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.

Montys brewery 'Midnight'

From mid Wales, specifically Montgomery in Powys, is Montys Brewery.

I've come across their beers on the odd occasion, but never noticed them being regularly stocked in one particular place.
However recently I have seen them in a nearby National Trust property, Dyffryn Gardens and before xmas picked up a bottle of Midnight, their bottle conditioned stout.


Its 500mls, 4.1%, and I paid over the odds as you would expect in a NT shop.
Now the photo shows a bit of a head but that was induced with some high pouring and soon vanished.
Aroma of malt and coffee, sweet chocolate, and you get the same in the taste, also its earthy, almost ash like.
Its got good flavours coming through, its just a shame its let down a little by the conditioning, or lack of, and its body just seems a little to thin. Personally I feel a more bodied stout would wear and present the flavours better, making it more enjoyable.