Urban Tap House
Westgate Street is Cardiff’s craft beer hub. It is home to Zero Degrees (pictured above), the City Arms (see separate entries) and also the city’s Brewdog bar, which you will find dispensing its usual keg beers and crazy flavours from around the world, at often eye-watering prices (pint from £4.15). However, if you are looking for a local take on the contemporary craft beer, head up the road to the Urban Tap House. Owned by Newport’s brewing stars, Tiny Rebel – do not miss their Belgian yeast Urban IPA – the Tap House is a sprawling, boho, late-night beer lover’s retreat. Set across two floors of a grand old building (you can see historic cornicing and carpentry work poking out from between myriad gig and club posters), it hosts regular mini-beer fests, tap-takeovers, a local homebrew club and, of course, it sells loads of fantastic beer.
Sixteen lines, split evenly between cask and keg, offer plenty of entertainment, while its fridges read like an international Who’s Who of cutting-edge brewing: Wild Beer, Evil Twin, Buxton, Partizan, Odell’s, Alesmith, Burning Sky, Beavertown etc. Naturally, Tiny Rebel’s own beers take centre stage. Its Hadouken!, a 7.4% double IPA, is a very welcome shock to the senses, a roiling sea of soured and tropical fruit flavours, breaking on the shore in a long, startling bitterness.
• Pint from £3.30. 25 Westgate Street, 029 2039 9557, urbantaphouse.co.uk
Bunkhouse
It may be eccentrically decorated – like a cross between a hip Brooklyn apartment and a Victorian villa – but the bar at this backpackers’ hostel is reassuringly serious about the beer. It even has its “own” ale, Nighty Noops, a Bavarian helles (pale lager) brewed for the Bunkhouse by Kaltenberg. For craft beer geeks, however, it is the bottle fridges that will be of most interest. They contain a decent selection from leading Welsh craft breweries such as Celt and Mantle, augmented by choices from global forces such as Rogue, Founders, Sierra Nevada, Dutch outfit Kaapse and Londoners Weird Beard.
Two craft keg lines serve similar beers of distinction, if, sadly, only in two-thirds of a pint measures. On this visit, these included Otley’s Motley Brew, a pretty explosive 7.2% double-IPA hop bomb, and Pipes smoked lager which, although less aggressive than many some smoked beers, still reminded me rather too much of frankfurter sausages. The Pipes brewery is based in the Canton district, which you can easily walk to from Cardiff city-centre. The Bunkhouse stocks a select number of its tasty, creative bottled beers – look out for its chocolate wheat beer or its Baltic espresso porter – but if you would prefer to drink these beers at source, Pipes opens its brewery on the first Saturday of every month (from March to December, pint from £3.70) for its Bar Open events.
• Two thirds of a pint, £3.75. 93-94 St Mary Street, 029 2022 8587, bunkhousecardiff.co.uk
Zero Degrees
Craft geeks can be a bit sniffy about Zero Degrees. A small chain of brewpubs, it has been pushing the idea of unfiltered, unpasteurised beer for over a decade now and, according to the naysayers, has failed to move with the times in terms of updating its image and producing radical, flavourful beers. After a visit to the Cardiff branch opposite the Millennium Stadium – think industrial warehouse styled by Austin Powers – that criticism seems harsh. The house pils was lively with spicy, herbal Saaz hop flavours, while the American pale ale reminded me of Sierra Nevada’s classic, Torpedo in the way it evolved smoothly from its syrupy, toffee-ish base into a firework display of bitterness. It lacked Torpedo’s tropical fruit definition and, ultimately, depth, but while Zero Degrees may not be setting the agenda creatively (choices across its seven taps included a black lager, a mango beer and a wheat beer), it is certainly producing high-quality, hop-forward ales. Serving tasters in plastic pint pots and halves in horrible, thin kolsch-like glasses is another matter, however.
• Pint from £3.95. 27 Westgate Street, 029 2022 9494, zerodegrees.co.uk
The Gravity Station
Tucked in behind the St David’s shopping centre, this bar and bottle shop isn’t easy to find and is only open until 7pm, but craft fanatics will not want to miss it. Owned by Waen Brewery, the Gravity Station serves around six cask beers straight from the barrel (hence the name) and four keg beers. It is a pretty cool space, too. All the beer barrels are hidden away behind a rather natty, faux-vintage back bar, while drinkers congregate around a novel, swirling, copper-topped communal table. Waen beers feature prominently as do – if not exclusively – beers from fellow Welsh craft innovators such as Seren, Pipes and Celt. I sampled Waen’s Janner’s Pride, an unusually fruity best bitter, but one dense with tobaccoy, dark roasted malt flavours. The bottled stock – a small selection of which is available chilled to drink on-site – has a similar regional Welsh/West Country bias, but also takes in beers from around the world. It is a roll-call of new wave brewing aces from Moor to Odell’s.
• Pint from £3.50. 6 Barrack Lane, 029 2034 0252, thegravitystation.com
City Arms
It is owned by Brains, that big, traditional Welsh brewery and showcases their newer craft brewing arm, but otherwise the City Arms is free to stock what it wants. As its walls attest, decorated as they are with endless pump-clips, it is a freedom which the pub fully exploits. Five cask pumps and two gravity-dispense barrels serve a mixture of traditional real ales and modern beers, from the likes of Thornbridge and Dark Star. A sample True Grit from Millstone was in sparkling form: a gentle reminder, should you need it, that many UK breweries were brewing bold, hoppy beers long before craft beer became a “thing”. If craft is your thing, however, you will find plenty to love in the City Arms’ fridges, which, on this visit, included, beers from Emmelise, Sierra Nevada and Flying Dog, as well as Mikkeller’s Gold and sharing bottles of Hitachino Nest’s Nipponia.
