One day - Two Welsh Beer festivals

The first weekend of June had great weather and Cardiff hosted two beer festivals, namely the CAMRA Great Welsh beer and cider festival, AKA W-Ales 2014 festival, and at the Tiny Rebel bar 'Urban Tap House' hosting their own one.


The start of these festivals had already seen the top accolade, the
Gold medal for best Welsh beer as voted for by CAMRA, going to the Tiny Rebel beer 'Fubar'.

Personally I feel this is really quite important for the Welsh brewery scene, their clean sweep of the top awards last year was amazing, but I think taking the gold for a second year is even more so, something blogger Chris Hall also succinctly points out in his review of the day and the Welsh scene.

I was worried that last year could easily be seen as CAMRA giving a slight nod towards the microbrewery and craft market, a slap on the back for Tiny Rebel, and then awarding this years Gold to, say, Evan Evans for 'Boring Brown', a dishwater bitter at 3.3%.

The heaving Evans Evans bar. Other bars had the customers.

 But retaining the top award hopefully acknowledges the ever growing small brewery culture that's booming in Wales. With Tiny Rebel, Celt Experience, Waen and Otley leading the way, numerous new breweries are making a name for themselves also, Heavy Industry and Grey Trees to name but two. A measure of the number at this festival was that this year ALL the beer's were from Wales, usually they are from all over the UK, but now the industry is large enough to support and supply it totally, which is fantastic for the country.

About 1pm Friday, roof off.

I'm not going to do a complete review of all the beers I had, more a pro's and con's of the day, and I'll split it into the two festivals separately.

Starting with the big one, at its new venue the Millennium stadium. 
I'm still undecided about the choice, it had loads going for it, the size, it was lovely, cool and airy. The huge amount of seating was appreciated.
The roof was open to start with but closed at some point and we never noticed!
The layout was fine, alot more breweries had their own stands, emphasing their branding and beers. It did mean some of the other casks kind of got lost behind all this though.
The two bigger boys, Brains and Evan Evans had been pushed out on the sides and seemed a bit detached, although the Brains one was busy enough as the day went on.

However I got a real schizophrenic atmosphere in there as the day went on. Someone had just picked up a festival and dumped it into the place, it felt like it was uncomfortable, maybe the venue is just too big?? Perhaps some of the elements out of Camra's control added to that, such as the corporate advertising on the big screen, and the Heineken area.
Yup, in a Camra festival you could get your cooking lager fix!!

Foster's stand, next the Heineken one. Out of shot is the Molson Coors one.

As my friend and I discussed, it's probably contractual stuff with the stadium itself and Camra had no say in their presence. No foreign beer bar this year either.

Was that the same for the food stands then? The 'international street foods' was hugely disappointing for a festival of this size.. A hotdog stand, burger van, crisps stand and I forget the rest. I'm sure they were all very nice and good quality, we bought Pipers crisps, but so limited in overall food choice.

What about the beer then.

On walking in (£10), clutching my plastic glass (which cost my friend another £2), the Celt Experience bar was right in prime position so I went straight in for their Castle Coch, 4.7% a red coloured bitter, lovely and lemony, creamy and fresh. Great start.
Later I went back to them for the Brigid Fire, a 5.6% smoked rye beer, 'brewed with oak smoked wheat and borrowed Biere de Garde yeast Dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin'. This was fantastic, pine full on, great smoked and big bitterness.
 
Other highlights were Grey Trees and their 5% Black IPA which was excellent, really juicy and spicy. 
Tiny Rebels 'One Inch Punch' a 3.9% 'session IPA' is brilliant, balanced and well worth looking out for.

My friend is not big on strong darker beers but we were both equally  impressed with Zero Degrees and the Imperial Russian Stout, 9.1% as our last beer of the day there.


 Otley impress again, with their Sakura 4.8%, a Belgian wheat beer with cherries which were so ripe and funky it zinged and remained fresh. Loved this one.

