Cwtch

A long time ago now, I made a special trip to my local micro-pub, the Burnt Pig, to get me some Cwtch (see here) because I heard they had it in and I wanted to try it. At that point I did not know that I would ever be able to get the kind of canned and bottled ales that many of the people that I know online were having. Since then, of course, there has been a bottle shop open in my area and it has some fantastic ales on offer pretty regularly. So it was that, when they got Cwtch in, I bought some. And, today, I review it.

Obviously, with sunshine, I had it in the garden. And, equally obviously, that was not today because today has been rather grim and more usual wet summer from Britain. Still, a sunny day is when I had it and a sunny afternoon is when I did the review, would you like to know more?

Straight away on the pour you get the waft from the can itself. I must say, with the amount of beers that I have had ruined by the recent heatwave (well, not so recent now) this has stood up rather well and I suspect that the canning had something to do with that. Cans seem to have coped generally better with the heat than have the bottles. Anyway, heady hop aroma that mingles nicely with the wild flowers we have growing about the place and virtually indistinguishable from the borage we have growing nearby. Good colour too, showing off the red quite nicely with a ma-hoo-sive head compared to the very slight and shy effort I saw in the bar when I last had it. Nevertheless, it maintains the fantastic ruby coloration from that bar trip. Alas, there were clouds at this point so you can't see from the image below the full contrast between the beer and the greenery.

Having been cooled in the fridge for a bit this was nectar on the tongue after a warm and close day with a little bit of sunshine. Soft and fluffy on the opening with a burst of carbonation rather than the cream of being on draught. It's not hard to see why this got the name used to describe a close and friendly embrace in Welsh, because that is how it deals with the tongue. Bit of a hop hit there, can't place them but not a fruit bomb like many of the ales that I have been having this year, and that is something of a relief actually. It is good and with a proper malt backbone, the grapefruit middle-ground remains, pointed out by Willow, but nothing as stringent and sour as the ones that you may recall from the tropical Clwb Tropicana (see here), this is much more forgiving. Even Willow took a second sip from this one before handing it back and she is no fan of the heavy grapefruit ales. Through it spears a hint of spicy yeast, though this is pretty hard to nail down, and the overall impression is of a rather light, but filling, ruby ale. It does the job nicely.

A chase from fading grapefruit with a hint of malt to the back of the throat, never dry and more the sort of dampness I recall from the Ffestiniog railway in summer, hard to define but welcome and sunny. Very much a scent and feeling of summer that I guess only actually works for me because I was there at the time. Hmm. Basically, as this blows into the aftertaste it remains moist and quenching without becoming a terror nor being dank. It has a fruity edge, but an edge only, and there is a bed of malt but it is more the memory of malt rather than anything heavy and cloying. Maybe a hint of toffee in the sense that it is viscous at this point and there is a burnt feeling of having had toffee but none of that sweetness or the sort of horrid stringy taste I get from having toffee. I'm not selling this awfully well. In short, this is very much like a welcome and familiar hug. At 4.6% ABV the alcohol retains a warming character, very much coming into its own at the aftertaste, but without being too unwelcome nor too strong.

I like my lighter ales, I do, and this is strong by what I would like to drink more regularly. However, in the context of my year so far this ranks as being one of the lighter options and, for that reason, it is most welcome. It allows the malt and the hops to come together and the ABV is enough to keep a bit of a kick in the middle of the taste and enough warmth at the back to allow the aftertaste to retain some bitterness. This could easily have been classed as a bitter and I wouldn't have batted an eye, that is primarily down to the ABV rather than the hops and I have to say that they have done a rather good job on that one!

I like it. It does the job of topping off a warm and close day with some sunshine very well. I suspect that in full; sunshine and with a glorious summer's day it would be edged out by some pales or IPAs but on a day like today this really shines and it is rather thirst quenching. The malt backbone is a nice and often missing element with the hops doing a more nonchalant and background job of introducing hints of fruit on it rather than dominating the brew and ending up taking over. Big hops and domination have their place in ale, certainly, but it is nice to have something a little more subtle and balanced now and again and this ale does a good job of delivering that feeling.

Enjoy this best on a railway in Wales on a day after some heavy rain. There is mist in the hills, which rises unlike fog that descends, and the sun is bright but still cool. The air is thick, the smells fuller and sweeter, awash with pollen, and the steam trains plying the line are loud and brash in that nineteenth century way. Crabbing beckons at Nefyn in the evening, using sausages as bait, and you're at the station just kicking back and pouring yourself a can. Careful, it's got a head, and then just let the ale do the work as you gaze out over the road to Snowdonia shrouded in mist and cloud. Yes, this is Wales in a beer.