Boozy Beef pie wins Gold Award!

A pie made by a Newport-based pie company and using beer from Untapped Brewery has won a gold award at the British Pie Awards. The Boozy Beef Pie, made by Elm Tree Foods of Goldcliff uses organic British beef with potato and carrot cooked in Untapped Brewery Eclipse Dark Ale and is described as being rich and tasty with a hint of spiciness.

The competition featured 900 entries from bakers and pie makers across the country undergoing a stringent criteria judged by a panel of 93 food experts and celebrity chefs, in Melton Mowbray.

As well as the Boozy Beef Pie, Elm Tree Foods also picked up the following awards:

Pork Pie: Gold
Boozy Beef (Pub Pie): Gold

Butternut Scrunchie (Vegetarian): Gold

Celebration Pie (Cold Meat Slicing): Silver

Minty Mutton (Lamb Class): Bronze

Above: The Boozy Beef Pie

According to Collette Crewe of Elm Tree Foods, "This is such an amazing result for us and we are so proud of the results our pies have achieved. "We put a lot of hard work into making the best pies possible to represent our City. As such a young family business it's an honour to be recognised and rewarded in Melton Mowbray, the home of pies and amongst such other excellent bakers! We are thrilled to have received these awards which will build upon our success of last year, and proves to us that we are still on the right track. We hope that this will help to grow our brand and encourage new customers to try our award winning pies."

For more detials of where to find their pies, look on the Elm Street Food website where you will find tham alongside most farmers markets that Untapped also attend.

Get Untapped at Rudry this Saturday

 For those of you not at the Tredegar Arms in Bassaleg, the Ludlow Food Festival or Newtowning this weekend, it's also the annual Rudry Village Fair with a bar opening at midday.
Caerphilly at Rudry Village Hall CF83 3DF,
Saturday 12th September. From 1200.
Rudry Village Hall. CF83 3DF
Admission £1.50.

Mid way between Rudry village and the Maenllwyd Pub.

View Larger Map


Cask Beers: All Gravity Served- from the Otley Brewery and others including Untapped Brewing Company.


 A couple of tasting notes for the Untapped Brewing Co:
'Sundown' a light in body, full flavoured Golden ale 4.0%
Mainly pale malt with a touch of crystal. Hops: Challenger - bittering; Goldings - aromatic.

'Eclipse' fuller, deep and dark. Well balanced and easy drinking.. 4.4%
Mainly pale malt with some crystal and chocolate malt for colour and flavour. Hops: Northdown - Bittering and Aromatic.

Both are bottle conditioned beers, and available in 500ml bottles.

Journey Planner, buses run from Caerphilly Bus Staion to Rudry:


On the Showfield-
Essentially a family afternoon, with numerous activities for children.
Dog show, animal fancy dress, pony rides, various craft & produce competitions.

Café and Bar in the Village Hall-
Bar opens 1210 until late.

Live entertainment from 1900.

Thousands attend the Bay for Food & Drink Festival

Cardiff Bay International Food Festival

The food festival held over last weekend was definitely one of the best I have been to. This year saw more local brewers involved than ever before with Pen-Lon, Neath, Otley, Kingstone, Celt Experience and Untapped all selling their bottled beers. It was the first chance I had to try the beers from Neath Ales and tried one at the festival, Green Bullet; a 6% IPA brewed with New Zealand hops and named after them. Brewed with Maris Otter malt, the biscuity malt flavour combines with the heavily hopped ale to produce a stunning beer. Also chatted to the owner Jay Thomas whose enthusiasm and passion for brewing really shows through in his beers. I look forward to trying more of his beers in the future, especially in cask as Neath Ales will be taking delivery of casks in a few weeks time. In the meantime their beers are available via Realbeerbox.

 Above: Some bottles from the beer range of Neath Ales

Above: Celt Experience beers

Above: the Untapped Brewery range

The Norwegian Church was the venue of the Otley brewery bar and their new Weissen Beer quickly sold out there. A naturally cloudy wheat beer brewed with 6 different hop varieties this was another refreshing beer from the hop heads of the valleys. Alongside O1, O5 and O-Garden the Otley beers proved extremely popular and the Norwegian Church, set in its own grounds was the perfect place to chill out with a pint and listen to the bands playing at the venue. The church also offers great views across the harbour.

 Above: The Norwegian Church and Otley Bar

Cidermakers were also well represented at the festival with a new bottled drink, Pyder – a blend  of cider and perry, being launched by the Gwatkin cider company and a 3 litre bag-in-the-box of Scrumpy from Gwynt Y Ddraig which will also be available in Tesco's very soon.

