Zero Degrees Cardiff

Zero Degrees, 27 Westgate Street, Cardiff, CF10 1DD

Situated opposite the Millenium Stadium, this art deco building was originally built as a garage, the motiff on the front of the building still has “Queens and Royal Garage” above the new “Zero Degrees” sign.  Below the signs, the large glass windows provide a view of the brewery, immaculate shinning stainless steel vessels which are illuminated during the night with colourful lights. Zero Degrees is a lot different from the usual brew pub, here the brewery is not tucked out the back of the pub but positioned strategically at the front for all to see. The entrance, on the left hand side of the building leads to thee bar area with the serving counter at the rear of the brewery. Again stainless steel dominates with a collection of tubes and pipes leading from the cellar tanks to the beer taps. The brewery brews a range of different beers including a Pilsner, a Wheat Beer, a Pale Ale, a Mango Beer and a Black Lager, in addition a monthly guest beer is also brewed. In October the monthly special was a 6.5% Oktoberfest Beer which had been maturing or lagering in the tanks since it was brewed in early August. Other seasonal beers have incuded an Apple Wheat Beer and an Asian Lager. In December the beer is Peach Vanilla. The resident brewer, Victoria Stippa is originally from Germany and previously worked for the Paulaner Brewery. There is an interview with her on Wales Online.

A nice touch is that a sample selection of all the regular beers can be ordered giving the customer the opportunity to try their range of beers without having to order halves or pints.

The interior of  Zero Degrees is cavernous and there is a choice of seating on the ground floor from tables and chairs to sofas and stools. The bar is circular in shape so that wherever you choose to sit the brewery is always at the focal point of the pub.

Also on the ground floor is the open-plan kitchen with it's pizza oven, which bears a similarity to part of the brewing plant. Directly opposite the kitchen are the cellar tanks for the beer. Food is available all day with pizzas being a speciality on the menu together with more unusual pub food such as mussels.

Upstairs there is more seating and at the front, above the brewery, a doorway leads to an outside terrace, an unique feature for a Cardiff City Centre pub. Customers do not have to worry about carrying their drinks upstairs as a dumb waiter is installed by the bar.

Zero Degrees features a regular price promotion with all the beers reduced to £2 a pint between 4-7pm. At night the bar becomes popular with sports fans as the widescreen televisions and projector are put into use. 

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Zerodegrees

27 Westgate Street
Cardiff
CF10 1DD
029 2022 9494
Facebook Site here

Mythbusting - West of England Pub

An occasional series devoted to exploring the myths, half truths and outright lies that pubs use to promote themselves.

www.westofenglandtavern.co.uk

A bit of Googling the other day and I came across this website for the West of England pub in the part of Newport known as Pill. Now I used to live in the area and this pub was a keg only boozer inhabited by local drug dealing pondlife who had been banned from the rest of the town. In fact the only decent pub in the area at the time was the nearby Ship & Pilot, which featured a regularly changing guest beer, something no pub in the area now does.
So let's examine the claims made on the website of this pub (in bold): 

“One of the oldest taverns in Newport”

Apart from the Royal Mail (Old White Lion), Murenger, Carpenters Arms, Potter's Arms, Six Bells, Greyhound, King's Head, Cross Keys, Red Lion, Griffin (Blucher's Arms), Delilah's (Tredegar Arms), Ship & Pilot, Prince of Wales. Not even in the oldest dozen.

First mention of the West of England Tavern is not until 1838

“dating back to in and around the 1800s”

In Kelly's 1838 Directory the West of England is listed as a beerhouse, the Beerhouse Act of 1830 was a boost for the pub industry and it is very unlikely the pub dated to before that time.

