Welsh Golden Ales: Otley, Brecon and Celt Experience

A live blogging post last tonight, tasting a few of the more readily available Golden Ales around on the market. (And then it got too late,and I'm sure you've all been there, the post doesn't happen. So this morning it was finished and photos sorted).

Its Pontypridd vs Brecon vs Caephilly.

From Pontypridd it's Otley and their 01, the Brecon Brewing co. 'Gold Beacons', and Caerphilly's Celt Experience with 'Golden'. The Otley is 4% abv, with the other two coming in at 4.2%, all 500 ml bottles and all were bought for about £2.30. Of the three the Celt is not bottle conditioned.


Okay first up.
I love the Celt Experience, I've gushed enough about them in these posts before here.They are about to launch a redesign of their labels, this photo shows the current/old design.
Billowing head at the start, that settles and gives frothy lacing on the sides. Deep golden orange colour, strong citrus, orange and pine aroma.

Great body and this drinks and feels like something so much stronger than 4.2% it must be said. The pine is accompanied by floral bite, and a medicinal/herbal edge too. It reminds me too of my mother-in-laws homemade orange marmalade, juicy but the lingering bitterness that's more  grapefruit than orange, a superb quality beer. Enough gushing??!!!



After amazing me with their Dark Skies III raspberry and vanilla sea salt infused Saison at the Welsh festival, my wife and I stayed in Brecon not long after and I bought a case of their Gold from the brewery which is based on an industrial estate on the outskirts of the town of Brecon town.

Gold Beacons pours again a golden orange although perhaps a little clearer than the Celt beer.
Big pop and smoke on opening, lighter in body than the first beer, a toasty and caramel aroma, with hints of orange and pine.
Light and fruity in the mouth, a light bitterness stays with you, its lighter and more refreshing than the Celt. A great beer, and I enjoyed everyone in that case I bought.



Otley with their great beers and distinctive branding have firmly established themselves as many peoples favourites, they have three pubs in Pontypridd, the Bunch of Grapes being a must visit if your in the area, great food accompanying their beers.

01 opened with little fanfare shall we say, and scant carbonation. Colour is a much lighter gold than the other two, with little lacing from the head.
Now I could tell you that I've had this beer many times, and its dry but fruity, some grass and pine, and quite refreshing. Unfortunately this bottle doesn't seem to hit that description, its got a slight sour aroma and green apple rasp to it, its a duff bottle. A real shame because this is a great beer, usually, as all Otleys beers are.

It did start me thinking though about how long it had been on the shelf in my local Spar shop, I don't see a huge turn around on their 'premium/craft' ales. Perhaps its just been there far to long, it wasn't past its date though. I'm grateful that the owner sells the beers he does, Otley, Kite, Brecon and Celt, I wouldn't get these in the village elsewhere, I'd have to travel a little further out, but if they're going past their best sitting there then perhaps I should exercise more caution and watch the shelves from this point of view.

Coincidentally whilst editing this post this morning Boak and Bailey posted their weekly round-up which included a detailed piece from the Pete Drinks blog on a very similar thread, worth a read if you already haven't.

Under normal circumstances I'd be very happy to drink any of these three beers, the Brecon and Otley are great examples of Golden Ales, and the Celt  is excellent too, even if one foot is in the IPA camp with the superb use of hops in it, and if I'm honest I'd choose the Celt over the other two as my favourite.

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

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.

Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival 2013: Friday

For once it was sunny, warm, and shorts weather on the trip into Cardiff for the GWBCF 2013.

After catching the lunchtime train in I waited for one of my friends to catch his (slow) train in. As he was delayed I moved myself into the Prince of Wales, a Weatherspoons pub, and ordered a Celt Experience Bledynn 1075. One of the Breweries that I was keen to visit once at the festival, this is their excellent IPA which I've had in bottle many a time, but this was the first time on cask and wow it was a palate stripping hopped up pint, superb and juicy. I could only hope the rest of the day's beers will be this good.