• Pint from £3.25. 10-12 Quay Street, 029 2064 1913, thecityarmscardiff.com
Pen & Wig
A fairly generic, gussied-up city-centre pub (Coldplay on the stereo, designer tartan furniture, home-cooked Sunday roasts), you wouldn’t hunt out the Pen & Wig on a mission. However, if you find yourself up this end of town, near the National Museum, it is a very useful venue to have stashed in your mental Rolodex. On this visit, its eight cask ales were a veritable parade of Welsh brewing talent (Celt, Tiny Rebel, Gower, Brecon etc), although I couldn’t resist that outright classic from, erm, Peterborough – Oakham’s mighty, single-hopped, Citra. A small selection of fall-back bottles (Punk IPA, Brooklyn Lager, Erdinger) ensures that, whilst it is unlikely to linger long in the memory, passing craft fans should leave the Pen & Wig happy.
• Pint from £3.15. 1 Park Grove, 029 2037 1217, penandwigcardiff.co.uk
Porter’s
This regular comedy and jazz venue is somewhere you can drink in style into the wee small hours (3am on weekends). Although it was ticking over nicely when I visited early on a Wednesday evening, with a young, studenty crowd. Its selection of world beers contains some run of the mill imports, but also several modern, craft beer classics. On this fly-past, I could have drunk Nøgne’s Ø’s peerless IPA, or the Italian brewery Amacord’s espresso porter, AMA Mora, which is brewed with real ground coffee and Demerara sugar. You will also find a few curious and unusual brews in the fridges, such as the honey beer, Hiver, or famous seaweed ale, Kelpie. These augment Porter’s core range of Belgian beers and US craft bottles from Goose Island, Brooklyn, Anchor Steam et al. Also, on international rugby weekends when fans flock to the Millennium Stadium, Porter’s plans to start serving a cask ale from a local brewer, such as its first guest brewery, Tomos A Lilford.
• Bottled beers from £3.50. Harlech Court, 029 2125 0666, porterscardiff.com
Chapter Café Bar
Take a walk (15-20 minutes) out to Canton from central Cardiff, and you will find Chapter, a busy arts centre and would-be bierkeller. It doesn’t look much like a Munich beer hall – it is a typical arts-hub cafeteria space, full of people tapping away at MacBooks beneath the slogan “All schools should be art schools” – but in its fridges you will find a constantly changing array of German beers: dunkels, hefeweizen, pils, helles and even smoked beers, many from breweries that were new names to me. If those Bavarian beers don’t take your fancy, Chapter also stocks bottles from craft brewers such as Anchor, Camden Town and Einstock, plus five cask ales. The draught selection was a bit staid on this visit, but the rye-style West Coast Red from Welsh craft brewery Kite was terrific. It is chewy and malty with a slight smoky edge, but delivers a whiplash of brisk, stiff-bristled bitterness.
• Pint from £2.75. Market Road, Canton, 029 2031 1050, chapter.org
The Lansdowne
This “new old” pub, also in Canton (near Cardiff City’s stadium), has been stripped back to basics: dart board, piano and, of course, great beer. Two keg taps dispense a Pipes beer – its interesting, complex Cali Ale on this visit – and an ever-changing contemporary craft guest (for instance, Celt’s black saison, Black Book). Meanwhile, five cask ales feature a mixture of proven and progressive from, for instance, Tiny Rebel, Mantle, Raw and Mallinson’s. A small selection of bottles focuses on leading Welsh craft breweries but also includes a few discerning mainline choices: Brooklyn lager, Duvel, Budvar, to complete a very solid range. The enthusiastic staff really know their stuff too, and look out for the pub’s annual beer festival in June.
• Pint from £3.35. 71 Beda Road, Canton, 029 2022 1312, thelansdownecardiff.co.uk
The Grazing Shed and The Smoke Haus
Whether you love or hate “dude food”, it is certainly increasing the opportunities to drink superb craft beer. These two Cardiff venues, almost neighbours, are both happy for you to drop in and try their beers without ordering food. The Grazing Shed (1 Barrack Lane) is a burger joint that stocks several Celt beers, but is primarily of interest for its Super Tidy Brew (£4), created for the restaurant by new Cardiff brewers Crafty Devil. It is an impressive Pacific coast IPA, full of the light and zesty, sherbety flavours that you get from a heavy dose of mosaic hops.
The Smoke Haus (craft beers from £3.95, Mary Ann Street) has Brooklyn Lager and Anchor Steam on draught and carries a small selection of bottles: Goose Island, Sierra Nevada (its porter, unusually) and Flying Dog.
Finally, those exploring the wider Cardiff Bay area should make a note of The Pilot in Penarth (pint from £3.20, 67 Queens Road, 20 minutes by train from Cardiff Central). It serves five ever-changing guest cask ales, from craft outfits as diverse as Aberdare’s Grey Trees and Salford’s First Chop. The pub’s parent company, Knife & Fork, has also recently undertaken a long-term collaboration with A1 Welsh microbrewers Otley to launch a series of ales exclusive to their pubs. Look out for Phil’s Beardy Brew and the new Murphy’s Law. The Pilot also hosts its own mini beer festivals each May and August.
Travel between Manchester and Cardiff was provided by Arriva Trains Wales
