After a special request from The House of Commons The Waen Brewery beers are off to to London again for a special St David’s Day lunch showcasing the BEST of Welsh food and drink! Having had casks of their ale in the bars there last year, their bottled beers were in demand this time. d Brewster Sue Hayward says ‘We are thrilled to have been asked to supply beer for something that is shouting about the absolute best of Welsh food and drink. It’s great that our bottled beers are as in demand as the cask ales are, outside of Wales.

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INDEPENDENT brewing firm Otley has expanded its site in Cilfynydd to match customer demand for its cask ales and bottled beers.

The brewery’s Real Beer Box, a pack of hand-selected ales, ciders and perries that customers can select and order online, was its best-seller through Christmas and the company saw a 500% increase in sales compared to last year.

As a result of the Real Beer Box sales and the company’s growth, Otley has invested £4,000 to increase its capacity by around 75%, creating a customer shop, offices and a meeting room at its site in Cilfynydd.

Later this year, Otley – which had a turnover of around £385,000 in its last financial year – will expand its cold store and secure a new unit for bottling its beers.

Nick Otley, managing director of Otley Brewing, said: “It’s a really exciting time for us, and despite the current economic climate, we have experienced strong growth. There’s evidently a demand for our products, both through direct customers to the brewery and those who choose to drink our brews in pubs.

“Leading up to Christmas in 2008 we sold an average of 20 Real Beer Boxes per day and this time round we sold up to 100 each day. We almost ran out of stock, so we needed to call in three extra staff to help us get the beer boxes out on time.

To read the full article go to:  walesonline

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Wood Brewery MD Edward Wood presents the money to Stef Langford-Brown, Air Ambulance Fundraising Manager

Drinkers who tried Triple A, Air Ambulance Ale, a beer specially brewed by Shropshire’s Wood Brewery, have helped raised £1,000 for the Midlands Air Ambulance charity.

The Air Ambulance provides the primary response to counties including the West Midlands, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, dealing with over 3,500 callouts each year. It operates from Tatenhill Airport in Staffordshire, RAF Cosford, near Wolverhampton, and Strensham North Services on the M5. The cost of running and maintaining current level of operations stands at £5.6 million, for which the organisation relies entirely on voluntary donations.

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A south Shropshire brewer has been told he may be the only brewer in the West Midlands who produces beer suitable for vegans and vegetarians.

Beers brewed by Norman Pearce at the Sun Inn in Corfton qualify as vegan and vegetarian-friendly because he doesn’t use finings, or ingredients from fish swim bladders in the brewing process of his beers.

Finings, which are made using the swim bladders of tropical fish, are used by a lot of brewers

to help their products go clear.

Mr Pearce said: “It’s slowly coming to light that we may be one of the few places in the area doing beers for vegans and vegetarians. “We don’t use finings because we use a different system to most people who do bottling. Our beers go clear naturally.” He added that the  brewery was now looking at making it a unique selling point for its products. He said: “Now we are actually going to start pushing it that we are vegetarian friendly.”

The Sun Inn has been the only pub in the county listed on the website  www.vegetarianvistor.co.uk, which lists premises that cater for vegetarians and vegans.

Listed

But just before Christmas, they had one customer who had come all the way from  Abergavenny who told them they were one of the few places he could find to have a beer. Mr Pearce said: “We’ve been listed on the site for ages, but it’s only now that people are starting to ask. “We’ve always kept at least one vegetarian beer available on tap at the bar as well as our bottled beers.

“There are probably others who do similar, but I’m not aware of any.” Su Taylor, of the UK Vegetarian Society, said: “The problem with beer is that the finings used in the clearing process of brewing are usually a form of gelatine that comes from the swim bladders of these fish.”

She added: “If another company is finding an alternative process then that’s great.

“We’re always on the look out for new products, so it’s good to know there are manufacturers

out there supporting veggies.”

By Hannah Costigan

Taken from Shropshire Star

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2010 will be the 25th year of brewing for Stoke Lacy based Wye Valley Brewery, and they plan to celebrate by brewing even more excellent beer.

Wye Valley Brewery has come a long way since Peter Amor started brewing in 1985 in the old stable block at The Barrels, Hereford. Since then the brewery has moved to Stoke Lacy, increased its tied estate and invested in a state of the art bottling facility.

Wye Valley Brewery will start its 25th year on a high, with the launch of its popular cask beer HPA, in bottled format. Numerous other events are planned including the release of a special Limited Edition bottled beer in March and a race night at Hereford Racecourse in August where customers and staff will celebrate the brewery’s 25th anniversary in style with real music and real ale! Also, the brewery’s Herefordshire barley project will be realised and the first all Herefordshire beer will be produced, using local hops and local barley.