“a Grade 1 listed building”

Now this really takes the biscuit. The West of England was rebuilt in the 1880s and a lean-to extension was built in the 1980s using bricks of a different colour to the original. If it was a Grade I (NB to their webmaster: Roman numerals are used in listing descriptions not Arabic numerals) listed building it would rank alongside the Abbey Hotel in Llanthony as one of the most important buildings in Wales. The nearby Waterloo Hotel is Grade II listed and quite rightly so. In fact the West of England is not listed by Cadw at all.

“serving a selection of lagers and real ales in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere”

Carlsberg, San Miguel and Tetley's Extra Cold keg beers is not a selection of real ales but then again if you believe this building is Grade 1 (I) listed then the author of the website is clearly deluded. Relaxed and friendly is a good description of the natives in the pub with their drug habit.

Well there you have it, a bit of mythbusting on one of the pubs of Newport. 

Mary Mother Mild

 The award-winning Waen Brewery of Caersws in the currently-snowed under county of Powys have launched their Christmas Ale, a 3.5% ABV - a spiced, lightly-hopped mild perfect for supping by a log fire during this period of Global Warming we are all experiencing in the UK.

Mary Mother Mild is described as "Having a lovely spicy nose and flavour from cinnamon and cloves with gorgeous bitter chocolate/espresso coffee flavours but still easily drinkable.

Mary Mother Mild is availble both in cask and bottle.

Follow the Waen Brewery on Twitter

Waen Brewery on Facebook

Wye Valley Brewery scoops BBC Award

The award-winning Wye Valley brewery whose fantastic beers are very popular here in Wales have won a major BBC accolade.The family-run firm has beaten off competition from across the UK to win the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Award 2010 for Best Drinks Producer.
The awards programme will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 9am today (November 26th.).
According to Wye Valley Brewery MD Vernon Amor, "At Wye Valley Brewery we’re dedicated to brewing the finest beers using top quality ingredients form local growers. These awards are a fantastic platform to help spread the word about our real ales and the passion and care that goes into them".

2010 is Wye Valley brewery's 25th anniversary year and to celebrate they realised our dream of a truly local beer using both our local Herefordshire hops plus, uniquely, Herefordshire Barley through a special project with a local farmer. This very special brew of Imperial Stout was launched in bottles as a limited edition from as part of the Dorothy Goodbody range.

The BBC team from Radio 4’s Food Programme was looking for inspirational drinks producers bringing new ideas to the market whilst keeping old traditions alive. As a traditional family owned brewery, dedicated to producing the finest quality cask ales yet none the less passionate about exciting new recipes and ingredients, Wye Valley Brewery impressed the judges and won the Best Drinks Producer category.

Three Horseshoes, Dinas Powys

Three Horseshoes, 1 Station Road, Dinas Powys, Vale of Glamorgan, CF64 4DE

The Three Horseshoes is situated on a corner plot opposite the village green in the historic village of Dinas Powys. A two-story building, the Three Horseshoes is set back from the road, allowing outdoor drinking areas to the front and side of the pub. A plaque on an outside wall commemorates a nineteenth-century bard, Dewi Wyn O Esyllt, also known as the White Bard, who lived in the pub.

The pub apparently dates back to 1456 when it was built as a farmhouse, however it has been altered over the centuries but still today retains a separate bar and lounge. The lively flagstone-floored front bar has a large flat screen television as well as a dart board on a lower level and rugby memorabilia on the walls. Although the television is a feature of the bar, it is conversation that dominates in this pub with the locals discussing the latest racing results or the latest gossip in the village.
Towards the rear is the lounge, entered from the bar via a dark wooden door set in a thick stone wall, which was probably an exterior wall of the original building. The lounge features comfortable seats around the walls with some old photos of the pub on the walls and a 1930s style stone fireplace against the far wall. The Three Horseshoes does have a 1930s feel to the place with the bar counter being made out of dark wood and leaded glass windows in the lounge. The sash windows in the front bar show that the building seen today is an amalgamation of various building styles over the centuries. Another wooden door, again with a brass lock and metal handle, leads from the lounge to a heated rear patio area.
The Three Horseshoes was once owned by Hancock's Brewery and Hancock's HB is still available on the bar alongside other real ales from breweries such as Wells & Youngs and Fullers. The beer range does vary throughout the week but the pub is owned by a Pub Company so it is not a free house but tied to their products. There are four handpumps altogether, two in the bar and two in the lounge so it is worth checking what is on in the other section. On the wall in the lounge are tasting notes for the real ales served in this pub. The Three Horseshoes has Cask Marque accreditation for its real ales and regularly features in the Good Beer Guide, published by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. The Three Horseshoes does not do any meals, only home-made rolls and the pub does have a real community atmosphere to it with regular live music on Friday nights.

