Friday 4 September 2009

Bottled ales

I've just taken delivery of Jeff Evans's "Good Bottled Beer Guide" from CAMRA.

Its terms of reference are restricted to bottle-conditioned ales (that is, those in which fermentation continues in the bottle). Therefore, local specialities like Hurns Brewing Company's Tomos Watkin range are not included, but Welsh craft beers are well represented.

In South Wales, we have Vale of Glamorgan, Rhymney (which produces a bottled dark for CAMRA), Otley (based in Pontypridd, not Yorkshire!), Kingstone, Ffos y ffin, Dare and Breconshire breweries. There is the Neuadd Arms Brewing Co, which suggests a good way of breaking the journey on the Heart of Wales railway. North Wales boasts Conwy, Jolly Brewer (Wrexham), McGivern (Wrexham, no web site known) and North Wales (Moelfre). West Wales has Penlon.

Over the border, there is Whittingtons Brewery, based in Newent, birthplace of the famous Lord Mayor of London. I don't know if Peter Black is a beer man, but if he is, the products should appeal to him: A Winter's Tail (a winter ale) and Cat's Whiskers (a bitter).

I'd still like to know what happened to Jigsaw (or was it Puzzle?), a cinnamon-flavoured wheat beer (produced in Shrewsbury, if I recall aright), which was very refreshing in the times when we had hot summers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

...and I thought having the odd bottle of "fiddlers elbow" was developing a taste for the unusual!