I pick up my glass, programme and tokens and head in. As much as I was eyeing up the specials on offer I thought sensible to start lower down the abv scale, and so picked on Brains 'Touch. Paws. Engage.' their rugby themed golden ale and 4%. Light, moderately fruity and refreshing citrus edge, very good start.
Always an impressive stand, the Otley boys and girls had an huge array of pumps, I went for the 'Hop Angeles' 4.8% an American Red ale which uses 9 different hops apparently. It had a nice light citrus aroma, with a dry woody strong bitterness in the mouth. I'd certainly seek this out again.
Next came a tick. One from the '300 beers...' book that I'd planned to get was the 'Oscar Wilde Mild' from Mighty Oak and I was glad I did. Bags of flavour, a great example of what a mild can be.

My good start continued as I moved onto the Tiny Rebel stand. A busy stand soon to get busier. Standing proud nearby was a pimped up old ice cream van in their colours.



Flux, a black IPA at 4% which was fantastic, juicy, citrus, roasted malts, another great beer from them.
The time then was just before 3 pm and it was the announcement for the Champion Beer of Wales results.
Okay, lets remind ourselves of my prediction in my previous post "....it will be interesting to see how many gongs they pick up. Champion Beer of Wales for Tiny Rebel?? I wouldn't be surprised."
 Well, no not very surprised, (perhaps at the clean sweep though) and yes feeling a little smug, but hey I called it!
Frankly though anyone drinking in the capital this last year probably is also not that surprised, such is the quality and consistency of the Tiny Rebel beers. A quick chat with Gaz and congratulations followed.
I also managed to publish my first post then on my mobile successfully, announcing the result (previous mobile attempts never worked).

 Violet Cottage were listed as a Cardiff brewery, one I'd never heard of, so i thought I'd try their 'Zigzag', a 5% IPA, which was nice and light, uncomplicated, a little lighter with the hops compared to others but as nice as many other IPA's out there and reminded me of Wye's HPA. When reading the programme a bit later i realised that they are from the award winning Gwaelod-y-Garth pub.
Back to one of the main stands now for one from Celt experience, 'Cat Scratched Celt' 5.8% a big amber ale, with nice strong malt backbone, caramel, pineapple from the hops, another great beer from Celt.
A side step takes me back to Otley and '09', a clear wheat beer I've not had before, lovely and light with orange and very spicy, 4.8%.
Redstone Brewery , based in Brecon Beacons only started last year, had just the one beer, 'Gorsey' 4.2%  a pale ale, lots of lemon and woody.
Brains Craft Brewery Low Hanging Fruit 4.8% - this was really good, 4.8% dark/mild?, on untappd I posted "Good dry earthy, sour aroma, a real lactic bitterness. Cherry lingers"
The only beer I didn't enjoy unfortunately was from Artisan, 'Alt' 5% although I cannot remember what was putting me off it but I didn't drink much off it.

Back to Brains Craft, and 'Stars and Stripes', an American wheat 5%, hazy, light and easy to drink quickly, citrus but not to bitter, fruity too.
I thought I'd go strong for my last beer and went for one of the Tiny Rebel specials, their 'Grand Regal Stout' this one aged in an 'Ardbeg Barrel' 7%.
My god, this was thick, chewy, so strong, like chewing a cigar. I couldn't finish it, wrong choice for the last beer of the night. Another night with this being the only beer in front of me I think I could give it more time but that night at that point it was palate overload. Not saying its a bad beer at all, my friend who enjoys whiskey liked it but agreed that it was a monster mouthful!
Thus I high-tailed back to the champions stand and got a 'Full Nelson' 4.8% with buckets of Nelson Sauvin hops, which refreshed my mouth immediately.