My favourite beer of the day inside the stadium was by Brecon Brewing, their 'Dark Skies' from the Genesis series.This is a dark Saison made with raspberries and vanilla sea salt. Sounds weird but is great, the musty and funkiness hit with the tartness form the raspberries, to be backed up with sweet notes of vanilla and a good body and carbonation.

 Onto the Tiny Rebel festival then, or rather lets start at it, which is what we did.

Meeting up at the Urban Tap House opposite the stadium for their 4 day festival seemed absolutely logical, just up from the train station in Central Cardiff. We planned for a couple of hours here first and then onto the W-Ales one.

Where to start? They had so many good beers on, stillage in one end of the bar area, a rotation system on the taps and pumps with a list provided so you could judge when a particular beer was on so you could look out for it rather than it appearing randomly at the next available tap and you miss it.
The beer's currently on was listed on the TV screen to help also.

I thought I'd start with something to liven and refresh the palate and the Tiny Rebel Lemon and Lime sour Berliner Weisse (4%) sounded like the one for the job.

And it certainly was. Wow. Crisp and lively, the lemon and lime zinging around, sherbert, and a tart and dry end. Excellent, my friend tried it and went and got his own one.
It was the first of the day and I dont think any bettered it.

I think it also started a taste for the tart, the sour and the fruity that day, several others I bought went down that route.

After that I went for the Magic Rock 'carnival' which was okay, and then we shared one I'd seen other bloggers talk about, Kernel's 'London Sour'.
Certainly more sour than the Tiny Rebel Berliner, but theirs had the delightful lemon/lime combo, the Kernel had that green apple element, dry and slightly salty, slight carbonation.

After we had been to the stadium for several hours we started to miss the Tap House, as I said before the atmosphere seemed odd and we both kinda just wanted to go back, we'd seen beers there that we really wanted to try, and this was over the vast choice in front of us.

So we did, and whilst I tried my Birrificio Italiano 'Nigredo' we wondered if the money spent on getting into the W-Ales festival would have been better spent in staying at the Tap House.

Getting into it cost me a tenner, my non Camra member friend £12, which seems an awful lot for this festival, especially when you consider that the Great British Beer Festival pre-ordering tickets now costs £8 this year, has over 3 times as many beers (900+), and has got to have better food options I imagine.

But overall we had a great day, some really great beers, and the futures bright for Welsh beer.

 dark Saison brewed with fresh raspberries from Court Farm, Tillington (our neighbours at the Brecknock Farmers Market!) and Halen Môn’s sublime Vanilla Sea Salt - See more at: http://www.breconbrewing.co.uk/the-beers/#sthash.WMm4ctkr.dpuf

A dark Saison brewed with fresh raspberries from Court Farm, Tillington (our neighbours at the Brecknock Farmers Market!) and Halen Môn’s sublime Vanilla Sea Salt - See more at: http://www.breconbrewing.co.uk/the-beers/#sthash.WMm4ctkr.dpuf

Preseli Brewery 'Powder Monkey'.

Powder monkey is a 4.2% abv bitter brewed by the Preseli brewery based in Tenby, and which they now label as 'Tenby Ales'. As I mentioned in a previous post on Tenby you can buy their beers in some tourist shops in the town at quite a price too, over £3 for the bottles I saw.

I wasn't going pay that price for them, they were quite ordinary all those years ago when I reviewed them in my first month on this blog in 2010. This bottle I found in a garage shop outside of Tenby at a much more reasonable price so thought I'd give them a second go.

Going back to that first review there are two things I will mention.
Firstly I said that their website was basic and untouched. 4 years later there seems to be little change showing how much they value/need their online presence.

The second thing is, and this is sort of backing up the first point also, a while back I looked at ratebeer and noted the commercial description of their beer 'Even Keel'.
This is it:


COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION
Even Keel is a 3.4% bitter probably what you would term a ’session ale’ and it went down very quickly. With a light malt taste and some hop aroma, pleasant enough but not terribly exciting. The kind of drink you would have again but if there was something else on offer you would try that first.


