The latest 'Iechyd Da' beer column from the Carmarthen Journal

The Iechyd Da beer column written for the Carmarthen Journal by award-winning brewer Simon Buckley, chief executive of Llandeilo-based Evan-Evans Brewery.

It’s been the sort of winter where Noah would have felt quite at home.
I think this has been the longest wettest winter I have experienced in nearly 40 years in the brewing industry.
We have had customers flooded out, customers without electricity for weeks on end, and a drinking public that gave up trying to get to the pub on the wettest of nights.
That was January and February, then there was a lamentable Six Nations performance by Wales - and the pub trade was in the doldrums.
But each year Easter is like a beacon.
It’s the time when the brewers and the licensees of Wales look forward to the better seasons ahead and make strenuous efforts to make one with our God to make sure that the weather is kind to us!
This year, spring started in a very different way, with the Budget.
Regular readers of this column will know that I have for the past two years been on the steering committee of the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group in the House of Commons.
As a group, along with other trade bodies, we have been lobbying the Government to get the coalition to support the drinks industry and in particular to drive new initiatives to support the licensed trade.
As an industry, we are one of the biggest employers in the country.
For those that don’t believe politicians either care or for that matter listen, you are wrong - and it is a shame that our local politicians don’t do the same.
It just goes to show that politicians do listen if you talk to the right ones!
The Budget yet again produced a helping hand for the brewing industry, and in particular the drop in beer duty rates was a gesture to the drinking public that the great British pub, and in our case the very best Welsh pubs are still the best places to drink a glass of beer.
There is still more to do . . .
I believe now more than ever that it’s time for Evan-Evans, along with the Carmarthen Journal and others to re invigorate our great Welsh pubs.
We need to build on the great Welsh tradition of inn-keeping and to create and stimulate an interest in the school generation that the hospitality industry is a real place for a career, not a last chance saloon.
We need to get behind the Government apprenticeship schemes and we need to be patient, and offer young people who really want to make a career in the brewing and licensed trade a real opportunity to learn and move forwards.
The apprenticeship schemes are not just for school leavers and we are searching Wales for mothers returning to work and graduates that want to be part of our team.
If Evan-Evans can do this, there will be hundreds more pubs that can do the same.
At Evan-Evans we have started . we have our first apprentices signed up, but there is room for more, and we now have a roadshow team to get into the schools and spread the news.
While all this has been going on, our top class brewers have been busy creating some wonderful new beers for the spring and summer.
The new Artisan Beer Range is a new range of craft style beers brewed using the finest new breed hops and honing great brewing skills, to create a fantastic style of new beers.
So, it’s ‘Iechyd Da’ and ‘Cheers’ to the new beers and to all the new apprentices coming into the industry.