Beer and Food Matching at Kilverts

 The award-winning Kilverts in Hay-on-Wye have come together with the Brecon Brewing Company
 to put together a 5 course meal matched with food.

This will take place at Kilverts, on Friday 2nd December, as a part of the Hay Winter Festival. The evening will be as follows :

A 5 course menu, pairing the best in local ingredients with local ales. To further demonstrate how well ale and food go well together, each dish uses ale (or cider!) in its preparation. Brecon’s Buster Grant will be co-hosting the evening in Kilvert’s new private dining room.

Erdinger Dunkel Risotto

A creamy vegetarian risotto made with the darker brother of the famous Wheat beer

Paired with Pale Beacons, 3.9% Light and hoppy pale bronze ale

~ ~ ~

Fresh Welsh Mussels

Off the rope from the Gower, with Gwynt y Ddraig cider & Smoked Bacon

Paired with Bright Beacons, 4.5% Very pale best bitter

~ ~ ~

Pork Roulade

with apricot stuffing and a Gold Beacons, roasted apple & baby onion sauce

Paired with Gold Beacons, 4.2% Deep golden ale

~ ~ ~

Chocolate Brownies

made with Cwrw-istmas Beacons, served with Chantilly Cream

Paired with Cwrw-istmas Beacons, Pale chestnut in colour,

brewed with a blend of Christmas fruits and spices – just like a pud!

~ ~ ~

Shropshire Blue and Brie

Paired with the last ever barrel of Ysbrid Y Ddraig, 6.5% whisky-aged IPA

and Wandering Beacons, 5.0% Dark chestnut strong best bitter

£30 inc drinks

To book please call 01497 821042 or email ed@kilverts.co.uk

Kilverts, The Bull Ring, Hay on Wye, HR3 5AG

Beer, Cheese and Hay

For those of you anywhere near Hay-on-Wye on Wednesday 1st June, can I suggest heading over to Kilverts for a beer and cheese tutored tasting in the company of award-winning brewers.

Buster Grant of Breconshire, Nick Otley of Otley and Tucker from Wye Valley will be pitching their ales as the perfect accompaniment to a local and Welsh Cheeseboard. Tickets £6 in advance, £8 on the night, include tasters of all the ales and cheeses.

Beer List:

Otley: Saison Obscura (5.5%) and mOtley Brew (7.5%)
Wye Valley: Butty Bach (4.5%) and DG's Wholesome Stout (4.6%)
Breconshire: Ysprid Y Ddraig (6.5%) and Red Dragon (4.7%)

The cheeses are Mature Welsh Cheddar, Stilton & Smoked Applewood

Well done to Ed from Kilverts for putting this together, unfortunately the Brew Wales editorial team will be at Tredegar House for most of the day setting up the beer festival for the weekend so we are unable to make it!
Facebook page here

Society of Licensees launched

A new trade body has been formed to give licensees a voice, the Society of Licensees has been organised by award-winning publican Ed Davies of Kilverts, Hay-on-Wye, who also runs the annual Hay Ale and Literature Festival.

Speaking to the Publican, Ed said, ""All too often trade bodies speak on behalf of the on-trade, but leaving those they speak for in the dark.

“This society aims to change that, providing a genuine voice for licensees"
“Our primary focus will be to counter the way pubs are portrayed in the media - often lumped in under the 'alcohol' banner.

“We want the media to highlight that well-run pubs are an asset to a community, selling responsibly and encouraging community spirits.

“We'll work with other trade groups where appropriate, but we won't resort to slagging them off when we don't agree.

“The trade needs to unite in order to benefit as a whole. As disparate on-trade proves easy pickings, and bickering within the trade doesn't help either.”

Currently there are a range of groups licensees can join, from single-issue causes to the broad spectrum covered by the BII. The aims of the group are simple:

To promote and support the benefits of a well-run pub

To provide a voice for licensees directly and independently

To correct mis-representation of alcohol in the public domain

To support British beer, promoting the benefits of supporting a domestic industry

For more information go to the Society of Licensees website

Hay on Beer

View Larger Map

Hay on Wye will be home to a beer and literature festival this weekend as Kilverts plays host to a beer festival and beer writers. The full beer list can be found here (Google doc)

Organiser Ed Davies says, "I have arranged for some of the country’s best beer writers to come and talk about their work".

Hops and Glory author and beer writer of the year Pete Brown will describe his three month journey from Burton Trent to India in the company of a cask of IPA.

You get two pints for the price one when Adrian Tierney-Jones (1001 Beer You must Try Before you Die) and Tim Hampson (The Beer Book) debate which are best – ales from North Wales or the South.

Melissa Cole will take the “beard out of beer” and lead a tasting for the ladies and a beer and food matching. And if all of this is not enough, Zak Avery, author of 500 Beers, will describe some of his favourite brews.

From the Wye Valley Brewery Peter and Vernon Amor (brewers of Dorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stout) will be giving readings from the Dorothy Goodbody stories and Breconshire Brewery’s head brewer Buster Grant will talk about the future of beer in the Principality.

Should you tire of the beer, there will be talks and readings by several local authors and poets. And if you want something that goes with a bang the Sealed Knot’s Hay Garrison will be firing their muskets. More than 50 different Welsh ales will be available at the festival.