If you go back to my original review you note this has been lifted straight from it! You have to ask why?!!! It's not even that complimentary, I'm suggesting try other beers instead!
I don't know how ratebeer allow descriptions to be placed beside beers but it's possibly not that a stringent process. And I'm not suggesting that a brewery should monitor every aspect of their online presence but a complete lack has probably meant that this 'description' has been tagged to their beer for a couple of years now, something most people would want to remedy you would think.

Anyway back to the current beer.
Not flat but little carbonation. Light fruity aroma which follows through into the taste. Light to medium body, very slight bitterness afterwards. Umm and thats about it really, not really much more to say about it.

Here's a nice picture of Tenby instead.

Stackpole Inn, Pembrokeshire, and Bluestone brewery 'Pasg Hapus'.

 How's that for a beautiful country pub! The Stackpole Inn at Stackpole was one of the places we visited on a trip this week whilst staying in Tenby.

The decor inside sat comfortably between modern and country style, a lot of stone and wood but well presented, warm and appealing. Welcoming friendly staff too.

We were headed for a day out to the Stackpole estate for a walk, it's a National Trust property in South West Wales with great walks and nature aplenty, birdlife, lillypad lakes, and otters if you're lucky enough. Within easy walking distance is also Barafundle bay which is regularly voted one of the best beaches in the UK by those who know.

And when my wife suggested going to Stackpole something pinged in that clogged up head of mine that a pub nearby appeared in one of those '10 best Welsh country pubs' lists.
An early lunch before our walk was planned, a nice menu with plenty of local produce on it, and a bar with, aside from the usual offerings, had a good few Welsh beers on.
The barman said that they like to keep their beer and cider options Welsh, although their lager wasn't. I suggested they try the Gower brewery for their Lighthouse which is a nice lager, or try Tiny Rebel as all their beers are pretty good.

Food was ordered, children's meals were pretty standard for what you expect, I opted for the Cawl with local lamb and veg (£9) and my wife went for a mushroom cheese red onion puff tartlet thing with salad (£11).

As you know a new brewery opens up every 93 seconds these days, and currently according to made up figures there are now 29,537 in the UK. By the time you reach for a newly created beer tomorrow that will have topped the 30,000 figure*.

One of those new is the Bluestone brewery based in Pembrokeshire a 10 barrel operation whose beer was on that day.
'Pasg Hapus' means Happy Easter in Welsh, the pump clip gives it as a Pale Ale at 4.5% abv.
Fresh and in good condition it had a a medium body, smooth yet enough life in it, reasonable citrus bitterness from the hops, a good beer in a lovely pub.



 *all bullshit as I'm sure you know

Tenby (holiday break) and beer update

After a few days in Tenby during half-term, expecting poor weather and being pleasantly surprised that most days stayed dry enough to get on the beach with the kids for walks and rock pooling, I thought I'd post a sort of beer update on the town. (My previous post on Tenby's beer scene.)

The Lamb pub, owned by Marstons, has been closed.

The Preseli brewery which is based in Tenby has changed its name to 'Tenby Ales'.
I've yet to see any of their beers on cask in the pubs I've visited surprisingly, but I saw their bottles in a Welsh tourist shop on Frog St. and in the Deli. But I'm not buying them at £3.69 a bottle, they were pretty ordinary beers when I tried them a couple of years ago, and unless they've significantly improved i'm not sure they can justify those (tourist) prices.

The Brains pub 'The Crown Inn' now also serves an ale straight from a cask on the bar, that day it was from their Craft Brewery 'Farmer Walloon' a 4.5% saison which was ok although a bit tired and tellingly they took the cask off soon afterwards.

The Giltar Hotel up by the South beach has one cask beer on in the bar that's open to non residents. I had Celtic Pride from the Felinfoel brewery, which was perfectly fine but uninspiring to be honest.

As you can see the eyesore that is the Waters Edge development is progressing at rate of knots. Well, no actually its not. A company now in administration has stalled the building work, leaving it as you can see going nowhere.
 


