THE NEWS ARCHIVES

2002

23/12/02

The latest brew, "Purple Moose's Festive Antlers" ABV 4.0%, will be available at Spooner's Bar, Ffestiniog Railway, Porthmadog from 26/12/02 and again at New Year.

04/10/02
"Taliesin" will be available shortly at the 'Ring O'Bells', Ashcott, Somerset.

18/09/02

The new trial beer is now confirmed as "Taliesin", named after one of the Ffestiniog Railway's older(!) engines, and is a strong bitter of 5.0% abv. Availability is as follows:

25th-28th September - St. Albans Beer Festival. Taliesin (Badged as "Garden of Delight" for the Garden Shed theme).

3rd-5th October - Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival, Cardiff. Taliesin.

11th-13th October - Vintage Weekend Beer Festival, Spooner's Bar, Ffestiniog Railway, Porthmadog. Taliesin & Mountaineer Mild.

15/09/02
This week the Purple Moose Brewery will mostly be brewing beer at Moor Beer Co. This will include some more "Mountaineer Mild" as well as a new special, likely to be called "Taliesin", for the Ffestiniog Railway's forthcoming vintage weekend (12th-13th October). Availability elsewhere to be confirmed.

10/09/02
Apologies to those of you hoping to try "Mountaineer Mild" at Spooner's over the weekend. Unfortunately the brewery mistakenly delivered a cask of one of their own bitters to me. A further batch of the mild will be brewed in the coming week and will then be available at Spooner's in the near future.

At Tamworth Beer Festival the mild went down well and was in fact the first firkin to sell out!

29/08/02
The latest trial beer from PMB is a 4.2% mild called "Mountaineer Mild". It will be available at Tamworth Beer Festival (5th-7th September) and at Spooner's on the Ffestiniog Railway over the weekend 7th/8th September.

Reaction to "Red Dragon" was incredibly varied! Those who tried it at Worcester Beer Festival found it, on the whole, somewhat bland and lacking body. This may be in part due to it having only been in the cask for a few days. The following weekend the same beer was received with much approval at Spooner's and both casks had been drunk dry in 24 hours. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned here in cask conditioning!! Thanks to those of you who sent your comments. It is essential to know what you all think of the beer, especially if it is not up to the standards we should be achieving.

Meanwhile in North Wales....

The search goes on for a suitable property for the brewery. The intention is to locate it in the Porthmadog area or thereabouts. If anyone finds somewhere they think may be able to accommodate a 10 barrel plant perhaps you could let us know!

13/08/02
A new beer has been produced at Moor Beer Co. by the Purple Moose Brewery. "Draig Goch" / "Red Dragon" is a 4.3% red/amber coloured bitter with a distinctive hop character.

It will be available to sample exclusively at Worcester Beer Festival (15th-17th August) and Spooner's Bank Holiday Beer Festival on the Ffestiniog Railway (23rd-30th August).

As always, if you get to try it, we would really welcome any feedback.

09/05/02
Prior to setting up in our own premises a number of trial ales are being brewed at Moor Beer Co., Somerset, and let loose on the unsuspecting customers of Spooner's Bar, on the Ffestiniog Railway, North Wales.

At Christmas, "Santa's Revenge", a full flavoured bitter at abv 4.5%, proved to be a popular tipple and sold in two nights.

The latest offering was "Merddin's Gold", abv. 4.4%,  a pale golden coloured bitter brewed half and half with Lager Malt and Pale Malt. It went on on Good Friday at the start of Spooners' Easter Beer Festival and disappeared in 5 hours!!

More "experimental" ales will be available at Spooners in the near future. Check here for further updates.