Overall this was one of the best GWBCF I've been to in recent years, a great range of beers from the headlining breweries, and all but one beer were thoroughly enjoyed which was a greater return for me than last few years. Loads more tables/chairs - excellent!
Many thanks to Arfur and the rest of the CAMRA guys for putting on a top show. I also managed to have a quick word with Arfur, although poorly timed as it was five minutes before the awards were announced, his steely focus on the stage as he wafted the results under my nose with a wry smile.

Main disappointment was not meeting Craig (top post btw) despite our girlish untappd posts pinging back and forward!
In sober hindsight I realised that 1 - telling him I'm by the winners stand was not making it easier, and 2 - me trying to spot a man just by identifying his beard at a CAMRA festival is like <insert cliché here> A real shame as I fancied a good chat, which is something, as he says in his post we'll have to sort out soon.


Full results:

Champion Beer of Wales 2013
1. Tiny Rebel Dirty Stop Out
2. Tiny Rebel Fubar
3. Tiny Rebel Urban IPA
Category Winners
Mild
Rhymney Dark
Bitter
Purple Moose Madog's Ale
Best Bitter
Brain's Rev James
Strong Bitter
Tiny Rebel Urban IPA
Golden Ale
Tiny Rebel Fubar
Speciality
Bullmastiff Welsh Black
Porter
Facers North Star Porter
Stouts
Tiny Rebel Dirty Stop Out
Barley Wine
Tiny Rebel Hadouken
Old Ales/Strong Milds
Breconshire Ramblers Ruin

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!!!!

King's Arms, Pentyrch

For my wife's birthday we had decided a week ago that we'd go for lunch at the King's Arms at Pentyrch just outside Cardiff. I'd read a while back that although it is a Brains pub that Otley brewery had taken over the lease.

So bit of a surprise yesterday not five minutes after I'd rung and booked a table that Brew Wales blogged about their 'Grand opening' this weekend, with live music, BBQ and a beer festival.

Now with a new paint job, the small 'snug bar' being very homely, the larger bar with a smart and classy looking interior, it's certainly pub you'd be happy to wile away a few hours.

Today they had the permanent pumps, Brains bitter and Otley 03, joined by guest beer Butcombe bitter.

Ordering from the spring lunch menu I had the Goan beef curry, with rice and a few chunky chips. I ordered the Butcombe to start with whilst waiting, in great condition, long dryness, clean, good and bitter. You can see other menu choices on their website.

The curry was really good, properly dry and perfectly cooked beef, my wife enjoyed her meal also, and we ordered a raspberry cheese cake with new season raspberry's, and chilli and something else compote,  and this was excellent also.

The Otley 03 BOss, labelled chestnut red, was good also, perhaps a little sweeter than the Butcombe, but similar dry and good hop bitterness.

Overall a good lunch, well worth checking this place out again if you know where it is. Good choices on the menu, reasonable priced for the quality your getting also, and good conditioned beers.


And chatting to the staff behind the bar today it sounds like, despite the weather, they are planning a great weekend so get there if you can.


p.s.  Anyone know how i get rid of the wikio text below??

Friday at Great Welsh Beer Cider Festival 2012

It was friday, it was Wales, it was raining.

hey - deja vu!!!

Actually the clouds lightened up a bit as I walked to the festival, texts informing me that my partner in crime this year (cruelly his wife made him go on holiday last year) had arrived and started without me. Well I would too!

Just the same as last year I made sure the first drink was one from Otley that I'd been unable to locate before, this one being '07 Weissen' (5%). And a great start and a kick in the senses for your first afternoon drink it was too. Cloves, orange and great wheat taste in a hazy yellow half glass. The bitterness was great, drying my mouth completely.