 The South Beach Grill, owned by SA Brains of Cardiff is part of the development, and been open for a while. I've not been in yet for a drink, I will remedy next visit. Wonder how much they've been affected by the building uncertainty and delay.
A photo on their Facebook page showed a van delivery from Brains and the Craft Brewery so it will be interesting to see what's on sale.
As you can see in the photo they've had to dig themselves into work following the recent storms!



As always the best pints I had were in The Hope and Anchor, guests on were from Otley, Purple Moose and Skinners.

Tiny Rebel Brewing Co. 'The Full Nelson'

From the Tiny Rebel Brewing Co.  is a bottle of 'The Full Nelson', not a new beer but a damn fine one that I always enjoy.
Style wise it is an American pale ale but they described as a Maroi pale ale due to the use of the excellent Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand.
330ml bottle, 4.8% abv.

Aroma is a wonderful sweet apple and white grape effort, some peach also, smelling crisp and fresh, and with a fluffy white head.
A light lively body, again the crisp and freshness come across your tongue immediately, light biscuit malt, more peach, and a dry citrus end rather than an overly bitter one.

Brains Craft Brewery 'Black Mountain'

One of the things I like most about the Brains Craft Brewery is the labels they use, nice cartoon style brewery set up depicted, and usually little unique characters or items added for each different beer, lovely little details have gone into them.

'Black Mountain' is described as a 'hoppy Black IPA' , 5% and as with all their bottles 330mls. I picked this one up at Wally's Deli in the Royal Arcade in Cardiff, paid £2.35. It was brewed in conjunction with the Craft Beer Youtube channel.

Poured pretty black but with a small head that went soon after the photo.
Nice medium body, little toffee aroma, and a little floral and spicy elements. It does not however give the 'explosion of hops' promised from the Amarillo, Pacifica, Citra, Summit and Apollo hops used. The 'coffee, liquorice and burnt toffee' is there but also quite muted.

Overall its an okay beer,but compared to other well known Black IPA's its a bit of a light weight.
Its been reviewed reasonably well on untappd on cask so I thought that perhaps it has lost some of that freshness in the bottle, but seeing as it was only available in late December in Brains pubs this bottle isn't that old really.

Brains Craft Brewery 'A Pils from the Hills'

A 5% abv, 330mls, this Pils uses the hops Saaz and Hallertau with a pilsener malt.
'A Pils..' is crisp, light, the hops especially the Saaz are obvious and beautifully aromatic. A nice pepper spice element, lemon, and the over-riding freshness was great. Typically golden and well carbonated.

And that's the problem with these craft 330ml bottles, its over far too quickl!

Another from the truly exhausting list of beers that the Brains craft brewery have produced.
Which again is a fairly decent offering, as are a lot of the beers on that list, but I've had only few which are really really good. They just feel like they are ticking beers of a list of styles, and producing reasonably well made, well crafted beers, and thats great (to drink).

When they take a beer and re-do it, like Bragging Rights (a 5% Welsh beer style called bragawd)  one of their better beers in my opinion, they seem to be tinkering to improve and really getting it right. More of that tinkering  please.

Tudor Brewery Black Rock Dark Ale

The Tudor brewery are based in Llanhilleth near Abertillery, which is not far from the Brecon Beacons South Wales. Although being aware of them I've not seen their bottles my way, and I actually cannot recall where I picked this one up!

Black Rock Dark Ale, 5.6% abv, 500mls.

Very smooth,  with good body it has a light brown head that settles to a thin covering. Aroma of milk chocolate and cereal, with those also in the tasting, a little bitterness at the end but lightly done. 

I see on their website they also do a Black Mountain Stout, and Skirrid, another dark ale, leading me to wonder what differences you would spot doing a side by side tasting.

Tiny Rebel - Urban Tap House - now open!

So two first's here yesterday in South Wales, Tiny Rebel opened their first bar/pub and I laid some lino.

Photo from the Tiny Rebel blog, mine was a bit blurry!

I was quickly decorating the utility room on my week off....

Oh, you don't want to hear about that?

More about Tiny Rebel then?
oh Okay.

Following on from the death of craft beer bar Fire Island it was quickly announced by Tiny Rebel that they were taking it over.
Phew! went a collective sigh in Cardiff.