Google Map:

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Dinas Powys is easliy reached by public transport from Cardiff. Would have put the Traveline Cymru link in here but the site is not working again!

What Can We do now (Save the British Pub)

 Found this on the web the other day. The singer Bob James was born in the UK but now lives in the USA.
From his blog:  
"I am trying to help save the Great British pubs from closing down.

I have teemed up with Inez Ward, CEO of Justice for Licensees & founder of Pub Week.

Inez has been battling to bring to everyone's attention the plight of the great British pub. Inez asked if I would write and record a song to help, which I along with my studio engineer / co-writer Tim Bushong (Lovewar & The Channelsurfers) did so.

The song "What Can We Do Now" is available on CD Baby & I-Tunes, 79p in U.K. and .99c here in the U.S. not only are landlords and pub licensees losing their homes, but they are also losing their livelihoods, and we are losing a heritage that should be around forever.

Wether you are a musician, tourist, local, who ever, we are all losing out.

More than 40,000 pubs have closed in the U.K. which is disturbing, if it can happen in the U.K. it can happen any where.

As far as the entertainment industry is concerned, 40,000 equates to more than 40,000,000 (Fourty Million), in lost revenue and royalties for ASCAP, SESAC, PRS, MCPS, BMI, and song writers / musicians.

Less venues for musicians / artists / bands to play, yet not too much is heard about it, not too much is done about it, but be assured when it is too late, everyone will be whining and wondering what on earth happened, IT WILL BE TOO LATE !!!"

 

Well worth giving a plug to this artist:

Bob James MySpace site
Bob James on Twitter
Bob James Blog
Bob James website

The hole with the mint beer festival

 

The historic market town of Llantrisant, often referred to as the Hole with the Mint as the Royal Mint is based there, will be playing host to a beer festival this weekend at the Celt Experience pub, the Wheatsheaf. The festival kicks off on Friday 26th November with a limited range on and will continue on the Saturday and Sunday (27th & 28th).

Beer List, subject to availability:

Fyne Ales - Avalanche

Atlas - Nimbus

Caledonian - Deuchars IPA

Purple Moose - Glaslyn & Special Ale

Skinners - Cornish Blonde, Ginger Tosser, Betty Stoggs, Christmas Fairy

St Austell - Tribute, Proper Job

Sharps - Doombar

Hurns - Tomos Watkins BB, Tomos Watkins Cwrw Santa

Otley - O8, O-Garden

Bullmastiff - Welsh Black, Son of a Bitch

Newmans - Celt Gold, Red Stag, Last Lion of Britain, Wolvers Ale, New Winter Stout

 

Also there are 3 ciders / 1 perry from Gwynt Y Ddraig - Black Dragon, Farm House Vintage, Farm House Scrumpy, and Two Trees Perry.

 

Wheatsheaf Inn
High Street
Llantrisant
Pontyclun
Mid Glamorgan
CF72 8BQ

 

All ales and Gwynt Y Ddraig ciders will be sold at £2.00 a pint throughout the Sat and Sun of the festival.

 Google Map:

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 The Wheatsheaf is easily reached by public transport and there is a bus stop outside the pub.