My next was more out of curiosity for the brewery more than anything.
I'd not heard of the Pixie Spring brewery before and they were listed as being based in Llantrisant which is quite close to me. Their Prince of Bengal IPA had already sold out so I went for the Deliverance APA. This had the cask labelled as 'Hazy' although it was only lightly so,  its 4.5% with 4 hops in it, some I suspect are the 'C' crowd as it gave some lovely lemon, perhaps grapefruit mostly, with a good dryness, light and fresh, very enjoyable. Later I found some of their flyers which listed a 'Black Army Stout', which was a beer I tried last year from the 'Llantrisant brewery' so I'm assume Pixie Spring is their new name. One to watch in Wales.

Gazz at Tiny Rebel stand

The Tiny Rebel brewery from Newport have only been going a few months, I did a 'Meet the Brewer' Q&A with then back in February. I'd only had their FUBAR before, fantastic it was too, and the display looked might impressive and extremely busy. Looking at various tweets before I even arrived I knew that FUBAR through the Hop Rocket, beers infused by being pulled through fresh hops in-line at the bar, had been the first beer to sell out on the first day. Restocked, I realised I had better get there soon before it went again. The hops being used were Amarillo according to the chalk note, the beer being the replenished FUBAR, a 4.4% APA, light yellow in colour, citrus and grassy, biscuit malts, very good.

By now I'd managed to introduce myself to a very busy Gazz and had a good chat, top bloke, happy to explain the workings behind a bar at a busy beer festival, their beers and future plans. I'd moved onto their 'Dirty Stop Out' after talking about smoked beers with Gazz, its a 5% smoked oat stout.
There is a good amount of smoke with it, small hits of dark chocolate with nice bitterness, with great smoothness alongside some vanilla, plus some spice that tickled the sides of my tongue.
They want to make it smokier, I've no complaints with that, but this was by far my beer of the festival as it was.

By now we'd jumped into the seats of a couple who barely hinted they were putting their coats on, you have to be that quick. Obviously there was more tables than last year again but with the popularity of this festival plenty more tables and chairs are required. The new token system seemed to work better from a punters point of view, no more losing torn off tickets.

Next up, Celt Experience 'Silures' , listed as a golden hoppy ale 4.6%. Grassy on the nose, golden yellow, but I got a lot of butter from it, too much for my liking, it was a struggle to finish this to be honest. Shame as all their beers I've had before are pretty good, I'll have to try it again and give it a 2nd chance.

Cant quite remember which one this was! (Possibly 'Cwtch')

The foreign bar was considerably lighter on choice than previous years, Czech Budvar providing 3 (well technically 4) options. The Original and Dark were on offer, plus a 'half n half' tap that drew from both lines. The other beer they brought was 'Yeast' 5%, an unpasteurised version of the Original, and this was the one that tempted me. Cold, obviously, crisp and clean, bitter finish, malty but balanced lager. Wasn't terribly exciting though.
Hopefully next year the organisers will go back to having a larger selection of foreign beers, on tap and bottled.

As I said in my pre-festival post the Waen 'Chilli Plum Porter' sounded like one to seek out. When I went round it seemed to be very popular, and I now know why. At 6.1% its a gorgeously fruity beer, subtle on the chilli, lovely spice floating around the mouth with a dry edge to it. Very good beer, I'd love to sit back with a pint of this again.

Going light again I plumped for Ilkley 'Mary Jane', 3.5% pale ale which was pretty good, very dry and hoppy, thin body but great flavours for a low abv beer. Would be a great summer session beer.

I turned back to Tiny Rebel at this point for the new 'Cwtch' a red ale 4.6%, brewed also with only 'C' hops. Great malty tones, herbal notes and taste, with matched citrus/lemon from those hops. Some caramel sweetness also. See Beer Lens for a great shot of the pump clip.

Up to the Brains bar next for one new to me, Jack Black, an oatmeal stout at 4.3%. My notes say a lighter body than the 2 previous stouts/porters I had that day, good roast flavour, good long bitterness, very pleasant. I also took a half of the Organ Morgan, a 4% golden ale, my notes underlined 'floral' in their description of the beer, it was a nice and smooth and a good way to end the evening.