And going from the announcement date quickly to opening night last night it was obvious that it interior was going to be largely unchanged, mostly cosmetic changes, pictures, furniture, logo's etc. And some spankingly large bottle fridges!! Filled with goodies from your dreams.

The bar is called the  Urban Tap House which thankfully was a good choice, esp. considering some of the others that were suggested on their blog. Externally the building is largely unable to be altered due to regulations.
Staffing wise they managed to pull of a coup, imagine Man Utd selling their most recognised player to Swansea, the young kids on the block playing a beautiful game. That's what happened as they hired Chris, formally of the Brains pub The Goat Major (well how many other Cardiff landlords can you name/would recognise).

I hopped on the train  yesterday and got there early evening, quite busy inside but not rammed with people. Loads of staff on, some obviously experienced but there were a few young guys with 'rabbit in the headlights' look in their eyes.
Eight cask lines and ten keg lines are on offer, plus some cider lines and a smaller fridge with a good range of bottled ciders including some US ones.
I started with one I knew would not disappoint, The Kernel's Pale Ale Cascade Citra Galaxy. 5.3%, keg, hazy yellow, well carbonated, lovely fruits, pineapple, grapefruit, lovely bitterness but not tongue stripping. Excellent start.




They have a separate line for experimental beers, with the Dogfish Head Brewery Randell 3.0 you can infuse hops and spices on the bar into the chosen beer. This was not on last night but stands prominently on the corner of the bar .

Arfur had already raved about the Camden Town Brewery USA Hells on untappd, which sat alongside their unfiltered version which I went for.
 Really good stuff, a golden haze, lovely hop and fruitiness to it with a great bready/cereal taste also. I really enjoyed this, wouldn't hesitate to have this again if it was on next time I visit. And look there's Arfur over the other-side of the bar.

Around the place is their beer menu, a list of over 100 bottled beer from around the world, many names you'd all expect to be there, prices from reasonable to insane for the sharing/rare/v.strong bottles, although I'm sure that's what you'd pay for those bottles in other craft bars.
What I was pleasantly surprised with was the bar prices for craft and keg, I was expecting to pay more really for the two mentioned beers above, both London based and on keg, but prices were competitively placed. Which means I can buy more then.

Look a man bun! although the only one I spotted. Top bloke, very helpful.

I'll have the IIkley Brewery Siberia, the Rhubarb Saison. Thin in the mouth, you certainly get the rhubarb, some malt, its a good palate cleanser, different but I liked this.
Unlike the Caveman Brewery's Neolithic, which was poor, a bitter but the hops seemed unpleasant, a bad soapy taste and I didn't finish this one.



So I thought I'd finish the night with one of the house beers, Tiny Rebel's Dirty Stop Out which is my favourite beer they make I think. Great condition, a little smoke, burnt malts, smooth, the best way to end a night definitely.


Overall a welcomed edition to the Cardiff beer scene, and a well deserved step forward for Tiny Rebel. I'm sure over the next few months they, with Chris and his team, will turn this place into a success and put their own stamp on the place.
It felt comfortable there, relaxed even though it was busy, and enough choice to keep your mind whirring.
It'll certainly be my first choice venue drinking in Cardiff going on last night.



For another photo and opinion read Craig's post here.

Brains Craft Brewery 'Weiss Weiss Baby'

From the Brains Craft Brewery department tucked in a corner of the Cardiff Mega Brewery is a bottle of 'Weiss Weiss Baby', their Weissbier.
I must admit I kinda like the name, being a nice gentle pun, enough to put a little smirk on the lips and acknowledgement of achieved amusement.

The bottled version is slightly weaker than the keg version, 4.9% vs 5.9% abv.
Slightly cloudy yellow, a fizz of a head briefly. A light yeasty aroma, it has a light mouth-feel, with some banana and yeast there but on the lighter scale of things.
Very refreshing, cold in the summer it would be perfect. It would struggle if put alongside some of the more recognised weissbiers out there but I certainly enjoyed it.