Fundraising throughout the year will benefit the brewery’s selected charity for 2010, Riding for the Disabled.

Said Peter Amor, Chairman and founder of Wye Valley Brewery, ‘It is obviously very gratifying to have come this far. It really is a collective achievement and our success is down to the dedication of the whole team at the brewery.’

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With at least 100 real ales on draught from small breweries in Wales and the Marches, brought to Ludlow with help of SIBA, the Society of Independent Brewers, plus other drinks, and seriously good, local sausages and bread, you will find a great, fun atmosphere, suitable for all ages!

Follow on twitter http://twitter.com/Ludlowfoodfest

http://www.springevent.org.uk/

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Former Monty Python star Terry Jones was spotted supporting a Welsh brewery the other day at the Star Inn, Dylife where he enjoyed a few pints of Festival Landmark and Brewster’s from the Waen Brewery at Caersws. “Best pint around”, said Terry who expressed his love of the local beer and spent the afternoon drinking it.

The Waen Brewery was only set up earlier this year and has already featured on a bar in Parliament.

Terry Jones is known to be a fan of real ale, he was a partner in the Penrhos Brewery, Lyonshall, Kington, Herefordshire (1977-83) and even opened the Great British Beer Festival one year. The first brew of the Penrhos Brewery was the aptly named Jones’ First Brew. In 1983 the brewing equipment was sold to Summerskills Brewery of Plymouth.

Taken from:  Brew Wales beerbrewer.blogspot.com

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ONE of only a handful of brewsters – female brewers – producing real ale in the UK, Pam Honeyman has experienced huge success in less than a year in the business.

Mrs Honeyman, 39, launched Monty’s Brewery in the mid-Wales town of Montgomery in January, the first since the Eagle Brewery closed more than 20 years ago.

Her distinctively-named beers, Sunshine, Moonrise, Mojo, Desert Rats, Monty’s Midnight stout and Maple, are being supped in local pubs, supermarkets and delis. They’re also featured at food and drink festivals throughout Wales and parts of England.

The micro brewery at Montgomery’s Castle Works employs two full time workers and one part-time alongside Mrs Honeyman. Such has been the brewery’s success, she is already having to invest in more equipment, including her own bottling plant.

For the full article go to:  dailypost.co.uk

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Celebrating success from the left are Wood's staff Andrew Pinnock, Jo Varcoe, Chris Underwood, Edward Wood, Paul Benson, Andrew Willer, Nick Phillips

Staff at south Shropshire’s Wood Brewery are celebrating achieving a hat-trick of major competition successes.

The Wistanstow village brewery was one of two winners in the ‘best sponsorship’ category of the SIBA (Society for Independent Brewers) national awards for the brewing industry in London.

Wood’s took the highly commended award for creating ‘Triple A – Air Ambulance Ale’ to raise money through donating a percentage of the sales price of every pint to the Midlands Air Ambulance, which is celebrating 18 years of operations.

Wood’s Managing Director Edward Wood received the award from Oliver Hartley of Award sponsor Croxsons.

Edward said: “We’re delighted for ourselves, for the Air Ambulance, and for all the people who are showing their support for the charity by buying Triple A. Sales are going very well indeed and if the trend continues, we should be handing over a four-figure sum when the sponsorship ends after the end of the year.”

The Wood family have special cause to support the Air Ambulance charity. In August, three months after the brewery sponsorship began, Edward’s 15-year-old son Jonathan had to be air-lifted to Stoke for emergency brain surgery after sustaining a serious head injury while playing cricket in Shrewsbury. He has made a full recovery as a result.

The SIBA sponsorship award came hard on the heels of Wood’s being chosen as one of just 15 finalists from a starting selection of 100 in one of the most fiercely contested brewing contests in Britain, the Sainsbury’s Beer Competition. Wood’s shipped more than 30,000 bottles of their blonde Shropshire Lass beer to Sainsbury as a result of reaching the final.

“Sainsbury’s was an excellent boost for business in the very difficult recessionary conditions that the country is going through, and it’s got the name of Shropshire Lass very widely known,” he said.

In early summer, Wood’s took one of the top awards at the Heart of England Fine Foods Diamond Awards which celebrated the best of regional produce across the West Midlands. The brewery took home the Special Diamond Award for Excel which was sponsored by Advantage West Midlands. Judges commented that the brewery “regularly develops special products linked to the local community” and was “totally committed to reducing waste and energy”. The panel unanimously felt that this company was outstanding on corporate social responsibility and the way in which it used this to successfully market the company.

Said Edward: “The SIBA award is the icing on the cake of a very special summer for us. It’s a reward for the hard work of all the brewery’s staff and we’re looking forward to more success next year too, because we’ll be celebrating 30 years of brewing then.”

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