At least as early as the 6th century, the
Druidic legendary person
Ceridwen is associated with
cauldrons and
intoxicating preparations of grain in herbs in many poems of
Taliesin, particularly the
Hanes Taliesin. This preparation,
Gwîn a Bragawd, is said to have brought "science, inspiration and immortality". The
Welsh Triads attribute the introduction of
brewing grains barley and
wheat to
Coll, and name
Llonion in
Pembrokeshire as the source of the best barley, while
Maes Gwenith in
Gwent produces superior wheat and bees. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 852 records a distinction between "fine ale" and Welsh ale, also called
bragawd. Bragawd, also called braggot, is somewhat between
mead and what we today think of as
ale. Saxon-period Welsh ale was a heady, strong beverage, made with spices such as
cinnamon,
ginger and
clove as well as
herbs and
honey. Bragawd was often prepared in
monasteries, with
Tintern Abbey and the Friary of
Carmarthen producing the beverage until
Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536. The drink is said to have been still in production by a few families in Wales at the beginning of the 19th century. In the Laws of
Hywel Dda, meanwhile, a distinction is drawn between
bragawd and
cwrwf, with
bragawd being worth twice as much.
Bragawd in this context is a
fermented drink based on
cwrwf to which honey, sweet
wort, and ginger have been added.
John Gerard's
Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes of 1633 says of the plant ground-ivy: "The women of our Northerne parts, especially about Wales and
Cheshire, do turne the herbe
Ale-hoof into their Ale; but the reason thereof I know not...". Alexander Morrice mentions "Welch Ale" in his
Treatise on Brewing (1802). The beer was made from pale malt, hops, sugar and
grains of paradise. The author says that he saw the brewing process in
Carnarvon, conducted by an old women. Welsh beer is noted as a distinct
style as late as 1854, with a recipe made solely from
pale malt and
hops described in a recipe book of the time. Wales, along with the rest of Britain, came under the influence of the
temperance movement, along with a burgeoning Welsh moral code based on
Presbyterian and other
Non-conformist beliefs in relation to alcohol. This rested against a background of places where there has historically been abundant
heavy industry such as
coal mining in
south Wales and the north east.
Wrexham was one of the first places in the UK to brew
lager. Homesick German immigrant brothers from Saxony started the process in 1882. Its demise came in 2000, when the site of
Wrexham Lager was sold and subsequently demolished. Investment by the
Welsh Development Agency has helped establish a large number of breweries in Wales in recent years. In the 1930s,
Felinfoel Brewery was the first brewery in the UK to produce and sell beer in cans. The largest brewer and packager of beer in Wales by far is the Budweiser Brewing Group (BBG) Brewery in Magor. The brewery was built in 1979 by the Whitbread brewing group and is now operated by the Budweiser Brewing Group, part of AB-InBev the world's largest brewer. The brewery is one of the largest in the UK producing over 5 Million hectare litres every year. In 2012,
CAMRA predicted that the number of microbreweries in Wales is set to carry on rising as the pub industry deals with continued closures.
Tiny Rebel brewery won CAMRA's 2015 Supreme
Champion Beer of Britain for its Cwtch Welsh Red Ale. ==List of notable Welsh breweries==