January 12, 2017
On our second trip to Portmeirion in December - this time for the wonderful holiday food festival - we pretty much spent all our savings eating everything in sight and buying Christmas presents. And one of my favorites was, probably not surprisingly, the tent boasting the great 'Ales of Wales'.
The woman behind the counter was generous enough with the free samples that I may actually have gotten a little buzz just from standing there. Or possibly it may have been the two prosecco cocktails I'd already had while listening to the Welsh men's choirs. I guess we'll never know.
In any case, the added bonus of the lengthy free samples was that we had a nice chat about the brewery itself - the 'Cwrw Llŷn Bragdy' (if the seeming lack of vowels in the name concerns you, and/or you're afraid that that y looks a little orc-ish, 'w' and 'y' are both vowels in Welsh). She mentioned that it's on the north side of the Llyn peninsula - one of the remaining strongholds of Welsh language and culture, that it's open for tours, and that it really wasn't that far away. So I told P we were definitely going to head up there when it wasn't busy.
All the Ales in Wales
So, I thought it would be easy to make a detour to the brewery as part of our trip to use the gift certificate for the free bottle of wine at Dylan's in Criccieth that we'd also generously been given at the food festival. [Hint: For anyone reading this who owns a Welsh food or drink concern - much like I will follow random signs that I find on hikes (see my post on Bearded Lake) - if you give me a gift certificate, I will come. Hint hint. Hint hint. Hint.]
And so it was. Less than half an hour from Criccieth, on the north side of the peninsula, when we showed up at the brand spanking new glass and metal brewery, the non-functional part that would be for tourists looked closed. As, I believe, it was, as we hadn't made any kind of reservation and most things are closed in January.
We peered in for a bit and had just turned to leave, when a young lady came speeding down the steps. Despite our insistence that we didn't want to be any trouble and it was fine, we should have called first, apologies, etc, etc, testament to Welsh people being the friendliest people ever she sat us down to a movie about the history of the peninsula and the brewery in a lovely little purpose built screening room, and went off to find someone working there to give us a tour.
History & ale: a nice combo
I probably would have learned more from the professionally produced movie and the informative signs around the room if I hadn't insisted on poking P, pointing and giggling every time I recognized some place in the movie. I did retain a few facts though.
First, they recently found a Bronze Age wooden relic of some sort in the area that had bits of grain in it, that archaeologists say indicate that there's been brewing in Llŷn for at least 3,500 years. Which, you know, is a pretty long time. So that beer's probably been skunked for a while. There were pictures of a recent party the brewery threw where they tried to recreate the beer that might have been brewed at that time, using the actual Bronze Age method. Bluntly, the brewery staff admitted that 'it didn't taste great', but that they'd done it for the fun, so it was a good time. Which, really, is as good a reason as any to make Bronze Age-style ale.
Second, this brewery - the only brewery on the peninsula, was started as a sort of community cooperative project in 2011. It seemed like the kind of thing where a group of neighbors got together and said 'let's start a brewery in our garage', and so they did, and it actually worked out, and for many of them it's now their full time job. Which is always the best story to hear, really.
They'd only just moved into the current custom built modern premises in the late summer of 2016, and so the summer of 2017 will be their real first tourist season. The place seems very ready.
But most importantly - the Ales in Wales were lovely
After the movie, we were shown the brewing area, and were told more about the history and the process. It's a small place - we're not talking about a giant internationally-known Laphroiag distillery after all - but we had a good talk and got a better idea of the community vibe of the place.
Then, after turning on the lights over the bar and finding some working kegs in the tasting room, we tried a few of the ales and chatted for a while (including about how one of the staff did part of his college work and practical trailing in agriculture in Ohio and Kansas, of all places). There are five styles, each with a little local history attached. The Cochyn Ruby Ale is definitely my favorite. Not just because it's pirate themed - based on a skull and crossbones found on a gravestone nearby, and that Black Bart from Pembrokeshire was the first to fly the pirate flag - but because I love this style of red ale and this one was particularly good.
So good, in fact, that after we left the brewery, we went to the nearby graveyard to find the 18th century tombstone the ale's all about. Or at least we think we found it. It was so cold outside we couldn't stay out searching for long.
If you ever manage to try the others - Brenin Enlli Legendary Bitter Ale (named after the 'king' of nearby Bardsey Island, where they used to brew beer so strong that the bottles sometimes exploded on the shelves); Seithenyn Golden Ale (named after the gatekeeper of the ancient land of Cantre'r Gwaelod who got so tremendously drunk one night that he forgot to close the sluice gates and during a storm the land was lost under the Irish Sea - oops); Glyndwr Beer (named after Welsh independence hero Owain Glyndwr); or the Y Brawd Houdini Pale Ale (named after a Welsh troubadour's song, which I think is an in-Welsh joke I don't really get at all) - and check them in on Untappd, you'll be able to brag about being one of only 3 or 400 check-ins at the most, which is no small feat in the microbrew world these days. But given they only distribute as far as Machynlleth (and then they're only on tap irregularly), and once sent one pallet to France, this beer really is still in the 'exclusive and undiscovered' club of microbrews.
Not that that's why I drink beer, but if you do. . .
In any case, friendly people, ale, local language and buying a 6 pint variety pack and cloth bottle carrier always makes for a great visit. It was made even better when looking at their website afterwards, I read about their two year battle with London to be allowed to produce pint glasses with the Welsh word 'Peint' on them, rather than the English 'pint'. As a former student of minority group politics, including in the UK, now I feel that I should have walked out with a peint glass as well. . . Oh well, there's always next time!
