Latest Simon Buckley column from the Journal

The latest Simon Buckley 'Iechyd Da' column from the Carmarthen Journal -
To go to New York on business at the end of 2010 (and to make the mistake of bragging how cheap the flights were) was asking for financial ruin and for what was planned as a boys’ outing to turn into a family shopping expedition.
Plainly, I was not aware that the purpose of the trip was to help ailing US exports!
I have just returned from a trip to the Big Apple to sell Welsh Beer to the Americans.
Our new agent based in New York has lined up a series of exciting opportunities for us to be able to export bottle beers to 39 states of the Union, and in the longer term to establish a joint brewing opportunity to brew our award-winning Cwrw brand over there.
The Americans invented small scale brewing, and much that passes for ale in the States is in fact based on European lagers, that have antiseptic tonsil cleansing bitterness – a brewing affliction called TCB.
New York is a fantastic cosmopolitan centre
Home to every race under the sun - all with demands for different styles of beer and looking to get away from the national brands to something new and different.
What the discerning American drinker now wants is to have authentic products with proven heritage and provenance, and to be able to understand the history behind the brands.
Wales may not be as well-known as Ireland in the US. However, it was 14 Welshmen who helped steer the Declaration of Independence through – and it was only two votes that prevented Welsh becoming the national language of the Union.
I sense an opportunity is yet to come, to prove to our Colonial cousins that we Welsh are a nation of leaders and statesmen rather than lost itinerant labourers!
I could not go to the states, and not visit a brewery, and so after the ritual trip to Macey’s, the Empire state Building and 5th Avenue, I was allowed to escape to the Chelsea Harbour Brewery on 59th pier.
This is a big brew pub brewery, that overlooks the marina and piers where once the great ocean going liners docked.
Built by the same engineers who built our brewing plant this is a massive pub even by JD Wetherspoon’s standards.
The beers? Well, very American, bitter, lacking body, strong, and served with too much C02, a style we moved away from some 20 years or more ago.
But the enthusiasm for what they do more than adequately sets off the uninspiring beer styles.
They are as passionate about creating beer as we are, just very different beer styles.
However, I think the brewers of Wales have a style of beer that could really make in-roads into the growing American ale market.
I sense that Cwrw may be a word that takes some explaining state side, but one thing is for sure the beer, when it arrives, will not.
Here’s hoping that 2011 will bring good health and happiness to us all.