Cwtch red ale (4.6%) by Tiny Rebel Brewing Co
Tiny Rebel Brewing Co started life as a homebrew kit in a garage in Newport, Wales. Like so many of the new wave of cracking wee breweries, its founders, Bradley Cummings and Gareth Williams, took their passion for brewing good beer and turned it into a viable business.
They launched their brewery in 2012, and one year later they took a clutch of awards at the Champion Beer of Wales bash. Since then they've whacked up production, turnover and exports, with their beers now shipping out to Denmark, Norway, Italy, Japan and Australia among others. Sweden proved problematic when advertising authorities took exception to their beer's branding - illustration of a hand grenade and bullet marks ran counter to their standards. Jeez, some people have no sense of humour.
They've a few cracking beers among their core, such as Dirty Stop Out and Fubar, and are pretty good at bringing out new additions, such as the Welshly named Cwtch - it means cuddle, or cubbyhole, and is pronounced "cootch".
The aroma of Cwtch is certainly embracing, though it's no eye-watering bear hug. You get a big resin hop aroma, lovely and rich, with orange and tropical fruits there too, and the beer pours a warm deep amber colour with just a wee bit of fizz.
Cwtch starts off heavy of the American hops, and the big blast of spice, pine and grapefruit is well balanced by a robust yet light caramel biscuit malt character. The bittering runs and runs, but it's far from toe-curling or over-powering; just gives you that quench of satisfaction you get from a really good beer. Only downside: Tiny Rebel sells them in 330ml bottles.
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