Look out for new beer mats

Look out for our new beer mats, which arrived at the brewery yesterday. They are making their way in to pubs as we write! They have QR scanable codes on them, which enable you to enter a monthly prize draw to win a case of beer.

Keep a look out in your local, and get scanning! Even better, if you don't have the correct technology you can just visit the website to register.

Herefordshire pub wins Best Local at National Awards

‘Just the sort of local beer champion we need!’ said judges.

The Bell Inn, Leominster was crowned Best SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) Local at the recent Business Awards, held at the Crowne Plaza, London on 14th November.

The SIBA Business Awards, rewards brewing members for their achievements in areas of their business, such as marketing, customer service, pack design and community support.

The Business Awards was established in 2006, and in 2011 for the first time, pub members were recognised. Mike Hall, landlord of The Bell Inn, was delighted to be the first to win Best SIBA Local. The judges said Mike and his pub are ‘…just the sort of local beer champions we need!’

Mike was praised by the judges, they said ‘he is proud to be a custodian of real ale, and ensures his staff are fully inducted, trained and encouraged to share his passion and communicate it to the pub’s customers’.

There was success also for Wye Valley Brewery, who picked up Highly Commended in the Best Marketing category, for their new advertising campaign celebrating the social context of “real people enjoying a real beer together”. The campaign gives well-known proverbs an amusing twist, examples include ‘All work and no HPA makes Jack a dull boy’ and ‘Pint of Butty at night, Drinker’s Delight’.

Pictured left to right, Mike Hall, landlord of The Bell Inn with daughter Emily, and Vernon Amor Managing Director of Wye Valley Brewery.

Lovely new polypins, now available!

Our smart new polypins are now all ready to go!

With posh new packaging, which incorporates our Wye's Words theme, and pictures of our delicious pints! Perfect timing for those festive gatherings, they contain approximately 36 pints, and you can choose from Wye Valley Bitter, HPA and Butty Bach. You can call in at the brewery or purchase online, so treating yourself this Christmas couldn't be easier!

Brewery Shop, Open Saturdays

O come all ye thirsty!

Our brewery shop is going to be open on Saturdays leading up to Christmas, visit on 3rd, 10th and 17th December, 10am to 4pm, also late night opening on Wednesday 21st December, 10am to 9pm. And of course we are open Monday - Friday, 9am to 4.30pm as usual!

Stock up for Christmas, with bottles of your favourite ales and plenty of gift ideas from branded clothing to stocking fillers. Also available are our party sized 36 pint polypins, perfect for Christmas get togethers. Very soon to be available from our online shop.

We are really easy to find, on the A465 Hereford to Bromyard road.

Highly Commended at SIBA Awards

Last night the annual SIBA Brewing Business Awards 2011 took place in London. We were delighted to be awarded Highly Commended for our new range of adverts in the Best Marketing category.

The awards are now in their sixth year, and are open to all of SIBA's brewing members. 12 brewers were recognised for their contributions.

We nominated The Bell at Leominster for Best SIBA Local category, and were so pleased when he was crowned winner!

Meet the brewer at the Wild Duck Inn

Wye Valley Brewery will be holding a Meet the Brewer night at The Wild Duck Inn at Ewen, Cirencester on Monday 7th November at 7.30pm.

Get a unique insight in to the brewery, along with a tutored tasting of six of their delicious cask ales, and food to match specially selected by the Head Chef of The Wild Duck.

Tickets are £10 per person and include:
6 samples of Wye Valley cask ales
1 pint of Wye Valley cask ale
Food featuring Wye Valley ale, specially selected by The Wild Duck Head Chef
A prize draw to win a Brewer for the Day experience at Wye Valley Brewery, Herefordshire.

Contact The Wild Duck on 01285 770310 for tickets.

Birmingham Beer Festival opens today!

Birmingham Beer Festival 2011 opens today, Thursday 27th October. The festival recently relocated to a larger site, to enable it to continue to grow, it will consist of an extensive range of beer, cider, perry and live music to keep the visitors entertained!

