BREWING
Samuel Arthur Brain who founded the company back in 1882, do not have their own of ces. Brain’s strategic plan involved staying in brewing and staying in Cardiff. Apparently the name tugs at the heart strings of the Welsh who are hard pressed to name any other homegrown consumer brand says Senior Brand Marketing Manager David Knowles. ‘Emotional resonance’ is the buzz word from David who has been pulled out of retirement to cover maternity leave and is busy helping with the new three-year plan. The product portfolio will be revamped with the opportunity to brew many more lower throughput offerings for the growing ‘craft’ market popular amongst the millennials. After seven years of the old ones, new pump clips are imminent. Stand-out will be critical in today’s far more com- petitive marketplace. A 15hL microplant by Willis European installed at the old brewery had previously been lling the ‘craft’ niche. These beers are badged ‘A Craft Beer from Brains’ with 5% ABV in keg Barry Island IPA – complete with Summer, Calypso, Chinook, Citra and Cascade the most successful and widely available. Other brews and styles have been made available previously. The Brains beers We may as well cover the core brands at this point. Biggest seller is Brains Bitter in both cask and keg at 3.7% ABV (23 ° EBC and 24 IBU). This is joined by Brains SA in cask only at 4.2% ABV (30 ° EBC and 24 IBU) and well ensconced into South Wales folklore as ‘Skull Attack’, probably entirely unjusti - ably but perhaps understandable given the average strengths of beers in areas of heavy industry when it was launched over 60 years ago. These classic bitters have had a
S A Brains’ new Dragon Brewery on Paci c Road in Tremorfa, Cardiff
in Llanelli back in 1786. Brains took it over in 1995 and all production moved to Cardiff. Original weighs in at 4.5% ABV (40 ° EBC and 24.5 IBU) and Gold at 4.1% ABV again pale and with lots of aroma hops. Back to the core The company is getting back to its core and any idea of further rolling out its Coffee#1 brand into a UK coffee shop chain has been abandoned. The 100 or so outlets did put the chain into fourth place behind Costa, Starbucks and Café Nero but it did not have its own roasting facility and expansion north and east of its base mainly in Wales – and the southwest would have involved serious capital. 70% of the Coffee#1 chain has been sold to Café Nero and the rest is run with them as a JV. Brains has around 175 pubs and it owns the freehold for most of them, 106 are managed. All but two have cask beer on sale and they all have Cask Marque accreditation. Cellar services is in house and the equipment is well maintained. I was told that basic beer style details are available for bar staff at the pump and that managers are encouraged to appoint beer ambassadors but in
4.2% ABV golden cousin at 11 ° EBC in SA Gold (27 IBU with Cascade and Styrian Goldings (Savinski)) since 2006. Darker beers include Brains Dark at 3.5% ABV in cask and keg has a colour of 140 ° EBC while 4.1% ABV Black is an Irish-style stout and sold throughout the estate as Guinness is not on the bar. There is a rolling seasonal pro- gramme which aims to keep beers on the bar for longer than possible with a monthly turnaround. Recent celebra- tions include Red Dragon for the new brewery, local lad Geraint Thomas, who won the 2018 Tour de France, has a beer simply called G, Bread of Heaven is for the forthcoming Six Nations rugby tournament and Rising Sun with Sorachi Ace hops for the recent Rugby World Cup – although the supporting point of sale merely urged consumers to “Cheer on Wales at the international ‘rugby tournament in Japan’” to avoid upsetting Heineken which has paid for all the beer rights. Rising Sun is only 4.0% ABV as matches were screened in pubs at breakfast time! The Brains beers are sold mainly in Wales while beer under the Reverend James brand is proving equally popular further a eld. The famous Rev James Buckley was a minister from Oldham who founded his eponymous brewery
The range of Brains’ cask beers
Dragon-themed keg fonts
november 2019 I BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL ● 45
i bd.org.uk
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