BREWING
Underneath the conical DPVs, at S.A. Brains all neatly piped up
iechyd da! Brains on the move again
microbrewery and visitor centre.
ByRoger Putman
At Brains’ new Dragon Brewery site on Paci c Road, most of the plant is brand new and is situated on the edge of an industrial estate in Tremorfa – a little over a mile away with ready access to the motorway network – a luxury not available in the centre of Wales’ capital. Interestingly, Brains had a second brewery site on Nora Street in Roath not half a mile away from the new site but that was closed in 1993 before being demolished in 1995. As well as brewing and packaging, the new site had to accommodate 90-odd head- quarters staff which were to be more integrated with the liquid which pays their wages. Today there are large picture windows in the open plan of ce overlooking the brew plant. Even the new CEO Alistair Darby (ex Camerons, Marstons and Mitchells & Butlers) and Chairman John Rhys, who is the great great grandson of the eponymous
S A Brain, the family-owned Bragwyr Cenedlaethol Cymru or National Brewer of Wales is moving again. Back in 1999, it sold its Cardiff city centre brewery on St Mary’s Street for redevelopment and moved a short distance beyond the main railway station to a site vacated by Bass. This plant was much too large and 2,000 hectolitre fermenters were not really needed. Bass brewed some 1,500,000hL on the eight-acre site, Brains had to turn that down to just 200,000. Despite a lot of large-batch contract work, Head Brewer Bill Dobson told me it was still too big and in exible, so after twenty years they are off again.
T he company continue to have a presence in the city as the old Hancocks brewery site on Crawshay Street is to be redeveloped in a joint venture with Rightacre Properties into a mixed-use riverside complex called
Central Quay involving a 12-storey of ce block and other properties totalling 2.5 million square feet. The old brewhouse will be retained alongside its tall chim- ney complete with the iconic ‘Brains’ lettering and will be home to a bar,
44 ● BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL I november 2019
i bd.org.uk
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