You can visit the Wye Valley Brewery bar at the festival from 27th October to 29th October, head over to Second City Suite, Sherlock St. Opening hours are 11am to 11pm each day, for more information visit www.birminghambeerfestival.co.uk

Pictured: The Wye Valley Brewery bar with Wye Valley Bitter, HPA, Butty Bach, Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout and OT all ready to go!

Peter celebrates 25 years

On Monday 24th October, Chairman of Wye Valley Brewery Peter Amor celebrated 25 years as landlord of The Barrels. One of his reegular drinkers baked a Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout Chocolate Cake to celebrate the occasion!

Photo: Peter cutting his cake

Hereford Originals are victorious

The Hereford Originals have been crowned winners of the 2010/11 Wye Valley Brewery Quiz League. The final took place at The Barrels on Sunday 2nd October, between Hereford Originals, Barrels A and The Dog.

The Hereford Originals came away with a fantastic score of 126 out of 150.

Congratulations to the team, we look forward to welcomeing them back to our 2011/12 league, which kicks on Sunday 9th October.

Pictured Adrian Tilley (left) receiving the cup from Peter Amor (Chairman of Wye Valley Brewery).

Finalist in Sainsbury's Beer Challenge

We are delighted to be named as a finalist in the Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt! We brewed a special beer, Wye Not?, especially for the competition and will be attending the grand final tomorrow (Friday).

At the final, eight beers from across the country will be tasted, and judged by beer experts, beer writers and representatives from Sainsbury's. Two beers will win a six month national listing in Sainsbury's stores nationwide!

Talking hops

Join our Head Brewer Jimmy Swan who is talking hops, with The Guest Ale blog.

Visit
www.theguestale.com

Everything you ever wanted to know about cask ale!

This years Cask Ale Report is now available to download from www.caskreport.co.uk. It is aimed at publicans but is also of interest to those who enjoy a pint of the lovely stuff!

The Cask Ale Report is written by Pete Brown and supported by CAMRA, SIBA, the Family Brewers of Britain and Cask Marque.

To summarise briefly cask ale has done really well, in what has been a tough year for pubs, it continues to outperform other on-trade drinks.

So put your feet up, and take a few minutes to give it a quick read!

Hop Pole - Pub of the Year 2011

The Hop Pole at Droitwich has recently been awarded Redditch and Bromsgrove CAMRA Pub of the Year 2011. To celebrate Tim from the Hop Pole brought some of his regular drinkers to Wye Valley Brewery for a brewery tour, and we surprised him with this lovely sign!

Congratulations Tim and the team.

Pictured left to right, Julie Allen Sales Representative Cotswolds and West Midlands, Tim Landlord of the Hop Pole Droitwich, Jimmy Swan Head Brewer of the Wye Valley Brewery and Emma Jenkins Sales Admin

Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout, named Classic Beer of the Month by Jeff Evans

Jeff Evans, World renowned beer writer, has named Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout his Classic Beer of the Month, on his website Inside Beer.

Jeff says that in his forthcoming Book of Beer Knowledge, he suggests which beers may best, today, exemplify a wide range of beer styles. For the dry Irish stout style, he plumps for Wye Valley’s Dorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stout. Well, who are we to disagree!

Read Jeff's review at www.insidebeer.com

Another successful Barrels Beer Festival

Another August Bank Holiday, another successful Charity Beer Festival

Visitors to The Barrels 24th Annual Charity Beer Festival enjoyed 700 gallons of excellent beers from various British brewers, and 125 gallons of local cider and perry.

The beer festival is run by volunteers and benefits local Charities. In total, this year’s festival raised a record £19,500, which was split between 23 charities.

In particular, the festival donated £1,000 to The Mayor of Hereford’s chosen charities, which were Help for Heroes and Macmillan Renton Unit.

Pictured Peter Amor, Landlord of The Barrels handing over a cheque for £1,000 to The Mayor of Hereford Councillor Julie Woodward.

A very busy day...

