Best Breweries in Wales

According to the geosocial networking service Untappd, the following are the best breweries in Wales at the moment:

1. Crafty Devil Brewing Co

2. Tiny Rebel Brewing Co

3. Tenby Brewing Company

4. PIPES™

5. Hopcraft Brewing

6. Grey Trees Brewery

7. Mad Dog Brewing Co

8. Gwynt y Ddraig

9. Heavy Industry Brewing

10. Purple Moose Brewery (Bragdy Mws Piws)

11. Otley

12. Hallets

13. Glamorgan Brewing Co

14. Mantle

15. Untapped Brewing Company

16. Gower Brewery

17. Mumbles Brewery

18. Cwrw Ial Community Brewing Company

19. Big Hand Brewing Co

20. Hafod Brewing Company

21. VOG Brewery

22. Bluestone Brewing Co.

23. Great Orme Brewery

24. Bragdy Twt Lol

25. Boss Brewing Company

26. Tomos Watkin and Sons Ltd.

27. Celt Brewing

28. Tudor Brewery

29. Brains Craft Brewery

30. Conwy Brewery

31. Kite Brewery

32. Brains

33. Rhymney Brewery

34. Evan Evans

35. Monty's Brewery

36. Facer's

37. Brecon Brewing

38. Felinfoel Brewery Co Ltd

39. Plassey Brewery

According to Untappd, "A brewery must have at least 1,000 ratings and at least 5 beers in their portfolio to qualify for this list." Their ratings explainer is explained here.

Impressive that Evan Evans brewery, run by former gay nightclub boss Simon Buckley came in as only the sixth worst brewery in Wales, given the poor quality of their beers I would have thought they would have come in much lower!

Over at Ratebeer, the list is somewhat different with the top 50 beers being dominated by Tiny Rebel

1              Lines Line ACD - Farmhouse IPA India Pale Ale (IPA)       

2              Lines Line FA - Primary Brett Imperial stout Imperial Stout           

3              Lines Line CA - Nelson Saison Saison                       

4              Lines Line A - Dry hopped IPA India Pale Ale (IPA)                            

5              Tiny Rebel / Arbor Bonsai India Pale Ale (IPA)                    

6              Tiny Rebel Tiny Batch Baby’s Got a Temper Imperial IPA                               

7              Lines / Trois Dames Date Line Saison                      

8              Tiny Rebel Loki Lite Session IPA

9              Tiny Rebel Hadouken India Pale Ale (IPA)            

10           Tiny Rebel / Dark Star Rebel Alliance Saison                        

11           Lines / Fyne Ales Green Lines Saison Saison                        

12           Tiny Rebel XLPA Golden Ale/Blond Ale                  

13           Crafty Devil You Love Us India Pale Ale (IPA)                      

14           Tiny Rebel Clwb Tropicana India Pale Ale (IPA)   

15           Tiny Rebel Tiny Batch In and Around the Mouth India Pale Ale (IPA)        

16           Tiny Rebel Dirty Stop Out Stout 279        

17           Tiny Rebel Frambuzi Sour/Wild Ale         

18           Lines Line AE - Munich Table Beer Specialty Grain            

19           Hopcraft Sharks Against Surfers American Pale Ale          

20           Tiny Rebel The Vader Shuffle Porter                      

21           Hopcraft A Good Rogering Black IPA       

22           Otley mOtley Brew Imperial IPA               

23           Otley Oxymoron Black IPA                          

24           Hopcraft Devilfish Ink Black IPA                

25           Hopcraft Citraic American Pale Ale                          

26           Hopcraft Graveyard Eyes (5.3%) Porter  19          

27           Tiny Rebel / Weird Beard Dirty Perle StoutNew 

28           Tiny Rebel Stay Puft Stout           

29           Tiny Rebel / Dugges Pina Colada Pale Ale American Pale Ale        

30           Tiny Rebel Urban IPA India Pale Ale (IPA)             

31           Tiny Rebel Cereal Killer Session IPA                         

32           Tiny Rebel Cali American Pale Ale            

33           Tiny Rebel The Full Nelson American Pale Ale                    

34           Tiny Rebel Bass Drop Imperial Stout       

35           Tiny Rebel Loki Black IPA                              

36           Tiny Rebel Cwtch Amber Ale                      

37           Tiny Rebel Beat Box American Pale Ale                 

38           Tiny Rebel Sonic Boom India Pale Ale (IPA)                          

39           Hafod Dubbel Abbey Dubbel                     

40           Waen Snowball Sweet Stout      

41           Tiny Rebel Gin & Juice Spice/Herb/Vegetable    

42           Hopcraft Citra Plus American Pale Ale    

43           Heavy Industry 77 Amber Ale    

44           Tiny Rebel Grand Regal (Canadian Bourbon) Imperial Stout         

45           Tiny Rebel Billabong American Pale Ale                 

46           Hopcraft Mate Spawn and Die American Pale Ale             

47           Tiny Rebel Lupulin Fiasco Saison                               

48           Hopcraft Spanish Main Stout

49           Tiny Rebel Tiny Batch Hot Box Smoked
50           Hopcraft Oceanic American Pale Ale

Over at Beer Advocate, there is no separate section for Wales, merely a UK & Ireland section and no Welsh breweries make the top 100

Meanwhile CAMRA has not bothered to update their list of Champion Beers of Wales for last year but I found the results elsewhere:

Mild Brecon Brewing - Dark Beacons

Bitter Monty's - Old Jailhouse
Best Bitter Tiny Rebel - Cwtch
Strong Bitter Greytrees - Afghan IPA
Old Ale Heavy Industry - Collaborator
Barley Wines Monty's Magnitude
Speciality Purple Moose - Ysgawen
Porter Tudor - Black Rock
Stout Boss Black
Champion Beer of Wales 2016 Grand Champions
Gold - Tudor - Black Rock
Silver - Boss Black
Bronze - Monty's Old Jailhouse

Three lists of very different results!