Tag: Brains

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Beer

Is the best Real Ale pub in Cardiff now the City Arms?

The City Arms reopened in Cardiff this weekend in time for the first Autumn international as a proper Real Ale pub!

The City Arms was built in the 1880’s – the same decade Brains was founded – but was known then as the Cattle Market. It was later renamed Dovers Arms, but became the City Arms in 1905 in celebration of the new ‘City’ status.

The Real Ale fans of Cardiff are rejoicing to the news (well I am), as apart from Spoons, there are not a lot of pubs with more than one Guest Ale on in the City Centre, especially Brains pubs, the Goat Major was doing the business for a while, but has slowed down recently in it’s selection.

I had a great time on Friday evening when I was lucky enough to sample a good selection what was on offer, thanks to the people from Brains for the invite to the opening.. the beer bottle selection was great as well and Duvel (green) on tap is a great addition.

Here are a selection of the beers that I had, the good news is that Otley brewery are providing the casks ales, so will look forward to a great range of Welsh Beers and some from further afield.

From Brains:

After reworking the bar area and giving the interior and exterior a lick of paint, the pub’s manager, Chris Partridge, is looking forward to welcoming new and returning customers: “The biggest change has happened behind the bar. Every day there will be up to eight cask (or real) ales on draught, two of which will be served direct from the cask, a range of draught imported beers and more than 20 different bottled beers and ciders.”

The City Arms can now boast to housing the biggest selection of beers in Brains’ entire pub estate. And, as Philip Lay, Retail Director at Brains explains, cask ale is a big part of that offer: “Cask ale is becoming something of a star performer in the beer market so we’re confident the City Arms will be a big draw. Last year overall cask ale sales increased by 5% and the number of 18-24 year old drinkers grew by 17%*, which suggests that the traditional ‘old man in a flat cap’ image is finally being shed.

“This is a pub rich in tradition, with a fantastic atmosphere and an unrivalled range of beers and we hope to attract customers of all ages.”

It’s the old Brains pub on Quay St just opposite the Millennium Stadium, they have not made many changes to the pub just cleaned it up a bit (which it needed) – the City Arms may have been a traditional pub and popular when a game was on, but the times I went there, it was not a haven for good real ale to be honest the welcome was not that, well welcome!

But a pub in this position needs some love and its good to see Brains doing it and upping its Real Ale game, wonder if they have plans for the model Inn, just round the corner.

The cask ales list for the launch are from some great Welsh Breweries and some excellent English ones, so looks like a good start..

10 cask ales, Otley, Breconshire, VOG, St Austell, Wickwar, Rhymney and of course Brains – IPA, SA, Dark & Rev

source with 4 direct from the cask!!

Beers on are

CASK ALES AND CIDERS

IPA
Brains (Wales)
Fresh and hoppy, very quaffable!
3.4%

Dark
Brains (Wales)
The legendary Dark, with chocolate & malt flavours
3.5%

S.A
Brains (Wales)
The Famous S.A.! Nutty, rich and satisfyingly dry
4.2%

The Rev. James
Brains (Wales)
Full bodied, rich and warming, with a hint of spice
4.5%

Addlestones Cider
Addlestones (Somerset)
Traditional cloudy cider with full-bodied flavour
5.2%

GUEST ALES

O-Garden
Otley Brewery (Pontypridd)
Clear wheat beer with orange, coriander & cloves
4.8%

Tribute
St. Austell (Cornwall)
Rich, juicy, malty & hoppy
4.2%

Rite Flanker
Wickwar (Gloucestershire)
Chestnut ale with hints of malt & fruit
4.3%

Grog Y Vog
Vale of Glamorgan Brewery (Barry)
Fresh flavoured golden ale
4.3%

Export
Rhymney Brewery (Merthyr Tydfil)
Full bodied mixed malts, well rounded and easy drinking
5%

Red Dragon
Breconshire Brewery (Brecon)
Smooth and easy drinking with biscuity malt flavours
4.7%

Bread of Heaven
Brains (Cardiff)
Ale with a reddish hue and a moreish fruit finish
4%

also for the non real ale fan – 7 draught imported beers and 24 different bottled beers and ciders from all over the shop (as posted on twitter by @Brains_Ian)

I hope Brains let us know what ales are on every week – using the power of the webs.

I think it may become my Cardiff local (after the Goat) of course depending on price;)

I can see the City Arms becoming a mecca for Real lovers people visiting Cardiff, Well done Brains – you have used yours.

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Beer

Brains IPA too little for too much

I had a pint of the Brains IPA cask earlier in the week at the always a pleasure to go in pub, Goat Major.

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A light, copper colour ale with a fresh, hoppy taste and a clean, bitter finish. Brewed with two varieties of hops, combined with pale and crystal malts.

