Local brewery tapping into history of South Wales - Mike German AM

11.19.01am GMT Wed 15th Mar 2006

Mike German AM recently visited Merthyr based company - Rhymney Brewery - and had a crash course in local history to boot.

Based at the Heads of the Valleys in Dowlais, Rhymney Brewery started brewing in January 2005. The father-and-son management team of Steve and Marc Evans were on hand to give Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly leader Mike German, a guided tour.

Company founder Steve Evans, said: "Many beers are produced solely by a chemical process - and remain untouched by human hand from start to finish. Our approach is very different - we brew our beers using traditional recipes with high-quality barley and hops and take a very personal interest in the brewing process."

Mike German, AM for South Wales East, said: "Rhymney Brewery is part of the resurgence of the real ale market South Wales. In 1848 there were 12 individual breweries in Merthyr. All of them had disappeared by the late 1970's. It is good to see a distinctively Welsh business combining traditional brewing techniques and local history with the most modern marketing techniques and brewing equipment."

The 1,100 gallon plant, which had to be imported from Canada, is capable of producing both cask and keg beers. Furthermore, the company has recently introduced a fully automatic bottling plant.

Rhymney Brewery are going from strength to strength

The company has embraced local history in the naming of its beers. Its first two beers were 'Bevan's Bitter', a full-bodied real ale named after NHS founder Aneurin Bevan - and 'Centenary 1905' , a light ale that takes its name from the Royal Charter of that year which established Merthyr Tydfil as a Borough Council.