Otley Oxymoron

Oxymoron, a black IPA dry hopped to hell and delicious to boot!

When I first had this a few years ago at the Great Welsh festival it was my first BIPA, I wasn't totally sold on it but since then its a style I've enjoyed more and more, some great examples being from The Kernel brewery and Hardknott.
But I've also returned to the Oxymoron a few times since then, cask and bottle, and its become a real favourite of mine.

Excellent roasted malts but over the top pine and grapefruit burst out and up your nose tickling receptors.
Huge but balanced flavours.
The strong and dark sit beautifully with the bright, clean and striking hops.
Chocolate, roasted malts, grapefruit and pine singing, the bitterness has a great tartness to it.
5.5% abv.

Brains Organ Morgan

Organ Morgan is a 4% abv golden ale, one of the beers that Brains name, along with Milkwood and Jack Black, with links to Dylan Thomas.

It has a light sweetish aroma, honey, and some light malt notes.
The taste is similar, light honey sweetness, some light fruit, orange, and some caramel. Light body, this golden ale falls into the  perfectly drinkable, but not terribly exciting category.

Great Welsh Beer + Cider Festival, Cardiff 2013

Yes its that time again to roll up in Cardiff and sample the delights of an increasing number of excellent Welsh Breweries offerings. The Great Welsh Beer and Cider festival runs from this Thursday to Saturday 6-8th June.

For updates I would keep an eye on the offical site and twitter feed, or the organisers well known blog Brew Wales .


I'm attending on Friday again, and this year I'm probably more excited than for many years. Why? A few reasons.

Tiny Rebel last year - sold out before you knew it

1 - Tiny Rebel - I think its fair to say they stormed the event last year. Now that they are eligible to be entered into the national competitions it will be interesting to see how many gongs they pick up. Champion Beer of Wales for Tiny Rebel?? I wouldn't be surprised.

2 - Brains - What?? A couple of years ago I commented on why do people at the festival crowd the Brains bar, they can get SA and Dark everywhere in Cardiff, why? But with the Brains Craft brewery I am actually looking forward to standing at their bar and being caught in indecision over what to choose. Never thought I'd say that, and I almost can actually picture the Head brewer Bill  skipping to work these days, getting to play with his brewkit rather than overseeing a gazzillion pints of SA. Excellent work Brains. Tiny Rebel could have a fight on their hands for those gongs!
Also read this great recent article on Brains by Craig. In it he proposes an excellent point, a craft dedicated Brains pub/bar. My opinion - they have so many establishments in Cardiff centre, next time they focus on a refurbishment they should go the whole hog and strip out and SA and Black lines and go just Craft.

Okay a little of point there so....


3 - Celt Experience - what with their new funky website and range of beers they have seriously stepped up a gear it would seems. Their 'standard' range has always been very good, and I've yet to try the new range but Simon's reviews at CAMRGB over the last few weeks have me very excited also, and I've recently discovered where I can buy these new bottles so a little tasting before is in order.

4 - New beers from Otley - always good to see.

5 - Foreign bar - gone through a few changes in recent years, so interesting to see the festival team up with a local shop 'The Bottle Shop' to supply the foreign beer. A small but enticing selection, I really hope this works and expands in years ahead. Really need to get to the shop soon also!

And who knows I might bump into Arfur there to shake his hand and say thanks, I bump into him on occasion at food&drink festivals throughout the year but not here yet!!

Okay.... race you to the chairs!!!!

Jacobi Brewery of Caio 'Winter Warmer'

When the sun came out a fortnight ago and ushered in Spring we went for a walk in the Brecon Beacons, there is a mountain centre and walks at Libanus, and it includes a tourist shop, a cafe downstairs which serves some excellent food, this time we didn't eat there but I positively salivated over another's steak and kidney pie with some wonderfully aromatic red cabbage.

A good sign is that there is usually queues for the food, and they sell local beers, with bottles from the Breconshire Brewery which I didn't see until I'd paid for our drinks, although those included one from the Carmarthenshire 'Jacobi brewery of Caio'.

