Food & Drink - Wales - page 636

Local Tipples
Village life in Wales traditionally revolved around the local pub. It was part of the social
fabric of the community and a focal point of village life. The new breed of Welsh drinking
den, however, offers a far more modern spin on the traditional cocktail hours, bar food and
live music de rigueur in urban Wales. Pubs are closing across the UK as their community
element is eroded, but the traditional boozer still lives on in Wales with some fine historic
examples to be found in Swansea and Cardiff. Meanwhile a new generation of local micro-
breweries is creating an artisan range of tasty real ales, supplying local bars and selling dir-
ect to the consumer via their websites.
The Welsh Table by Christine Smeeth contains simple, traditional Welsh dishes, kitchen anecdotes and
words of wisdom.
Among the places to look out for, Cardiff's Zerodegrees ( Click here ) is a specialist mi-
crobrewery with a great selection of artisan beers with a flavoursome twist. Across town,
the Brewery Quarter, located on the site of the old Brains Brewery dating from 1713, has a
slew of modern bars for a drop of Brains Gold. In North Wales, the town of Porthmadog,
located on the fringes of the Snowdonia National Park, is home to the Purple Moose ( Click
here ) brewery, one of Wales' most successful microbreweries, supplying pubs from Angle-
sey to Harlech. The Snowdonia Ale was voted CAMRA Champion Beer of Wales 2009,
while the Dark Side of the Moose, a hoppy and fruity brew for winter, was named the Gold
Medal winner at the International Beer Challenge 2009: the beers have also been lauded in
the discerning Great Taste Awards.
Welsh whisky is also enjoying a renaissance with the Penderyn Distillery ( Click here ) ,
located in the southern reaches of the Brecon Beacons National Park, boasting a new high-
tech visitors centre. The independently owned distillery released its first whisky in 2004
and remains, unlike Scottish and Irish whisky, a single-distilled malt.