 Above: the new 3 litre box of Gwynt scrumpy

Ralph's cider also made an appearance and the stunning perries and wines from Wernddu also went down very well.

 Above: Gwatkin cider bar staff

The festival was extremely popular and the weather for once perfect and well done for Cardiff Council for organising such a great event.  Having attended this event down the Bay for many years, I did think this year was the best ever and is even starting to rival the Abergavenny Food Festival in terms of quality and enjoyment. One problem with the Abergavenny Festival is the increasing prices, both for the stallholders and the customers, as the Festival now employs staff all year round. Cardiff Council have shown it is possible to put on a successful and extremely popular food and drink festival with free entrance for all. Any chance of Newport Council now showing some initiative and supporting our artisan food and drink producers?

I did find time to enjoy myself despite helping out on the Gwatkin stand, here is a photo taken by Dom at Welsh Icons of me at the Festival:

 NB: All photographs are copyright of me or of Dom/Welsh Icons. I realise that there is a common thief out there on the internet who enjoys stealing photographs from the site, along with empty barrels from Welsh brewers. It's okay I realise you are a sad, twisted old thief, you do not have to continue to prove it to me or the rest of the world.

New Beer from Untapped Brewery

 The Untapped Brewery are launching a new beer -U.P.A. (Untapped Pale Ale). Described as, "The perfect pint for the long, hot summer we're about to have....! A light, delicate ale with almost citrus flavours followed on by a long, hoppy, balanced finish. 4.5% vol. Very refreshing indeed..."
UPA is brewed with Pale Ale and a touch of Crystal Malts and is hopped with Celia and Cascade hops.
Find The Untapped Brewery at Roath and Riverside Farmers markets, as well as at Abergavenny, Usk & Monmouth Farmers Markets.

Goodnight Beer Festival!

A new year and a new venue for a beer festival. Nosda, Welsh for goodnight, hence the headline, will be hosting its first ever beer festival on Saturday 30th January when Tafarn @ NosDa hosts its first ever Beer Festival!

Situated on the West bank of the Taff, across from the Millenium Stadium, Tafarn @ NosDa is slowly establishing itself to be one of the better bars of Cardiff with ciders from Gwynt and beers from Artisan already available.

The festival on Saturday 30th January will feature live entertainment from 6pm, and beers and ciders from:

• Artisan Brewing Co. has created a range of distinctive, unique and downright bizarre beers all naturally brewed. Sourcing only the finest speciality ingredients from near and afar, Artisan Beers are wholesome and natural, with no filtration, pumps or pasteurisation. You won’t find Artisan beers on the shelves in a supermarket as they’re produced small and kept local.
• Gwynt y Ddraig, the award-winning Welsh Cider & Perry Company made their first few hundred gallons of cider on the home farm in Llantwit Fardre in the autumn of 2001. Since then they have increased production every year and broadened their selection of draught and oak matured bottled ciders.
• Untapped Brewery, run by two old friends, have started off with 2 beers - Sundown and Eclipse. But they’ve already got plans and recipes to make more fantastic beers as time and funds allow.
• Otley Brewery originated back in 2005. As a micro-brewery, Otley Brewery is dedicated to the craft of producing Welsh ale with a difference. They believe in using the highest quality ingredients with every effort made to source produce from the local area, including fresh Breconshire water and the finest malts and hops available.

NosDa

53 - 59 Despenser Street,
Riverside,
Cardiff,
Wales,
CF11 6AG
tel: +44 (0) 2920 37 88 66

Untapped Brewery

Found these bottles at Caerphilly Medieval Fayre last week. All from the Untapped Brewery, the owners are from Cardiff but currently brew just across the border at Whittington's Brewery at the Three Choirs Vineyard in Gloucestershire. Only 3 beers produced at the moment and only available at Farmers Markets around South Wales at the moment, Roath, Riverside and Newport Farmers Markets. Competively priced at £2/bottle with discounts for bulk buying such as 6 for £10, these hand-crafted ales are far better to stock up on for the holidays than the mass-marketed stuff piled high in supermarkets. The beers: Eclipse, 4.4%. A well-balanced dark mild. Ember, 5.2%, a dark winter ale with lots of chocolate flavours. Sundown, 4%, a deep golden coloured ale with plenty of citrus aromas and a sharp, bitter flavour with a dry aftertaste. Now the Brew Wales editor is very partial to golden ales and the Sundown is, in his opinion, the best beer they make. Very moreish and drinkable!