On Saturday 20th August 2011 we opened our doors for a special Brewery Open Day to celebrate Herefordshire Food Week. Despite less than sunny weather, the crowds were not deterred and the local real ale brewery welcomed visitors from near and far on-site to experience a taste of Wye Valley Brewery hospitality.

Over 400 people experienced a free brewery tour to find out more about how they create their award-winning real ales. In addition, Head Brewer Jimmy Swan ran tutored beer tasting sessions featuring a taste-test of a pale smooth beer ‘Hop Stringer’ which has been brewed as part of a trial of a new local hop variety. Hop Stringer was brewed to a similar recipe as Wye Valley Brewery’s ever popular HPA, but substituted a new trial local hop variety so that the taste of the new hop could be compared to a known benchmark.

Local producers were also there to celebrate the creative use of beer in great local produce. Legges of Bromyard ran a gourmet sausage BBQ featuring special beer recipe sausages and showcased a new range of sauces and condiments featuring Wye Valley beers. Local craft bakery Loafers bought along special hand-made beer breads. The sausages and bread proved extremely popular – both sold out! In addition a competitive BBQ team, The Dean Order of Smokers and Grillers ran a demonstration featuring Legges meats in some of their award winning recipes.

There were 5 delicious Wye Valley Brewery cask-conditioned beers on the bar including Hop Stringer and their August special - Summer Sting - brewed with organic Herefordshire Nettles. Over 700 pints were served and enjoyed.

New real ale campaign puts real people back in the picture

Wye Valley Brewery is launching a distinctive new advertising campaign that celebrates the social context of real people enjoying a real beer together.

As Jennie Hermolle, Wye Valley Brewery’s Marketing Executive, explains, “When we reviewed current real-ale advertising we discovered a very lonely looking world. Virtually every advert we saw contained a picture of a solitary pint of beer, but rarely any human beings! At Wye Valley Brewery, a great pint is only half the story – enjoying great real ale in a proper pub is all the better when you’re in good company.”

The new campaign, created by Jeff Fuge of the design consultancy Objective Ingenuity, takes its inspiration from the special kind of ‘pub wisdom’ that is unearthed when you take time to sit down with a fresh, satisfying cask-conditioned beer and have a proper conversation with the people around you.

This has been turned into a series of ‘Wye’s Words’ – famous proverbs and sayings rewritten with a distinctive Wye Valley Brewery take on the world. They communicate a ‘real ale, real pub and real life’ message – but not without a good measure of humour. Headlines such as ‘All work and no HPA makes Jack a dull boy’ and ‘A pint in the hand is worth a queue at the bar’ show that the brand doesn’t take itself too seriously.

People respond warmly to the adverts and are keen to suggest their own Wye’s Words for future adverts – so it seems the idea has struck the right chord and will be prove itself to be a very ‘Wye’s move’.

Big Orange Quiz raises big total for charity!

A big orange thank-you to all those who got involved and took part in the Big Orange Quiz which raised over £1000 for Noah's Ark Trust!

4 pubs raised £100 or more including The Talbot in Ledbury; Cornewall Arms, Clodock, Longtown; The Morgan in Great Morgan; and The Barrels in Hereford.

A quiz team who called themselves ‘The Weakest Link’ proved their name was no limitation, winning not only the Big Orange Quiz at The Castle Hotel in Bishops Castle but also the overall prize draw of a team canoe trip down the River Wye and a case of Ark Ale for each team member. Team Captain Rhys Davies, who lives in Bishops Castle said they were 'Surprised and delighted to win the big prize' and has promised us a picture of the team on their canoe trip.