Thanksgiving at the Bunch

The multi-award-winning Bunch of Grapes in Pontypridd will be going American between the 25th – 27th November with their American Thanksgiving Beer & Food Festival

Beers available:
Brooklyn Lager
Anchor liberty
Anchor Steam
Sierra Nevada
Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere
Great Divide Titan
Great Divide Hercules
Flying Dog Tire Bitter
Flying Dog Raging Bitch
Left Hand Black Jack Porter
No Bud though, not even for Cooking Lager

Thanksgiving Menu Available in the Bar & Restaurant

Starters:

Gingered butternut squash soup with spicy pecan cream £4.50

New England clam chowder £5.00

Maryland crab cake £5.50

Waldorf salad with rye bread £5.00

Main Course:

New Orleans smoked sausage and brown shrimp jambalaya with brown rice, grilled prawns and chillies £13.00

Colorado pork Chile Verde with tortilla chips £13.00

Southern fried chicken thighs with sweet potato steak fries and coleslaw £12.00

Kansas City barbecue sauce beef spare ribs with fries and green salad £14.00

Desserts:

“Connecticut’s best” apple pie £4.70

New York supreme cheesecake with blueberry coulis £4.70

Michigan frosted pumpkin doughnut with cream cheese ice cream £4.70

Looks good and of course if you don't fancy the American beers there are always the fantastic Otley Brewery beers to wash down the food with.

Google Map:

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Bunch of Grapes
Ynysangharad Road
Pontypridd
CF37 4DA

Best on screen pub fights

Over at Dwink they have a selection of Cinema's Best Bar Brawls, a good list, though there is one notable exception, the John Wayne and Dickie Attenborough pub fight in the 1975 classic Brannigan.



The pub used for the exterior shots was the Lamb in Leadenhall Market, City of London.

Nowadays with CCTV in a lot of pubs, how long before "100 real pub fights" hits the TV screens?
(Off now to sell idea to Endemol)

Purple Moose News

The November special beer from the award-winning Purple Moose Brewery of Porthmadog is the final one in their ship series for this year. Named Isallt, it is is a deep golden coloured bitter with citrus and floral aromas, made with hops from New Zealand and America.

The Moose will be out and about in North Wales as well:

26th-28th November - Food & Craft Festival, Parc Glynllifon, near Caernarfon. 

27th-28th November - Christmas Fair, Craflwyn Hall, Beddgelert.

In addition the first Porthmadog Farmers' Market will be held on Saturday 11th December 2010 at the Ganolfan.

True Taste Awards 2010

It's that time of year again when the food makers of Wales get together for the True Taste of Wales awards.

Full details of the winners are here but as usual the Brew Wales team have sifted the results to reproduce the most important category below. There is also a colour booklet available to download here.

Beer, Cider, Perry Category

Gold

Hurns Brewing Company
Cwrw Idris
Unit 3, Century Park, Llansamlet Enterprise
Park, Swansea, SA6 8RP
01792 797280

Cwrw Idris is a medium to light-brown coloured beer with a complex aroma of malt, hops and fruit, mainly raisins. The flavour consists of an initial malty sweetness balanced by a bitter sweet dryness towards the end together with some fruit flavours. Deceptively drinkable for a beer with an ABV of 5.2%.

Pure Welsh water is mixed by Hurns craft brewers with traditional floor-malted pale and crystal malt, then boiled with the finest English Goldings and Challenger hops before being carefully fermented with their unique strain of yeast to produce this light-brown coloured premium ale. Cwrw Idris has a rich, foamy head and an enticing aroma of malt, hops and fruit, followed by a smooth malty sweetness that sweeps over the tongue as like waves breaking over the beach. The sweetness is balanced by bitter and fruit flavours which all combine to make Cwrw Idris a deceptively drinkable premium beer with a strength of 5.2% ABV.  

Cwrw Idris is brewed by the family-owned Tomos Watkin Brewery and is named after the founder of the family firm, who was torpedoed twice during the First World War. The photograph of Idris Parry on the bottle label shows him in his naval uniform when he was serving on HMS Duke of Albany.