The awards of the festival were announced whilst I was there, overall winner being the Barley Wine 'High as a Kite' from the tiny Heart of Wales, which was nice to see a speciality beer winning a national award.

If Tiny Rebel can maintain the high standard they have set so far with their beers I predict they will be picking up some awards next year, no doubt about it (to be eligible you have to have been brewing for a year).

Thanks to Cardiff CAMRA for another great festival.

My Beer of the Festival - Tiny Rebel 'Dirty Stop Out'

Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival 2011- Friday review

It was friday, it was wales, it was raining.
No, actually it was belting it down in the morning to be honest, thankfully it lightened as the day wore on.
Whilst the easy transport links into Cardiff reminded me why i should go in there more often, the drunks screaming at each other in the street at 11am as i bought some lunch reminded me why i dont.

Anyway onto the CIA for the Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival 2011.

The souvenir glass this year came only as a half pint, and i soon had it filled with Otley's Saison Obscura as i wasn't going to miss it again !5.5%,  small head on a dark copper medium body. Light fresh spice, orange, light sweetness. Nice start to the day.

 With all the talk of Black IPA's across many beer blogs and none to be seen in South Wales i stuck to the Otley bar and tried their Oxymoron.
Black IPA, also 5.5% abv, pretty black (duh!) in colour. Noticeably mostly to me for a pine aftertaste, its also got coffee and a dominating citrus twang i couldn't put a name to. Must admit i wasn't initially sold on the black ipa style on this first try.


Another beer that i had pegged to try was the recent award winning Hopback Entire Stout. I thought it a little thin though, all be it with good coffee, chocolate bitterness. Okay, not bad, expected a bit more for a champion winter beer though somehow.

Red Kite brewery are very new, based in Carmarthenshire,West Wales, with a range of five beers, they had three i could see here. I tried the 'Gold Wing' a 4.2% golden ale, it was light and crisp, with a good drying bitterness, again citrus hop came through.
Another new brewery and definitely the closest to where i live is the new Llantrisant brewery, i believe its based in the Wheatsheaf pub in the town. 'Black Army Stout' is their first beer i was told, 3.9% abv. Thin in the mouth, no head really, light malts with hedgerow berries coming through well, possibly blackberry? It seemed more like a porter in style, it was okay, although for your first brew its encouraging to see them produce something different rather than a safe bitter.

I've never ventured over to the German bar at any of the festivals before but thought it was time to make the effort. Karg are not a brewery i'd heard of, so i plumped for their 5.0% Weissbier Dunkel. A gloomy looking wheat beer, dirty toffee in colour, it was sharp, green apple sour, banana and bready. Was it supposed to be like this?? Not totally unpleasant but unexpected and one i wouldn't try again.

Heart of Wales brewery  - Aur Cymru - a golden ale, its was quite dry, woody, medicinal and a little flat, didn't seem in the best condition.

By now the Champion Beer of Wales 2011 had been announced, going to Rhymney for their 'Dark', which i'll agree is certainly their best beer. Congratulations to them, they also took silver with 'Export' , and Otley  took bronze for 08, a previous winner itself.

 By now the place was really filing up, seemed to be more provision of chairs and table than last year, although as soon as anyone vacated chair it was pounced upon.

At this point i wandered for a bit trying to decide which to have next, one of the volunteers tried to sell me the Thornbridge Jaipur but i instead went for the 'Sequoia' which was not in the programme, (seemingly replacing their 'Lord Marples' which was supposed to be there but i couldn't spot it).
 Really good, hit the spot immediately. Biscuity, nutty, light brown in colour, nice and hoppy but not out of balance with the malts. Certainly my beer of the night.

Brains had the usual bar on display, a great photo here by Beer Lens, and they had produced exclusively their 'Strong Ale' for the festival. 6.5%,  it was less alcohol more sweetness, lightly spiced, fruity. A half was more than enough at the end of night.