Everyone at Wye Valley Brewery and Noah's Ark Trust would like to send their thanks to the following pubs for their effort and generous donations raised:
Cornewall Arms, Clodock, Longtown
The Talbot, Ledbury
The Barrels, Hereford
The Morgan, Great Malvern
Bull Ring, Kingstone
The Garway Moon Inn, Garway
The Bell Inn, Tillington
The Castle Hotel, Bishops Castle
Red Lion, Woebley
The Hostelrie at Goodrich
Crown Inn, Oakengates
Harp Inn, Old Radnor
Green Dragon Inn, Bishops Frome
Bridge Inn, Kentchurch
Golden Cross Inn, Sutton Saint Nicholas
The Crown Inn, Cerney Wick
The Cross Inn, Eardisland
Bridge End Inn, Llyswen
Wye Knot Inn, Symonds Yat

Finalists in the IGD Food Industry Awards

Excellent news, Wye Valley Brewery has been named as a finalist in the IGD Food Industry Awards 2011, Morrisons Award for Outstanding Small Business.

We will be presenting to the judges in September and the awards dinner takes place in October. We are up against, Liberation Foods, Lincolnshire Herbs & Natural Balance Foods

Please keep everything crossed for us!

Wye Valley vs Hobsons

On the 24th July we played our annual sports match against Hobsons Brewery. This usually takes the form of a cricket match, but due to the number of injuries, this year we decided a rounders match might be a safer option.

The match turned out to be fantastic fun for everyone, with many rounders scored! Wye Valley Brewery, having lost the cricket for the last couple of years, were victorious, winning by just half a rounder!

Pictured is Tyler Davis (right), son of Hobsons Head Brewer Nick Davis, handing over the prize of the Golden Dipstick to Max Amor (left), son of Vernon Amor, Managing Director of Wye Valley Brewery.

Gold for Dorothy, again!

Dorothy Goodbody is quite used to winning gold medals for her beers, especially for her Country Ale!

Having already been awarded Gold at the SIBA Wales & West competition, the bottled beer has now been awarded gold at the International Beer Challenge 2011.

Managing Director, Vernon Amor said 'We are delighted to have won a gold medal at the IBC. It is a big pat on the back to our brewers and marketing team who combine their talents perfectly with our Dorothy Goodbody range'.

Dorothy Goodbody's Country Ale (6.0% abv) is a strong, full bodied ruby ale. You can buy it online at the Wye Valley Brewery shop.

For more information on the IBC awards visit www.offlicencenews.co.uk.

Summer Sting for August

We braved the nettle patch to bring you August's Monthly Cask Special beer - Summer Sting - back this year by popular demand. It's a lovely golden beer brewed with a late infusion of organically grown Herefordshire nettles, with a grassy aroma and sublte spicy aftertaste.

Photo shows Head Brewer Jimmy Swan picking nettles for his brew. Take care Jimmy!!

Success for Wye Valley employees

Product quality and a dedicated team of people are at the heart of Wye Valley Brewery’s values.

Val Williams, Quality Assurance Supervisor, has recently gained a Distinction grade in the Level 3 Award in HACCP for food manufacturing.

Since Val’s appointment in 2010 she has been responsible for bringing microbiological testing ‘in house’, and has strengthened Wye Valley Brewery’s commitment to maintaining the highest possible standards of product quality, and customer service.

Said Vernon Amor, Managing Director at Wye Valley Brewery, ‘At Wye Valley Brewery we make great beer using top quality raw materials, but our staff are the most important ingredient for success, investing in their training and development is essential.’

In addition to Val’s success, other members of the production team Sean Tobin, Matt Ingram and Jamie Craddock have achieved NVQ qualifications. Sean, Level 3 in Business Management, Matt and Jamie Level 2 in Team Leading.

Pictured is Val Williams with her certificate.

Wye Valley Brewery Wins Medium Business of the Year

A very proud Vernon Amor, MD of Wye Valley Brewery received the award for Medium Business of the Year 2011 award at Hereford & Worcester Chamber of Commerce Awards last Thursday. Said Vernon, "I am absolutely over the moon for me and everybody at the brewery. We are a relatively small business and it really is a collective effort. We are really really pleased."

The judges said that Wye Valley Brewery had shown 'real initiative' in selecting their market base and had clearly identified where their growth was going to be coming from.

Ancient Briton gets local CAMRA vote for 3rd year running!

Congratulations to the Ancient Briton at Pen-y-Cae in the Upper Swansea Valley, which has been voted the Pub of the Year for a record third consecutive year by the Neath Port Talbot Branch of the CAMRA.