Silver

Gwynt y Ddraig Cider Ltd.
Orchard Gold Cider
Llest Farm, Llantwit Fardre,
Pontypridd, CF38 2PW
01443 209852
Orchard Gold is a golden medium cider with a refreshing apple aroma. Smooth balanced flavour that has a fresh, crisp sharpness. Shows off its true origins as a traditional oak matured farmhouse cider.

Suitable for vegetarians, vegans and coeliacs.

Orchard Gold – Oak Conditioned Medium cider, 4.9% ABV

Bronze

Monty’s Brewery Ltd.
Monty’s Midnight
Unit 1 Castle Works, Hendomen,
Montgomery, Powys, SY15 6HA
01686 668933
Described on their website as " An award- winning dark creamy stout, full of dark fruit and roasted malt flavours". 4% ABV.
Monty’s Brewery is proud to be the first brewery in Montgomeryshire since the Eagle Brewery closed in the 1980’s. The owner and head brewer, Pam Honeyman is one of only a handful of brewsters (female brewer) in the UK.










Congratulations to all the winners and good luck to everyone in the competition next year.

Old pictures of the Vulcan wanted

The Cardiff Story Museum, based in the Old Library in Cardiff is looking for some old photos of the Vulcan pub. The oldest found so far, pictured left, is on the Facebook Group, dates to 2000 and was taken by me! On my the trusty old Canon A1 as well.
Tom Hoare from the Cardiff Story Museum has already searched the National Museum, Cardiff Library and Glamorgan Records Office, all to no avail in the search for old photographs of this pub.

The Vulcan pub in Cardiff, now almost 2 years into its 3 year reprieve from demolition.

The Cardiff Story,
The Old Library,
The Hayes,
Cardiff,
CF10 1BH

Tel: (+44) 029 2078 8334
cardiffstory@cardiff.gov.uk

Rhymney Brewery on the move

The award-winning Rhymney Brewery, currently based in Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, is on the move. Unable to expand at their present home, the family-run brewery has been searching for a new location for a while before finally deciding on the world heritage town of Blaenavon in Torfaen. The new purpose-built brewery 

premises is situated close to Big Pit mining musuem and will be the first brewery in the town for over 100 years, after a Mr Westlake moved his brewery out of the town and set up further down the valley in Cwmavon due to the water supply in Blaenavon being so poor.

Hopefully problems such as the water supply will not effect the brewery this century and we can all look forward to the Hobby Horse riding throughout the valleys of South Wales once again.

Above: the former Westlakes brewery, Cwmavon

The original Rhymney Brewery was founded in Rhymney and closed by Whitbread in the 1970s.

All change at the City Arms

City Arms, 10-12 Quay Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EA

The City Arms is one of Cardiff's most famous pubs and has recently been given a refurbishment by Wales' largest real ale brewers, SA Brain.

A building on this site is marked on John Speed's map of 1610, although it is not known if it was an inn or not. Situated opposite the town quay, it would have been a good place for a tavern with the ships coming and going from the River Taff, which was not diverted to its present course until the nineteenth century. On a map of 1851 a beerhouse on this site is marked with the delightfully sounding name, “The Van of Flesh Tavern” and today this forms the right-hand side of the present building.

 Above:1851 Cardiff Map with the "Van of Flesh Tavern" marked in red. The orange line shows where the pub called the City Arms later expanded into.

The wording on the map is somewhat indistinct and as a beerhouse it does not appear in the trade directory of the time, as only the more up market public houses and hotels are mentioned. By 1858 the building on this site was called “The Cattle Market Tavern”, as the cattle market was situated across the road from the pub, where the multi-story car park stands today. On another corner, where the former Glamorgan Staff club now stands was the slaughterhouse. Both the cattle market and slaughterhouse moved to the outskirts of Cardiff later in the nineteenth century, leaving the Cattle Market Tavern as the only reminder of the trade that once went on here. In 1905 Cardiff was granted City status and the pub was renamed the City Arms. The present brick-built building was built in the 1880s and in the latter part of the twentieth century expanded into the Labour Club next door. 

