Over 20 brewers from across Wales have tapped into the latest innovations and best practice from the UK’s leading provider of brewing and analysis services, allowing them to grow and develop their businesses.
Brewing Skills Development is a course recently offered to brewers by the Sgiliau Bwyd a Diod Cymru | Food & Drink Skills Wales programme and the Food & Drink Wales Drinks Cluster on behalf of the Welsh Government and delivered by industry experts, Brewlab Ltd.
Brewers in Wales had the opportunity to advance their skills in recipe formulation, tasting techniques, beer profiling, carrying out microbiological assessments, and explored practical solutions for typical production problems. The week-long training course was originally held in Rhymney Brewery Taproom, Pontypool but due to popular demand, an additional course was arranged in North Wales at The Plough, St Asaph.
Speaking of the event, Daniel Jones of Bragdy Cybi said:
“We will definitely be introducing some small ‘best practice’ changes to the brewery as a direct result of the information gathered on this course.
The course offered a mix of information covering brewing skills and laboratory skills such as quality control, brewing and recipe formulation, as well as tasting and profiling different beer styles. This was a great opportunity for like-minded business people to network and to share common issues. I was confident and eager to return to our businesses to implement my findings.”
Gary Shingler of Felinfoel Brewery said:
“I’ve learnt a lot and I’m already incorporating my findings into the running of the brewery.
I’ve already seen a positive impact on the business in terms of improving our product and developing efficient methods of brewing in order to continue to develop our business in a sustainable way.”
Alison Douglas, Managing Director and Laboratory Manager for Brewlab Ltd. said:
"By encouraging interaction, we were able to ensure that the course met the expectations of the attendees. We covered a mix of themes from brewing skills and laboratory skills to quality control, tasting, profiling - not only looking at how to brew beer but also looking at any faults and how to address them. We've seen a variety of people from different stages in their journey, from Brewers to those looking at setting up laboratories and it was great to see how they flourished over the duration of the course.
We always run courses by encouraging as much interaction as possible and welcome questions along the way which allows us to share as much information and keep it relevant to each of the participants. Brewers of all sizes are encouraged to join our courses and the last two courses we’ve collaborated on with Food & Drink Skills Wales and the Drinks Cluster have been brilliant. We have thoroughly enjoyed meeting Brewers from all over Wales, from small businesses to more established ones."
Sian Davies, Workforce Development Manager (Mid and South- East Wales) for Sgiliau Bwyd a Diod Cymru | Food & Drink Skills Wales, adds:
“We’re so pleased the brewers feel they have really benefited from attending the Brewing Skills Development course.
The Food & Drink Skills Wales programme offers businesses in the food and drink manufacturing and processing sector up to 80% funding towards training costs. All 23 who attended the course were able to take advantage of this funding, which makes accessing high quality expert training both feasible and accessible - especially during a time where we’re seeing many businesses having to cut staff training budgets - this support really is a lifeline for them.
It’s fantastic to see how enthused the attendees were to go back to their breweries and implement what they’d learned”.
Mark Grant, who leads the Beer and Cider Group as part of the Food & Drink Wales Drinks Cluster said:
“Wales has a long history of producing high quality beers and ales through a wide range of world class brewers. This training will help to develop the breweries in Wales and will ensure that as a nation we deliver consistently high-quality beer and ale which will enhance our reputation on the global stage. The support from the Food & Drink Skills Wales Programme has helped us to create great value world class training which will help the Welsh brewing industry grow both at home and abroad”.