A special presentation was held at the pub on Saturday 16th July, attended by members of both the Neath Port Talbot and Swansea branches who were ferried to the Event in a specially hired vintage double decker bus. Bar Manager Hywel Roberts was presented with certificates by Neath Port Talbot Chairman, John Skinner, for the Branch Pub of the Year 2011 and for the Runner Up for the South and Mid Wales Pub of the Year 2010.

The pub regularly features a superb range of real ales from breweries from all parts of the country, including Wye Valley Brewery Beers, dispensed from the impressive array of thirteen handpumps that now adorn the main bar.

The occasion was made even more special by celebrating CAMRA's fortieth anniversary with a special cake that was cut by landlady Janine David. It certainly proved to be the icing on the cake as far as the Ancient Briton is concerned.



Photographed(left to right): Gerald James, licensee; John Skinner, chairman Neath Port Talbot CAMRA; Hywel Roberts, Bar Manager; Wynford Day, secretary Neath Port Talbot CAMRA.

Ledbury Food Festival

We enjoyed a lovely sunny day out at Ledbury Food Festival on Sunday 3rd July. Thank you to those who came along and bought our bottle conditioned beer to enjoy at home. Andy from The Talbot popped to our stall and took our picture, Thanks Andy!

Brewer does the double

Members of staff at Wye Valley Brewery are enjoying a celebratory drink with brewer Ben Adams, who has been crowned Silver medalist at the International Barrel Rolling Championships.

Ben entered the men’s singles competition and after winning the Silver medal he persuaded his girlfriend to enter the mixed doubles with him, where they did the double, winning Silver here too!

This isn’t the first success Wye Valley Brewery has had at Barrel Rolling, Managing Director Vernon Amor and Head Brewer Jimmy Swan won the Bromyard Barrel Rolling race a few years ago!

Wye Valley Brewery will enter a team in to The Inaugural World Championship Hop Pocket Race at the Bromyard Hop Festival. This takes place on Saturday 3rd September.

photo shows silver medalists from Wye Valley Brewery, Emma Wall and Brewer Ben Adams.

The Power of the Flower!

Wye Valley Brewery’s monthly beer offering for July comes in the form of Flower Power!

Flower Power is a flavoursome pale ale featuring Herefordshire elderflowers and is the first of its kind for Wye Valley Brewery. This 4.4% abv beer is described as a pale straw coloured beer, bursting with flavour from Styrian Goldings hops and the addition of fresh elderflowers.

Brewery staff took time out of the office to collect elderflowers for the brew from a local farm, said brewer Ben Adams, ‘We had to be enterprising when picking the elderflowers, a step ladder was an essential item!’

Look out for this floral beer in free houses in the West Midlands, Gloucestershire, Bristol and South Wales during July.

Big Orange Quiz...coming to a pub near you

From 27th June for one week, Wye Valley Brewery are promoting the Big Orange Quizathon in support of local charity, Noah's Ark Trust. We are asking pubs to be part of the campaign by running a Big Orange Quiz during that week. The winning team from each quiz will be entered into a draw to win a fantastic prize of a team canoe trip down the River Wye plus a case of Wye Valley Brewery's special Ark Ale for each team member!

Why not speak to your local pub and see if they would like to get involved. For more information visit

www.bigorangequiz.blogspot.com

or email

marketing@wyevalleybrewery.co.uk

The perfect match...

According to drinkers at Kilverts in Hay on Wye, Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout is the perfect match for soft cheese Brie!

Wye Valley won the first annual Beer and Cheese matching event at Kilverts in Hay on Wye. There were 2 beers each from Wye Valley, Breconshire and Otley breweries which were being matched with Hereford Hop, Sun Dried Tomato Cheddar, Brie and Stilton. The overall best match was Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout with Brie!

Don't just take our word for it, check it out for yourself!

Pictured, Wye Valley brewer Tucker, talking about his favourite thing, Beer!
Thank you to Camilla Adams for her photos, www.camillaadams.co.uk

Award winning pubs!