Great festival, well done to all those involved.

Otley's Bunch of Grapes and 'Obscura'

 Today sees the launch of the new Otley beer Obscura, a dark saison style 5.5% abv, brewed with beer and travel writer Adrain Tierney-Jones. To promote it they are engaging in a twitter (#saisonobscura) pub crawl around London's finest pubs, but it was first being launched in the Otley pub Bunch of Grapes  based in Pontypridd, Wales.
I dusted of the wallet and headed out there, my first time, surprised actually how easy it was to get there from our place, the massive new road improvements between us and Pontypridd made the journey very quick.
(I would never had found the pub if my wife hadn't been there before though, better signposting would help, unless i missed it).

Lovely interior, spacious bar, nice old pub beams atmosphere mixed with quality and stylish modern wood furniture. Friendly bar manager, and waiting staff were very good at lunch today.
 
Anyway she said 'and what would you like to drink'
i said 'you have your new beer Obscura on today? can i try that?'
'I'm afraid its not on until til 2pm'
Nooooooooooooo!!!

Ah well never mind, another day hopefully. I started with a half of their 'CroesO' one I'd not had before. A yellow colour bordering into very light orange territory. Clean, fresh, dry, grapefruit and tropical hints on the aroma, The grapefruit following through more into the palate. Thin in the mouth but suitable so, it keeps the lightness of the beer matching with its clean dry taste. Citrus and pithy, it went down beautifully in the warm spring sun.
Food was great, i had a venison burger, nice salsa, and chips the size of breeze blocks!

On tap they also had their own O1, O4 Colombo, O-Garden; Three tuns brewery XXX, Dorothy Goodbodys wholesome stout and more besides on their 9 handpumps. They update their bar list here. They also have a reasonable bottle selection, i took home a Chimay White, never seen it around before so no question about that, and a Brooklyn Double Black Chocolate Stout. (yes i know, tick !).

Unfortunately we had to be away before they brought out the Obscura, despite me trying to persuade the wife to have a pudding.
I just hope that the Obscura beer is brewed again soon, and taken also to the Great Welsh Beer Festival this year in Cardiff. Pleaseeeeeeee!

bit of a beer round up no.1

I've been busy, or working nights, or the wife is using the computer, so a few beers over the last couple of weeks have escaped being blogged about so i thought a round up post was in order. 


Lets start with a goody.
Fullers 'Golden Pride'  (8.5% abv) was picked up at Waitrose a while back, a beautiful reddish brown colour with lovely aroma of berries and caramel. 
Full bodied in the mouth, a little oily too, warmth and reasonable amount of alcohol come through with flavors of sugars and rich fruit, a bit malty with a dryness also. Really good.




From Scotland and quite well known, and usually found in beer collection books, next was Williams Brothers Kelpie seaweed ale. I don't know if its the suggestion after reading books and reviews but the fresh sea breeze aroma really is there! A dark ale with a light salty chocolate taste, earthy aroma and taste also, this was a different beer one i would have again but not frequently i think, could become a little monotonous on the palate.
 







Fullers Chiswick bitter was a new one on me, and a very pleasant introduction was made. Small creamy white head, beautiful fresh orange pithy bitter aroma. Good malty and hop balance, crisp and some dryness also, lovely beer.



 



After really enjoying the Anchor Porter a while back i was quite looking forward to their Liberty ale that i bought at the same time. A yellowy orange in colour and good creamy head on top. Quite bitter but not a sharp fresh bitterness, its quite a heavy body in the mouth and lasts, ?some pine. I was a little disappointed with this, i was expecting to be wow'd like when tasting their porter or when i first had Sierra Nevada's Pale ale, but its still a good complex beer.