This was an English strong ale 5% called 'Winter Warmer'.
This was a deep copper red colour which had a half finger of head that stays, looks good.
The aroma was strong rich and fruity, whilst the raisins, toffee, a very malt sweetness and heavy alcohol body, is matched with good hops providing a lingering bitterness.
Its not a classic heavy winter beer such as Adnams Broadside, it lacks the body of that but it was a good strong bitter that was enjoyed. And it probably would have paired very well with the pie and red cabbage if I'd had that. Missed opportunity!

The Gower Brewery, Gower Gold, and the GreyHound Inn

(A very late post, sorry, should have been out last year!)

 The Greyhound Inn, Llanrhidian, is home of the Gower Brewery in South West Wales.

Back in July last year, after months of rain the school holiday's were starting and we feared the worst - Weeks indoors with kids going slightly crazy.
But the sun actually came out and we grabbed the tent, headed for the Gower and pitched up. We had cracking weather in the end, a great holiday, and discovered an excellent pub that also happened to brew its own beer.

On the first Sunday we went to get a meal at a local pub, recommended by someone on the camp site, only a little drive and certainly worth it even if its further than the closest pub to the campsite.


The Greyhound Inn at Llanrhidian turned out to be home of the Gower Brewery, and I managed to have a chat with one of its co-owners the landlord Chris. A genuinely nice guy who is obviously passionate about the beer they are brewing there. The other co-owner I believe is another local landlord also called Chris (another reason why I should have written this when it was fresh in the mind)

The kids enjoyed themselves in a nice clean wood play area, and we all enjoyed the food, quality pub food, well priced, and nice to see good choices and properly cooked  and well portioned children's meals (mine eat well!).

So whilst a bemused bar staff watched me photo, create and upload to Untappd, I started with their Gower Power, an IPA that is 5.5% abv. Classically smooth, with a good spice hit, moderate hop profile, orange in the colour and on tongue, a very promising start.

Next up I tried the Gower Gold, a golden ale, 4.5% abv, which was singing out of the barrel fresh. Wonderful citrus aroma from the Cascade hops, juicy tropical fruit, with grapefruit sharpness.
This was a cracking find, made my lunch, no, made my day supping this in the beautiful sunshine in a beer garden.

The best news, many months later, was that my local Spar shop has started stocking this in bottles so I can sup it much more regularly.

Anyway, back to that day. Their bitter on pump was called Brew #1, 3.8% and as suggested by the name, this from the recipe that was their first ever beer. A classic bitter, nowt wrong with that.
I also had Sampson's Jack, another bitter but stronger at 4.2%, and this was straight from the cask. Dry and fruitier than Brew #1. 


Overall this pub would have been a great find for us on our holiday, good food, pleasant environment, large outside area with a clean and safe kids area.
It was just it was a massive bonus for me that it houses a great microbrewery, producing some really good beers, and one excellent one in 'Gold'. That I now can buy it at the end of my street is great also.
Hopefully the Gower Brewery will continue to expand, perhaps putting more of their range into bottles (and into my Spar!), and getting their beers into some of the number of new craft beer establishments in Cardiff, you can only wish them the best of success for the coming year.

Brains Barry Island IPA

Quick review, drinking as typing.

This is from the 'craft brewery' of Brains, run alongside their main South Wales brewery. This beer was brewed in conjunction with Simon from the You Tube 'Real Ale guide'. Described as an 'American Style IPA' it is 6%, 330mls, and available currently in Tesco's across South Wales.

Marmalade orange body, very small head that soon goes. Nice but light aroma, some orange, a little pine, tropical fruits. Taste is on a medium body, obvious malt backbone, toffee sweetness, with gentle citrus bitterness that takes a while to come on, it needs time to break through but its nice when it does.

Overall its a nice beer, I wouldn't go so far as to say its an American style IPA, the malt and sweetness is too forward while the clean hop punch in the face bitterness you would expect is lacking, but I certainly enjoyed it.
Nice labelling too for the 'craft brewery' beers so far also.