We just wanted to say congratulations to our customers who have recently won the following CAMRA Pub of the Year 2011 awards:

Clytha Arms, Gwent CAMRA Country Pub winner
Hop Pole, Redditch and Bromsgrove CAMRA Pub winner
Gwaelod y Garth Inn, Cardiff CAMRA Pub winner
The Star Inn, Brecknockshire CAMRA Pub winner
Kinver Constitutional Club, CAMRA National Club of the Year

Dorothy Sets Sail!

Dorothy is getting geared up to set sail to Saint Petersburg along with her Imperial Stout on The Great Baltic Adventure…

On Saturday 14th May Dorothy Goodbody’s Imperial Stout is one of 14 beers which will set sail on the 60ft clipper, Thermopylae, from the Thames through the Baltic to arrive in Saint Petersburg in June.

This journey is a celebration of the Imperial Russian Stout heritage. Mini beer festivals will be held along the way, but the casks of Imperial Stout will be unbroached until they reach Saint Petersburg. On her journey Dorothy will visit Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki.

Wye Valley Brewery brewed Dorothy Goodbody’s Imperial Stout in 2010 to celebrate its 25th year of brewing, said brewery Managing Director Vernon Amor ‘We are really excited to be sending Dorothy on The Great Baltic Adventure, and we’re the only brewery in the West Midlands to be setting sail. A trip like this hasn’t been attempted for centuries so it’s a unique opportunity to export some of our finest Dorothy Goodbody’s Imperial Stout.

On arrival in Saint Petersburg, there will be a beer festival and beer judging to celebrate a trip which has not been attempted for 200 years.

Pictured brewery Chairman Peter Amor, in the mini as he whisks Dorothy off to London for her trip to Saint Petersburg.

Gold, Silver and Bronze for Wye Valley Brewery

At the recent SIBA Wales & West Region Beer Competition 2011, Wye Valley Brewery came away with 1 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze award for the quality of its beers. Dorothy Goodbody’s Country Ale cruised home with Gold in the Premium Strong Bitters category.

Country Ale has a strong pedigree at this event after scooping Gold in 2009, and in 2010 going on to win the Champion Strong Ale at the SIBA National Beer Competition.

The judging took place at the Ludlow Spring Festival last weekend where over 200 beers were entered. Along with the gold, Wye Valley Brewery was also awarded three silvers for bottled beers HPA, Dorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stout and Dorothy Goodbody’s Country Ale. In addition, Wye Valley Bitter was also awarded bronze in the standard strength bitters category.

Said Head Brewer Jimmy Swan, ‘We have just celebrated our busiest ever month in April, and following on from a fantastic 25th year in 2010 when the brewery won BBC Radio 4 Best Drinks Producer, Wye Valley looks set for another record year! ‘

Dorothy Goodbody’s Country ale is a strong, full-bodied rugby ale. It is available as a bottle conditioned beer, and can be enjoyed on its own or with a tasty beef casserole!

Pictured the team of brewers and production staff at Wye Valley Brewery

Hop Pole celebrates!

The Hop Pole in Droitwich are celebrating after winning Redditch and Bromsgrove CAMRA Pub of the Year 2011. They will now go through to the next stage of the competition to be judged against others in their region. Good luck Tim and all at The Hop Pole!

Wye Valley Brewery Raceday...

...the best yet!

We were so pleased to have the sun on our backs at the 5th Wye Valley Brewery Raceday at Hereford Racecourse on Thursday 28th April. It was a record breaker with over 2,000 racegoers!

Races were sponsored by Wye Valley Brewery and their pubs, The Barrels and The Morgan.

If you were unable to attend this year, keep an eye out for other events in 2011...there is plenty to keep you busy!

Quizzers battle it out

On the 17th April the best brains in the county battled it out in the Wye Valley Brewery Knockout Final at The Barrels in Hereford!