I liked it – as a session beer it would be fine as its a very weak 3.4% (what we seem to get from Brains anyway :))

I was a bit like Crown IPA (CPA?),which of course was taken over my Brains many years a go

I used to drink with my grandfather in his valleys club, it was more easy drinking than their not nice at all keg IPA Smooth.

When we are seeing barn (or shed) storming hoppy IPAs from the like of brewdog, it’s a disappointed that Brains could not gives us more flavour and show us that they are still a brewer of note and not just a pub/restaurant/hotel chain that brews half decent but predictably beer.

Iam not saying it was not a good pint, but it’s in a range of very similar beers from the Welsh brewery, they could have blown our red socks (with dragons on) off.

of course I will be having it again (once my tablets have worn off) but the price point will not win any fans (£2.60ish) when you can get a decent guest ale in other city centre pubs.

It will be a winner with the valley rugby fans coming down to the smoke, mind you.. but if in doubt have a pint of Brains Dark.

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Beer

Cardiff Brains Brewery to put IPA in bottles

On that Twitter ,Brand Manager for S.A Brain & Co Ltd, Ian Beattie tweeted about the labels for the new Brains IPA in bottles.

Brains do an IPA smooth which is not the first on my list to drink when I pop into one of their pubs, back in the day I used to drink Crown Brewery CPA (Club Pale Ale) with my grandfather I wonder if it’s based on that recipe 😉

Hopefully Brains will do well with this IPA as most people like a light but hoppy brew Iam looking forward to tasting a few, wonder if I can get an invite to the launch 😉

At the moment they do the following Bottles, SA, SA Gold, the wonderful Dark & Rev James, so this is a good fit in the inventory.

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Beer Food

Want a decent pint and a very good steak in Cardiff?

Myself and the Mrs went to the Maltsters in Llandaff last week.

It’s one of the Cardiff brewery Brains, modern pubs which they have changed a lot over the last year from the no nonsense pub I remember from my youth (ok 20s) to a open plan pub that serves good food, and for the better, maybe its a middle age thing, but sometimes you do want to have a good pint of ale and a good meal, They say they try and source a lot of the ingredients locally “Changing daily, our menu offers great, honest pub food where quality rules over fanciness!”

As it was an early tea, I had a couple of pints of the excellent Brains Up and Over which is well worth getting in bottles if you can not get to a Brains Pub to have it on tap.

anyway down to the food.

The Mrs had asparagus, chicken and date terrine to start, which was very moist and served on a bit of slate as the style is nowadays.

I did not have a starter as I was keeping room for the pudding.

For main course she has Poached salmon, rocket and dill salad, which was massive and the salmon was dressed with creme fraiche, it was very tasty.

I had a welsh rip eye steak and great homemade chips (looked overcooked but were not, not fat not thin but very moorish) served with a poncy little jar of bearnaise sauce.

It’s strange that I have tend to have steak when I go out as there were some great things on the every changing menu, Iam a good cook myself but rarely cook steak at home, maybe its my chef training in my youth that I like to see how good a place is, by the quality of the steak, and I was not disappointed its was a lovely cut and a big chunk and good to perfection (Medium rare).

For pudding we shared a Basil and raspberry creme brulee, that is another dish I tend to favour , it can from range from the wonderful to the stodgy, well not quite being the latter it was the only disappointed of the meal, it was just over powered by the basil taste, and even after a Greek lager later in the evening I was still getting basil aftertaste.

anyway if you are in Llandaff or in Cardiff then pop over it’s a great pub

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Categories
Beer

Brains you are surprising us with your marketing for National Cask Ale Week

Brains are upping their marketing this year with this great promotional tool to get people to taste their cask ales, what you mean there are people in Kardiff not tasted a Brains Dark, shame on you.

I can’t see this going down well in all their houses (Vulcan, Cottage & City Arms) but in the posher pubs in their portfolio I think the Beerati may lap it up…

Anyway I want one of these for my shedpub… 🙂

Welsh brewer Brains is going continental. The company, famed for cask ale favourites such as Brains SA and Dark, will be launching ‘Beer Tapas’ ahead of National Cask Ale Week (29th March – 5th April) in a bid to encourage trial.

Featuring three third pint glasses in a branded wooden tray, Beer Tapas will be available throughout and beyond National Cask Ale Week in around 200 pubs, including over 100 Brains managed and tenanted houses.

Richard Davies, Sales and Marketing Director explains: “The beer tapas tray gives customers the opportunity to try three different cask ales but drink the equivalent of one pint. We think it’s a great way of encouraging customers to switch from other categories to try cask ale and also a good way of giving current cask drinkers greater variety of choice.”

The tray has been branded ‘Brains Beer’, and the glasses are etched with ‘Beer Tapas’. Richard Davies adds, “This is about growing the cask ale category, with an emphasis on trial and exploration. Naturally we want to encourage customers to try the full Brains range, but we also want to see them trying brands and styles they wouldn’t normally try.”

