Fast expanding breweries in North Wales are planning a raft of new micro-pubs with the latest site proving a success.
The Hoptimist, in Market Street, Llangollen, is the latest venture by a partnership of two craft brewers from Denbighshire, Richard Green, of Denbigh鈥檚 Dovecote Brewery and Doug McPherson, of Cwrw Ial, from Eryrys, near Mold.
The Llangollen branch of their budding beer empire is the third to open in a year 鈥 the first was The Hoptimist in Abergele, followed soon afterwards by a branch in Rhuddlan.
Dovecote Brewery also recently reopened The Salusbury Arms in his home village of Tremeirchion, near St Asaph, also has its own brand micro pubs, The Dove, in Rhyl and Prestatyn.
The expansion will not end there with new sites in Wrexham, Chester, Ruthin and Anglesey on the horizon.
Both breweries produce a range of craft beers using traditional methods but often tweaking the recipes to produce different products like Dovecote鈥檚 award-winning Dove Down Under, made with New Zealand hops, and both also include special seasonal beers in their repertoire.
Richard, an industrial chemist from Walsall, in the West Midlands, was persuaded by Sue to turn his home brewing hobby into a business just over two years ago while Doug has been in the brewing industry for 27 years but branched out on his own at Cwrw I葍l in 2014.
All their beers are 90 per cent made with local ingredients including Welsh鈥揼rown hops and barley and adhere to the 503-year-old German Purity Laws which insist that beer can only be made from water, hops, barley and yeast.
Richard added: 鈥淲e want to grow a self-sustainable business and that鈥檚 why it made perfect economic sense to open our own pubs which have a unique atmosphere.
鈥淵ou won鈥檛 find electronic music or games here but you will find a warm welcome, an interesting range of beers, ciders and gins, board games and good conversation.
鈥淥ur pubs are smaller and more intimate than most pubs but here in Llangollen we have space upstairs for table football and darts and it鈥檚 a good venue for meetings as well and we have a great choice of craft beers, gins and ciders.
鈥淭he footprint of each Dove or Hoptimist outlet is more compact than your usual pub, but we have a wide demographic and appeal to ladies and gents alike and we鈥檙e dog-friendly too.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something we believe in and we know it works and we鈥檙e hoping to announce further new openings soon.鈥
This latest addition to the stable got the thumbs up from local Assembly Member for Clwyd South Ken Skates, the Welsh Government Economy Minister, who dropped in to sample some of the craft beers and ciders they sell 鈥 along with a range of flavoured gins made by Richard鈥檚 wife, Sue.
He even sampled a fruit cider in a shade of brilliant green and said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 brilliant to see The Hoptimist in Llangollen 鈥 it works perfectly with the character of the town.
鈥淟langollen attracts visitors from around the world and it鈥檚 great to see a place like this offering a range of the very best craft聽ales, many of them produced here in North East Wales.
鈥淐raft beers are all the rage these days and at The Hoptimist you can be guaranteed a genuine taste of the region 鈥 they鈥檙e putting the聽ales聽in Wales.鈥
Richard and Doug took over the premises on the corner of Market Street and East Street three months ago and have a tenant of their own, a small bakery which sells a range of pies, pastries and Wales鈥檚 answer to the Cornish pasty, the oggie.
Richard said: 鈥淭his is a really good spot and Llangollen is a perfect town for us as it鈥檚 busy all year round.聽
鈥淲e鈥檝e even got the bakery next door so you can pick up your pie and bring it in to enjoy with your pint.
鈥淒oug and I met at a CAMRA 鈥 Campaign for Real聽Ale聽 - meeting when we鈥檇 just set up Dovecote and we didn鈥檛 want to be in competition and thought it would work better to be in a partnership.鈥
Doug, a New Zealander who got into home brewing because when he was growing up the legal age for drinking was 21, said: 鈥淚t can be difficult for micro-brewers like us to get their beer into pubs so we thought it would make sense to have our own pubs to sell our beer in.
鈥淚t鈥檚 working very well. Although the craft beer market is still relatively small it鈥檚 growing all the time and we are looking at further openings in the future.鈥