The last of the beers i picked up at the Cowbridge festival this year was Otley's O-HO-HO which i assume is their Xmas beer from the title. Thus i also assume it would be rich fruity dark ale like most other Xmas/winter ales, so was pleasantly surprised when i poured a fresh orange'gold coloured beer with a minimal head. Immediate light aroma of sweet oranges, like pulling satsuma's out of your stocking!! Dry, citrus hops, a crisp beer with hints of spice and a delight to drink. Made me rethink what a Christmas ale should be really, although i would be just as happy to drink this on a hot summers day, it would be a real thirst quencher i believe.

Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival 2010

So this weekend was the Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival, which tied in nicely with a stag do i was going on, my friend Rob is the lucky man.

After a morning shooting we headed straight for the festival, although a slight detour into the Horse and Groom was a big mistake, if you want lager and pretty much nothing else then thats where to go. Straight up to the Vale of Glamorgan pub which has hosted the real ale festival now for a good few years running. Standing room only, the pub was heaving, so straight out to the marquee for the beer list . I some how only managed to photo the second and third lists. Some like the Purple moose beers had already sold out and the Otley O8 and O1 soon followed by early afternoon. Other brewery's present on the first list were Moor's of Somerset, Bullmastiff from Cardiff and Newmans of Caephilly. 

The Otley Kowhai was one of the first i tried being a new one to me, very pleasant start drinks lighter than its 4.9%, nice bitterness overall , could definatly drink a pint or two of it. I had to wiki Kowhai to find out what it was named after, a common New Zealand garden tree apparently. 

Next i had a Newmans brew called 'Last lion of Britain' which was not to impressive which is a shame as some of their other beer are quite nice. Waen's 'Blackberry stout' was up next, which was strangely disappointing, the first few sips seem quite pleasant with lovely blackberry notes coming in sweetly, but after that i really started to not enjoy it, seeming a bit watery and unnecessarily harsh, i only had a half and didn't finish that, nor did one of my friends.

After a couple of other halve's i fail to recall i tried the Gwaun valley 'Bitter' which was as good as it is in a bottle thankfully, and the Breconshire brewery 'Baroque ale' was next - unfortunately i cannot remember what it was like, i think i pointed it out to someone but i'm not sure if it was a 'have that next' or a 'avoid avoid!'.

By far the best i tried, despite being surrounded by welsh breweries was from Somerset's 'Moor Beer' . Their 3.8% bitter 'Revival' was wonderfully refreshing, great hoppy flavours, singing in the mouth, citrus, and nice dryness comes through. Really good beer.

After a food stop in the chippy we headed to the Brains' Duke of Wellington to try and find a seat after hours of standing at the Vale. This pub hosts the Cider festival for the weekend and a few of the party wanted to sample these delights. 

It was strangely situated out the back in a marquee set at the back of the garden but seemed forgotten, little signs telling us where it was, the conservatory we walked through was mostly empty and would have been a far better setting for it. Seemed very under promoted, and even the cider heads with us in the end didn't make the trek back out, just going to the inside pub bar for the pump stuff.

Anyway a couple pints of a lackluster Rev. James, couple of Dark and for once a surprisingly decent SA.

 

The following day i went back to the food festival side with the wife and family, always enjoyable, loads of tasting samples and great lunches to be found. Among the exhibitors were Otley, Pen-lon, and Warcop.

I bought the xmas offering from the lovely ladies at the Otley stand who very very friendly, apparently the new coloured bottle top wrapping is to aid identification of the different beers for retailers, probably needed as often you see their beers in Spar and the like, wrongly lined up to another price ticket.

I then had a nice chat with the guy from Warcop, (website a little outdated but they reply to emails quickly) about the Great welsh beer festival and my disappointment on the day i couldn't try his beers, and bought his Honeyed Stout 4.5%, Furnace ruby ale 4.5%, and his Caspa real lager 5.4% and look forward to trying them all, reviews as and when. 

Meanwhile my utility room has far to much beer in it for my wife's liking so i'm off to move some to the shed for a bit.