More on the Cardiff brewer here.

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Beer

Brains Black Welsh Stout – Guinness beware in the Welsh valleys

Today St David’s Day Brains the Cardiff based brewery launched a new beer at their wonderful Crawshay Arms pub, which is in the grounds of the Brewery, the best pub in Cardiff has it does not have a till!

What is different about it from the other Brains keg ales, well It’s a Stout, and they have called it Black.

They see it as a direct competitor to Guinness but at a cheaper price point but with a slightly familiar Brains taste aimed at their regulars.

I used to drink Guinness as my backup beer if there was no Cask Ales on as you could always rely on it, so how would the pretender to the Irish throne compare?.

Well It tasted like the Irish institution on first sip but without the overly reliance on the moustache covering white head, but Black did have more to it, dare I say a great dark roasted malt taste that the Irish one does not seem to deliver any more.

And a better session beer I think at. 4.1% abv and hopefully they wont be brining out an extra cold version soon as that ruined Guinness IMHO

With a launch through selected brains houses this month and you may find it elsewhere within the year.

If you like a bit of the Irish black stuff then give Brains black a go, if you drink Brains excellent Dark on cask also give it a go, it’s got more of the blarney than Dark has, but would make a nice change.

We also had Welsh Black Beef cooked in Brains Black – a great combination served with rice with laverbread & leeks a great end to a good few hours tasting this new brew on our Saints Day.

Brains Black - Welsh Stout st davids day - brains tour

Brains Black Stout

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Blog Food

The Best British Pie goes to Wye Valley Pie from the Goat Major

I know I seem to be posting about the Goat Major a lot recently in fact more than actually going there for a pint!

anyway the Trumpet of Truth (South Wales Echo) reports that head chef Adam has won a pietastic award.

THE best pie in the country is to be found at a Cardiff pub, a competition run by British Pie Week has found.

Adam Pavey, head chef at the Goat Major on High Street in Cardiff, created the award-winning Wye Valley Pie, which was named the winner of the British Pie Week Challenge 2010.

His winning effort includes locally sourced chicken, leeks, asparagus and Tintern Abbey cheese.

Chef Adam, 22, said: “I was really taken aback that I’d won. We were in competition with about 60 other pubs nationwide.”

No brains ale in it? ReciPie here

British Pie Week starts next week more details here

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Beer Blog

Goat major Beer festival – Cardiff – Red Hop Lover, DangleBeer & Bread of Heaven

The wonderful Oasis in Cardiff that is the Goat Major is having a mini beer festival this week, you would not know it as nothing on the Brains website I had a tip off from ArfurD

Beers on today include Brewseters Red Hop Lover, DangleBeery & Brains own Bread of Heaven.

Red Hot Lover

Beer List

Later in the Week (or when the have gone ) they have the Lovely Brew Dog Trashy Blonde

Bread of Heaven

If you are in Cardiff this week it’s worth popping over the Goat (which is near the Castle) as it’s what Cardiff Pubs used to be like.

You can now Follow the Goat Major on Twitter thanks to GdnCardiff for the heads up.

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Blog

A climb up Kilimanjaro & Brains beer a good mix? In this case yes

On of my colleagues is taking part in the Kilimanjaro climb for cancer (you can sponsor her here).

But another good thing to come of this is a new beer has been brewed by Cardiff Brewer Brains

‘Up and Over’ ale has been specially created for the Brains SA Captains Climb. The 500ml bottle is being sold exclusively in all Welsh Tesco Extras and Superstores, and is available as part of Brains’ 3 for £4 offer. 15p from each bottle sold will be donated to the challenge.

The name ‘Up & Over’ was the inspiration of Stephen Katchi who won a MediaWales competition to name the beer.

I have been lucky to get a bottle and will let you know what is tastes like, but Brains have provided some tasting notes

‘Up & Over’ is a fruity, light amber coloured beer. Fuggles, Goldings, Styrian Goldings and Cascade hops coupled with the unique Brains yeast and balanced malt flavours creates a deliciously refreshing pint guaranteed to be a high point in our ale range.

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Blog

Welsh Bloggers in the pub – The vulcan

This Wednesday (15th July & pay day!) I will be joining some Welsh bloggers in a pub the Vulcan in Cardiff (yes the one that was supposed to close due to the evil of corporate greed and replaced with a car park), the majority of them I have never met let along understand what they write about.

Save The Vulcan

Photo from My mate James Cuff’s flickr

I am always a bit shy about these sort of things ( Until I get a few pints down my neck) as there will be serious bloggers who write about politics, Welsh language, news and beer (I am safe with the last topic) but they are not really interested in my little shed world.

So I will sit quietly at the back maybe chatting to Dave and Arfur and down a few pints of Brains.

Anyway join us.