 Above: the City Arms in 1935

Today the City Arms is unmistakable with its cream and black exterior and the Brains dragon proudly displayed at the acme of this three-story building. The leaded glass windows have the old Brains A1 logo in dark blue lozenges set in them and the pub sign features, of course, the Coat of Arms of the City of Cardiff. On the inside the central island bar has three banks of gleaming handpumps, one for each side of the bar, featuring cask beers from SA Brain, including the new IPA as well guest beers from brewers across the country but with an emphasis on Welsh-brewed ales with award-winning brewers such as Breconshire and Otley making appearances. 

 Above: Handle glasses for the beers off the stillage

There is also a stillage featuring cooled casks being served straight from gravity.

As well as the real ales there are also brass T-bars serving beers from across the world including Budvar Dark from the Czech Republic and Duvel Green from Belgium and a selection of over 20 different bottled beers and ciders. Altogether the new look City Arms offers  over 35 different beers and ciders. The lists of beers are chalked up on blackboards behind the bar.

The pub does not do food, apart from crisps and pickled eggs but there are plenty of other places that do in the City Centre. There are plenty of places to sit around the pub and there is even room for a darts board in one corner. The walls are decorated with old photographs, brewery memorabilia and even some Gren cartoons. The City Arms has returned to its roots and become a beerhouse once again.

The City Arms has a website a bit different to the usual Brains corporate pub site here, where you can sign up for their loyalty card to be launched in the new year.

The City Arms also has a Facebook page, which features the beers on and those waiting to come on.

Above: Some of the beers from across the world available at the City Arms

Google Map:

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Old Cottage, Lisvane, Cardiff

Old Cottage, Cherry Orchard Road, Lisvane, Cardiff, CF14 0UE

Open all day

Situated a short walk away from Lisvane and Thornhill railway station, the Old Cottage is almost hidden from the main road, set in its own grounds in a quiet hollow. There is an extensive car park at the rear and a bus stop, number 85, on the main road. The two-story building dates from the 1780s and rough-hewn whitewashed stone walls contrast with newer parts built of brick.  The long wooden bar runs almost the length of the pub with a split-level seating area towards one side, open all the way up to the roof with some decorative wooden panelling and beams and with a brick fireplace on the ground floor. The upper seating area has a wide-screen television, only used for major sporting events. The opposite end of the pub has a real fireplace with comfortable seating, providing a distinct drinking/dining area. At the rear of the bar is a modern extension with more seating. There is also an extensive outside area, with heated canopies for smokers. Despite the age of the Old Cottage it only became a pub around 1990 when it was converted from two cottages and was originally owned by Ansells Brewery of Birmingham, part of the Ind Coope empire. Today the pub is run by Ember Inns, part of the Mitchells and Butlers pub empire. Ember Inns have an active guest beer policy with 9 handpumps on the bar, although not all are used during quiet periods. Three real ales are permanently on the bar, Fuller's London Pride, Hancock's HB and Greene King Morland Old Speckled Hen and the guest beers can be from breweries around the United Kingdom. Recent guest beers were from Lees of Manchester and even a brew from Tetley Brewery in Leeds, a brewery that will soon close down. During November the Old Cottage is playing host to a month-long beer festival that will feature beers from BrewDog, St Austell and Thornbridge breweries as well as many others. Tasting notes for the beers are available in A5 full-colour booklets on the bar – a nice touch that adds some interesting information for the real ale drinker. It's no surprise that the pub has Cask Marque accreditation.

The Old Cottage serves food all day with special offers such as Grill Nights on Tuesdays and Curry Nights on Thursdays. This popular pub also runs quiz nights on Sundays and Wednesdays.

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