overall it was quite enjoyable, I can imagine particularly so on a hot day.

The other beer I got was the Rosemary, which is a herb I enjoy, but this beer was so heavily flavoured with it that I struggled to drink it.