Saint David’s Day, 4 Pine Welsh Summer Ale and Cwrw

1 March is St David’s Day. To be honest, I wasn’t aware of a St.David’s Day – but one of the many good things about the 4 Pines Brewery at Manly is the education it is providing to regular visitors about the existence of the National Days of various countries. BotF has celebrated St.Georges Day, Canada Day and Independence Day at the 4 Pines and it is always good. The effort the brewers go to with their beers is exceptional. Today’s effort was even more inspired because of the Welsh Heritage of the brewers.

The St David’s Day offering was a Welsh Summer Ale (1 March is first dy of Autumn). A few of these and you’ll be singing like a crowd at Cardiff Arms when Welsh Rugby was good. Plenty of hoppiness without being turning you Japanese. Wonderful, long after taste and the Golden colour is just a joy to look at. At 5.8% it packs a punch like Joe Calzaghe. I’ll be marking 17th March and 23rd April in the calendar when 4 Pines celebrates more national days.

Coincidentally, I’d stumbled across another Welsh beer the day before. The Celt Experience is a brewer from Caerphilly, Mid Glamorgan, Wales. They produce 4 beers – 3 ales and what I tried – a lager. Or in Welsh cwrw. Lagers are generally milder than an ale, and this was relatively bland. Bit of a shame really, because the Celt Experience is trying hard. I’ll give the ales a go, but I’ve ticked off the lager now. The most fun was had reading Welsh for the beer ingredients. Cynhwysion means “water”. Two more vowels than would normally appear in a Welsh word, but there you go.

Who is Saint David anyway? Unlike plenty of saints there’s apparently plenty of evidence to suggest this bloke really existed and in Wales. He died in 590AD on 1 March, hence the celebration on 1 March. He was a teacher and he travelled to Jerusalem, which wasn’t a bad effort in the 500’s. His day is a big day in Wales, but the Welsh tend not to go off like the Irish (who does?) – but they do like a beer – and hopefully 4 Pines can repeat their effort in future years.