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01-03-2012, 10:15
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As it’s St David’s Day and I’m Welsh I thought I would eat a metaphorical raw leek and throw a casual American-style salute to five current favourite Welsh beers. First up would be Otley O8 (http://www.otleybrewing.co.uk/index.php?id=1), a lush bomber of a beer which offers banana and even banoffee notes on the nose, while the character that chimes on the palate is chardonnay-like, fat and plush, though thankfully lacking the soaked oaked character that drenches and drowns the chardonnay of today’s Poundland wine culture. Breakfast grapefruit adds to the zest with a rich, luscious finish that makes me want to join the Men of Harlech in defending Rourke’s Drift. Of course, there’s also Saison Obscura and I really would love to try Odessa, but one mustn’t be greedy.


Last week I went to a Brains (http://www.sabrain.com/) beer and food dinner in London, with a menu devised by Melissa Cole, who also managed to coral three former rugby players (Tom Shanklin, Rob Jones and some English bloke, Jonathan Webb) onto stage for a bit of an after-dinner do. For me the stand-out food and beer match of the evening was Milkwood (http://www.sabrain.com/beers/draught/speciality/milkwood-beer) with a ham hock terrine — the creamy, aromatic beer (which has rye crystal and Golden Naked rolled oats in the mash) wrapped itself around the saltiness of the terrine and acted as a platform levering the flavours to a higher level. However, delicious as it is, my current favourite amongst the Brains oeuvre is their Dark (http://www.sabrain.com/beers/draught/cask-beers/dark), which always makes me think that Santa’s just fallen down the chimney leaving a cloud of soot everywhere — along with creamy chocolate and coffee beans coated in dustings of milk chocolate; a truly magnificent beer. I do enjoy a few jars of Brains Black (http://www.sabrain.com/beers/draught/black) as well. Looking forward to see what their micro plant will come up with.
When I grew up in North Wales, the local beer was Wrexham Lager, which I would have with a dash of lemonade before moving onto Stones Keg (with a dash of lemonade) or even some cocncotion from Ansells (with a dash of lemonade). Now, there seem to be breweries all over the place with four of them within half an hour’s drive of my mum’s place. Purple Moose (http://www.purplemoose.co.uk/) are resolutely old school, producing a fabulous selection of bitters: strong, golden, best and light.I do like Dark Side of the Moose, but for that favourite beer moment I recall a glass of Glaslyn at the Albion (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-16830337) in Conwy (recently reopened with the aid of Conwy (http://conwybrewery.co.uk/), Purple Moose, Great Orme (http://www.greatormebrewery.co.uk/) and Nant (http://www.bragdynant.co.uk/) breweries) — a blast of tropical fruit and resiny hop on the palate underlined by a base of grainy, biscuity malt, while a great bitter finish rolled around the back of the throat, a voice echoing in a cave, where perhaps Arthur and his knights still sleep.
Great Orme and Conwy make brilliant beers, with Telford Porter and Welsh Black amongst those I would happily spend an evening getting to know, but it’s Mwnci Nell (http://www.bragdynant.co.uk/id31.html)from one of the newer North Walian breweries Bragdy Nant that currently I would place as my rhif pedwar beer. It’s a strong-armed, hefty big hitter of a dark bitter that drinks far too easy for its 5.5% strength (some would call it a porter but I’m not bothered as it is delicious).
And as I write all this I realise how unfair and childish the whole list thing is, so for the final beer I will just say a couple that I have enjoyed in the last 12 months have been Rhymney Export (http://www.rhymneybreweryltd.com/our_ales/rhymney_export.php) and Waen Porter House Blue (http://thewaenbrewery.co.uk/default.aspx), the latter being a porter/stout hybrid (to my palate but I am not going to split hairs about it) with a slight sweetness at the end thanks to the addition of fresh blueberries, some of which are added to the mash and others at the end of the boil. I thought it fabulous served alongside a chocolate fondant with bucks fizz ice cream, which was part of a beer and food matching dinner Mark Dredge and I did at Kilverts (http://www.kilverts.co.uk/) last year. So plenty to think and drink about (and I’ve not started on my favourite Welsh pubs: Bunch of Grapes (http://www.bunchofgrapes.org.uk/), City Arms (http://www.thecityarmscardiff.com/), Penrhyn Arms (http://www.penrhynarms.com/), Kilverts, Pen-y-Gwryd (http://www.pyg.co.uk/) for starters) — Dydd Dewi Sant hapus i pawb.

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