The festival is opened 5pm Friday 24th by Martin Weale, Chairman of the Brecknock branch of the Campaign for Real Ale, and full details can be found on the website.

Kilvert's Inn

Hay on Wye

Powys

HR3 5AG

Hay to get brewery after 75 years

Brewing in Hay-on-Wye

 The closure of Cwmbran brewery was a sad loss to the Torfaen area but the brewing plant has gone to a good home, namely Kilverts in Hay-on-Wye, though Ed Davies is yet to start brewing. Follow his journey to restart commercial brewing in Hay via the Hay Brewery website here and his blog here and follow him the pub Twitter as well as following Ed himself on Twitter

When brewing recommences in Hay it will be the first time in almost 75 years that beer has been brewed in the town, now famous for its books rather than its beer. In the nineteenth century almost every pub in the town would have brewed its own ales and two of them lasted into the twentieth century:

The Wine Vaults in Castle Street was brewing in 1906 under Thomas Stokoe, although the premises became a hotel, the Wye Hotel in 1910 and a café, the Wye Café later, but has now reopened as a pub once more.

The Swan Hotel in Church Street carried on brewing until at least 1935 under William Samuel Jones. This is one of the oldest pubs in Hay and although it has been rebuilt over the years has its roots stretching back to at least the 18^th Century.

More information on pubs of Hay can be found in the book, “The pubs of Hay-on-Wye and the Golden Valley”, ISBN 1904396461, published by Logaston Press.

Second beer festival for Hay-on-Wye

The award-winning pub Kilverts Inn, Hay-on-Wye will be hosting their second beer festival this weekend with a focus on a seasonal speciality - green-hopped beers, that is beers brewed with the first hops of the season.
The beer menu: shamelessly ripped from the festival blog
Beers in bright green are green-hopped

Breconshire Brewery:

1) Green Dragon 4.6% HP

Brewed with malted wheat and fresh Goldings hops

2) Ysprid Y Ddraig, 6.5%

Matured in whisky casks for a good few months, this is a beautifully well rounded ale

3) Cribyn 4.5%

A very pale, straw coloured aromatic ale, hopped with Bramling Cross, Northdown and Challenger hops

Corvedale

4)Green Hop 4.5% HP

Brewed with Fresh Fuggle hops

Golden Valley Ales

5) Hop, Stock & Barrel 4.6%

A new brewery located at the back of the Bull-Ring pub, this is their flagship ale

Hobson's Brewery

6) Hobson's Mild, 3.2%

Champion Beer of Britain 2007

Don't be fooled by the low a.b.v. this is full of flavour

Kinver

7) Green Edge 4.2% HP

Green hopped beer!

Malvern Hills

8)Green Pear 4.4% HP

9)Priessnitz Plzen Lager 4.3%

Marstons

10) Old Empire 5.7%

With it's pale appearance, strong hoppy taste and higher alcoholic strength Marston's Old Empire comprises all the genuine characteristics of a true India Pale Ale, which were necessary to last the 3 month long journey from Burton to Bombay.

11) Milestone

Raspberry Wheat, 5.6%

Continental Style Fruit Beer, mouth filling fruit with a zingy finish!

Otley

12) Columbo 4.0%

A dry hopped, very pale, summer ale, bittered with colombus hops with aromas of cascade and columbus

13) O8 8.0%

Pale golden strong ale. Deceptively smooth and drinker

friendly, in moderation! Hoppy aromas and good bitterness

with Willamette hops dominating.

Champion Beer of Wales GWBCF 2006 and 2008

Gold Medal CAMRA GWBCF Barley Wine 2006 and 2007

Rhymney

14) Rhymney Export 5.0%

A heady flavour, full bodied yet rounded, serious yet quaffable

Rudgate

15) Ruby Mild 4.4%

Champion Beer of Britain 09, this is a nutty, rich mild

Teme Valley

16) Early Bird Fuggles* 4.1% HP

17) Early Bird Challenger*, 4.1%HP

A brewery that is surrounded by hop farms? These beers are brewed using single strain of fresh hops - the clue is in their names!

Thwaites

18) Golden Wunder, 4.6% HP

Brewed to celebrate the Munich Beer Festival, this is straw coloured ale with a distinctive continental hoppiness balanced with a smooth dry finish.

Wye Valley Brewery

19) Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout, 4.6% HP

1 of only 2 ales to gain 5 stars on Roger Protz's Beer-pages.com

Confirmed Ciders:

Brook Farm

Kingstone Black, 6.8% Dry

Just won silver at the Worcester Beer Festival

Perry,

6%, Dry

Orgasmic Ciders

Sweet 6%

Medium 6%

Dry 6%

Gwynt Y Ddraig

Happy Daze 4.5% Medium

Barnstormer 6.5% Dry

Fiery Fox 6.5% Medium

Two Trees Perry 4.5% Medium

Pyder 6% Medium

Moles

Black Rat Cider 6% Dry

Kilverts are also on Twitter, follow @kilverts for comments from Ed as to how the festival is going, if he has time to tweet!
Full details of how to find the pub are on their website or festival blog
Kilverts Inn
The Bullring
Hay-on-Wye
Hereford
HR3 5AG

Traveline Cymru provide details of getting to Hay on Wye