Beer in Wales can be traced to the 6th century. Since the 2000s, there has been a growing
microbrewery industry in Wales.
History
At least as early as the 6th century, the
Druidic legendary person
Ceridwen is associated with
cauldrons and
intoxicating preparations of grain in herbs in many poems of
Taliesin, particularly the Hanes Taliesin. This preparation, Gwîn a Bragawd, is said to have brought "science, inspiration and immortality".[1]
In the Laws of
Hywel Dda, meanwhile, a distinction is drawn between bragawd and cwrwf, with bragawd being worth twice as much. Bragawd in this context is a
fermented drink based on cwrwf to which honey, sweet
wort, and ginger have been added.
Welsh beer is noted as a distinct
style as late as 1854, with a recipe made solely from
pale malt and
hops described in a recipe book of the time.[5]
Wales, along with the rest of Britain, came under the influence of the
temperance movement, along with a burgeoning Welsh moral code based on
Presbyterian and other
Non-conformist beliefs in relation to alcohol. This rested against a background of places where there has historically been a lot of
heavy industry such as
coal mining in
south Wales and the north east.[citation needed] This has given some people[who?] the impression that all Welsh beers have been very weak. However, as with beers all over
Britain,
alcohol percentages vary.
Wrexham was one of the first places in the UK to brew
lager.[6] Homesick German immigrant brothers from Saxony started the process in 1882. Its demise came in 2000, when the site of
Wrexham Lager was sold and subsequently demolished.
Investment by the
Welsh Development Agency has helped establish a large number of breweries in Wales in recent years.[7][8]
In the 1930s,
Felinfoel Brewery was the first brewery in the UK to produce and sell beer in cans.
[9]
The largest brewer and packager of beer in Wales by far is the Budweiser Brewing Group (BBG) Brewery in Magor. The brewery was built in 1979 by the Whitbread brewing group and is now operated by the Budweiser Brewing Group, part of AB-InBev the world's largest brewer. The brewery is one of the largest in the UK producing over 5 Million hectare litres every year.[10]
In 2012,
CAMRA predicted that the number of microbreweries in Wales is set to carry on rising as the pub industry deals with continued closures.[11]
^"that Wulfred should give the land of Sleaford to Meohamsted, and should send each year into the monastery sixty loads of wood, twelve loads of coal, six loads of peat, two tuns full of fine ale, two neats' carcases, six hundred loaves, and ten kilderkins of Welsh ale; one horse also each year, and thirty shillings, and one night's entertainment."
^Brian Glover (2007). Brains: 125 Years. The Breedon Books Publishing Company Limited.
ISBN978-1-85983-606-4.