Wye Valley Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout

A surprise during the weekly shop today, Tesco had rearranged their beer isle again, but also had quite a few new bottles, and timely too as a fair few could be indulged for International Stout Day.
They had the beer reviewed below here, but new stouts also were Belhaven Black, Glencoe Wild Oat Stout, Brains 'Jack Black Oatmeal Stout' and Castle Rock Black Gold.

The Welsh contingent has also been increased with a new one from Tomos Watkins 'Blodwens beer', two each from Great Orme and Conwy, and Brains have extended their range on the shelf with bottled versions of  Organ Morgan, and from their 'craft' brewery the Barry Island IPA.
They also had three of their 'Simply' range including a 'Dark Ale', which were 3 for £3.

Lets get back to the black beauty in hand though, a beer that's often listed in 'best beers in the world' books, Wye Valley Brewery's Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout.
4.6% abv, 500mls, and I got it as part of the 4 for £6 deal but individually I think it was about £1.89.

Although it got a good head for the photo I did have to pour it from a little height to achieve this as it was not appearing otherwise. The aroma was a little difficult because I have a cold currently, but I got the light coffee and roasted malts easily.

The body is light to medium for a stout, dry, coffee again, light hints of milky chocolate, cream.
It sounds strange to say its just an ordinary stout as it ticks pretty much all boxes you would expect, and then it seems odd then if I say its not terribly exciting. What was I expecting? what is it missing? perhaps a little more body if I was being overly picky, but this is a beer I would drink again any day, absolutely. Contradictory yes, but its only beer.

He was so drunk......

When in Tenby the other day I took this photo of the side of the Coach and Horses.

I mentioned this whilst I did my review on Pubs in Tenby, (which when looking at my stats and tracker has been quite a popular post) and thought I'd put it up here.

Drink with Mother

My mum recently visited for a weekend last month. She's come to appreciate a nice beer, it does help when your married to a former employee of Hall & Woodhouse mind you!

I decided to get in a couple of Welsh beers, the Rhymney Brewery with its newly designed label Bitter, and from the Celt Experience their Cryf, an ESB style beer.

The Rhymney was 4.5% and poured a dark copper brown, with very little aroma. Its mouth feel was thin, it was more malt than anything else, a moderate bite from hops, but a very drinkable session beer. It hides the abv well, and probably a lot better on cask that should give the body it needs.




 I have generally found the Celt Experience bottled beers pretty good, this one is called Cryf and is 5.2%, and both these bottles are found in Tesco's in South Wales usually.
Like those other excellent Welsh brewers Otley they have a good distinct branding too.


Light golden brown, rich fruit aroma, its flavour punches with seville orange like a  heavily sugared marmalade.
A medium body, a tickle of spice, fruity, nice 5/10 on the bitterness.

I've bought a few more of these recently,  they went down very well while I watched others exert themselves in London 2012!!!

Quiet but busy

Surprised its been almost 3 weeks since i posted,  I was however away on holiday for the last week.

Before we went away I managed to get in a visit to the Cardiff beer shop, I couldn't quite believe the amount of new beers he had in, from abroad and home also.
I picked up bottles from Bear Republic, Hardknott, Stone, Sierra Nevada, Nils Oscar, Red Willow and Magic Rock, all breweries I'd not tried before (except SN).
I had to leave behind so many bottles from so many amazing breweries that I want to try. The shop has really expanded its already outstanding range, with some special imports too, especially from the US.

Last week we went on a family holiday camping in the Gower, South Wales. Extremely lucky with the weather, we had a week of glorious sun, and we finished the week with a few days in Tenby, just spending the days on the beach.
Well when you've had a (non) summer as we have had in the UK this year (record rain falls, floods in June and July) you had to grab the opportunity while it presented itself.

While we were in the Gower we were lucky to be close to a pub called 'The Greyhound' which is home of the Gower brewery. With 5 of their beers on cask eagerly sampled and a quick chat with the landlord/brewer, I'll expand on this in another post soon.

I've also got a few reviews and photos to get up so I'd better crack on with those.