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

The latest 'Iechyd Da' Carmarthen Journal beer column by award-winning brewer Simon Buckley, chief executive of Llandeilo-based Evan-Evans Brewery - 

Wimbledon, Henley, Llandeilo Jazz, it’s got to be summer!
This is the time of year to enjoy ‘Golden Beers’ that are light or golden in colour, and that have the fragrance and freshness of a warm summer’s day.
So what should you be looking for?
Light, golden beers, in a nutshell.
Summer beers should be served cooler. Not freezing cold, so you get frostbite from holding the glass, but two to three degrees below normal.
This enhances the flavours and makes the beers even more refreshing.
Temperature is not everything.
A good refreshing summer beer will be brewed with a combination of Pale Ale malt and some Torrified Wheat to give it a tight white head.
Then, depending on what you are trying to create, possibly some Pilsner lager malt. This will give it a light almost continental style of flavour.
Gentle malt flavours supported by a range of continental hops give a distinctive clean, fruity palate, and refresh your taste buds.
Over the last three months we have been working on new beers; beers that will give you berry fruit, beers that will give you the unique and noble taste from Saaz hops, a subtle lemon fruit, and, of course, the traditional blast of summer American hops, zingy and tangy.
So look out for Amarillo from the States, Cwrw Haf (brewed using Cascade and Fuggles, Willamette) and, of course, the great traditional British hops of Goldings and Fuggles that give light fruity beers.
Look for something that is different, make sure it’s from a brewer that you know and like, and tuck in and make the best of summer.
Recently, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff hosted the ‘W-Ales Beer Festival’ that in my mind was a wonderful showcase for the Welsh brewing and drinks industry.
The great and the good were there, from Brains through to the smallest brewers from West Wales.
Our Llandeilo-based Evan-Evans brewery used the event to launch our new London Beer Brand at the event. (More on this next month)
It was a magnificent moment, with beers from all the Welsh brewers.
But tasting some of the beers made me think are these guys ‘real’ brewers or simply ‘pretend’ home brewers?
Yes, I am back to my age-old argument that a lot of the amber liquids brewed in Wales simply are some of the poorest examples of crafted beers I have ever tasted. Sadly this is an opinion that is gaining strength.
‘Craft Beer’ has now become the ‘buzzword’ of the drinks industry and the truth is that people who brew badly-made beer now define that beer as being craft, trying to explain away overtly bitter and badly-made beers.
Craft Beer should be about well-constructed, biologically-stable beers that titillate the taste buds, with gentle flavors that court you to have another pint.
Instead, most craft beers assault your taste buds, drive the bitterness off the scale, and leave you with the thought, ‘Why am I drinking a strawberry or grapefruit beer?’
As one ale drinker who came to our stand at ‘W-Ales Beer Festival’ said, “Give me real beer, not something dreamed up and made in the bathroom!”
Brewing is not alchemy.
It is a very real science that pays respect to certain simple rules that have stood the test of time.
We as a nation of brewers need no lessons from the US brewers and the new arrivals in the paddock of brewing need to understand that, yes, our customers want new tastes, but they want beer that they can drink, and lots of it.
Next year, we will run some tutorials to try and help them get it right.
Hope to see you at Jazz@Llandeilo on July 4-6.
The Stomper beer is brewed and almost ready!