Beard lover brews craft beer

Cardiff pub landlord turns brewer


A Cardiff pub manager has swapped pulling pints for brewing pints after spending a day in Brains’ craft brewery.

Chris Rowlands, award-winning manager, beardwrangler and piemaster general of the Goat Major – one of Cardiff’s best loved real ale pubs – turned brewer after Brains invited him to brew his own beer in their craft brewery.
Chris, a lifelong real ale fan, along with a team from the pub, chose to brew a milk stout, he said:

“The day was fantastic! I've always considered myself a bit of a beer nerd but when I went down there I realised just how little I really knew of the process of making beer I'd so often taken for granted.
We named the beer ‘Beardface’, my wife's nickname for me, loosely based off the fact that I look like a lumberjack stuffed into a waistcoat. “

A milk stout is basically a standard stout brew with sugar from milk or cream added, the science behind this being that brewers' yeast cannot ferment lactose sugars so the natural sweetness and richness remains and provides a nourishing, potent counterbalance to the bitterness of a roasted malt. Brains used 5 different malts and a roasted barley to give the beer a layered depth of flavour and a truly nourishingly rich and resplendent pint of stout.

Blending Pale Ale, Munich, Crystal, Brown and Chocolate Malts with Roasted Barley, Beardface is a dark beer with a rich depth. Flavours of caramel, burnt toffee and roast coffee are balanced by the sweetness from lactose sugars, creating a sweet milk stout.
Bill Dobson, head brewer at Brains, added:
“Last year the Goat Major was named ‘Brains Cask Ale Pub of the Year’ at our annual awards ceremony, so we were keen to get Chris and the team in to brew with us. They’re knowledgeable and passionate about beer, and they pass on that passion to their customers.”
The beer will be sold in 30 Brains pubs and launched at the Goat Major pub on Wednesday 20th March at 1700hrs.

IPA and curry pie

Thursday lunchtime saw myself and some Brains staff meet up with beer writer Martyn Cornell who had brewed his Colonel Williams IPA on their new Craft Brewery. The beer is named after a Colonel Williams who commanded the Welch Regiment in the 1830s, Martyn has the whole story on his blog here. What better pub to launch the new beer in than the historic Goat Major? Named after the Regimental Mascot.
This was Martyn's first chance to try his beer and the chef was asked to come up with something that matched an Indian Pale Ale, well the team at the Goat came up trumps with a curried lamb pie. Finely diced marinated pieces of lamb in a rich gravy with shallots and spinach. matched well with the 6% hoppy IPA. The curry was not too hot, although my suggesting of serving it with the traditional South Wales accompaniment of 'half 'n' half' drew a blank look from Martyn, who was not aware of the popularity of rice and chips in Welsh curry shops!
As for the beer, after the pie we tried it both with and without a sparkler, it made quite a difference without, the aftertaste lasted longer, was not sure which version I preferred so had another one to make sure just in case! A very enjoyable afternoon in one of Cardiff's best pubs that also does excellent food.

The pub does not smell of fish either!

Pie and Chips

Whenever anyone asks me for a food recommendation for Cardiff, I always suggest the Goat Major by the castle. Its innovative menu of pies is always worth trying, as well as a set menu there is also the chalkboard specials and today I managed to have the last Lamb & Mint pie, don't expect these pies to be pulled straight from a freezer, the 'specials' are just that, individual creations from the chef that may or may not return to the menu. Steak and Blue Cheese was the other option, or for Veggies there was a Roast Vegetable Pie on the board.
The verdict on the Lamb & Mint pie? Excellent, once the the flaky pastry top had been broken, the pie was found to be packed with tender pieces of lamb in a rich, thick very minty gravy. Excellent, as were the chips with it. Oh and the beer I chose with it was Dark Horse Maypole, a golden ale which matched perfectly with the lamb.
Pie and chips, the perfect pub food.
The Goat Major is a previous winner of 'Pie of the Year'.

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.