Pub teams have been competing in the Knockout Cup and Plate competition since the quiz league kicked off in October. Competing in the Cup Final were The Dog from Ewyas Harold and The Angel from Grosmont. The Dog were victorious with an excellent score of 83 out of a possible 92, The Angel were respectable runners up with a score of 67.

The Bell at Tillington and The Travellers Rest at Stretton Sugwas competed in the Plate Final. The Bell won with a score of 71 to The Travellers Rest's 64.

A great competition, we look forward to seeing the teams back for the 2011/12 season!

Pictured: Cup Winners The Dog from Ewyas Harold collecting their trophy from Quizmaster Peter Amor from Wye Valley Brewery

Beer tax rise is ‘kick in the teeth’ says Wye Valley Brewery

The increase of two per cent above inflation in beer tax, announced in today’s Budget, is ‘ruinous’ to the nation’s thriving local brewing sector, ignores its contribution to the economy and puts thousands of jobs in breweries and pubs in jeopardy, says Vernon Amor of Wye Valley Brewery, Herefordshire.

Vernon said, “This is a real kick in the teeth to the local brewing sector, one of the few British success stories of recent years. Local brewers are just the kind of business this government says it wants to see prosper: they create jobs for local people and contribute to the local and wider British economy by using home-grown ingredients. Yet the current beer taxation regime is killing off our main route to market – the British pub.”

He continued, “The Treasury claimed before the Budget that their beer duty escalator is ‘baked in’. We say it is half baked! Continuing to increase taxes on draught beer, drunk in the socially responsible environment of the pub, will serve only to increase purchases of cheap vodka for unsupervised home consumption. We fail to see how this policy can help tackle binge drinking.”

Wye Valley Brewery is a member of the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA), which represents around 450 craft brewers across Britain. SIBA, and its members, have campaigned vigorously against the Government’s ‘duty escalator’, which increases beer duty by 2% above inflation every year.

Cardiff CAMRA Pub of the Year

Congratulations to the Gwaelod y Garth Inn who have just won Cardiff CAMRA Pub of the Year. A well deserved accolade for Richard and Barbara and their lovely welcoming pub. The pub enjoys lovely views and serves great food and great beer - including Wye Valley Bitter a permanently on the bar - and we warmly recommend a visit.

Campaign Ale gets brewing with local CAMRA

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of CAMRA on 16th March, we have created an all-time classic IPA in association with our local CAMRA branch.
The CAMRA members chose a generously hopped recipe with a characterful bitter flavour and Bramling Cross and Celeia in the Hopback for a pronounced floral hop aroma. In addition, to make this recipe more special, further Celeia hops are added in a muslin bag into the fermentation vessel to diffuse even more essential hop oils for a superbly developed hop profile. CAMRA members were onsite at the Brewery to participate with the mashing-in.
Campaign Ale will be available in Cask as our monthly special in March at 5.0% ABV.

Ark Ale Launched for Noah's Ark Trust

Wye Valley Brewery has launched a premium amber ale to support Noah’s Ark Trust – a local charity that provides grief support service for children,
young people and their families after the death of mum, dad or someone else close.

Cask conditioned Ark Ale will be available in good pubs across the region during February with Wye Valley Brewery donating 10p for every pint sold. In addition, a special bottle-conditioned Ark Ale is being launched to be on sale for 2011 from Wye Valley Brewery shop and other selected stockists, with Wye Valley Brewery donating 5p for every bottle sold.


Vernon comments, “Noah’s Ark Trust does such important work supporting bereaved families in the local area, we wanted to support them as our charity partner for the brewery this year. We thought we should start our fundraising with the thing we do best – so we’ve brewed them a special beer, amber in colour to match the charity’s characteristic orange.”

2010 CAMRA West Midlands Beer of the Year Awards

Wye Valley Brewery rounded 2010 off in style collecting 4 medals at the 2010 CAMRA West Midlands Beer of the year awards.
Dorothy Goodbody's Golden Ale, Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout and Wye Valley Bitter all came away with Bronze medals in their categories and Dorothy Goodbody's Country Ale scored a Silver for Bottled Beer of the Year.