Christmas goes down the drain for brewer

A DEVASTATED brewery owner has started pouring hundreds of casks of beer down the drain, after describing the new alcohol ban as “catastrophic” for the industry in Wales.

Richard Anstee, managing director of Llantrisantbased Glamorgan Brewing Company, said he had no alternative but to dump the beer as the ban on pubs selling beer came into force last week.

Hundreds of kegs were opened up with countless pints of beer sent spilling out onto the floor before heading down the drains.

Mr Anstee explained the brewery began planning for Christmas in August but that due to the Welsh Government’s announcement last week – which sees pubs, cafes and restaurants closing at 6pm and with no alcohol served – around “30,000 or 40,000 pints” would be poured away.

“It’s catastrophic,” he said. “It’s our busiest month of the year and it’s where we take all our money which will take us through the quieter months of January and February and it’s just going to kill every single Welsh brewer out there.

“We’ve planned for Christmas for the last three to four months. This isn’t something that we can turn off and on, so by just having four days’ notice to shift hundreds and hundreds of kegs of beer, it’s just killed us.

“We will try to sell some through our small brewery shop but we’ve planned and we’ve geared up for the month of December so we’ve got literally hundreds of kegs there ready for all the pubs in Wales that will most likely go down the drain because they’ve all got an expiry date coming.

“Last December we turned over £1.4m. This year we’ll be lucky to take £50,000 in our shop so it’s monumental how much money we’ll lose.”

Richard’s dad started the brewery 26 years ago. Not only does it brew its own products, it also has brewing contracts with Molson Coors, Heineken and Budweiser.

The company has five lorries and 15 vans which are currently parked up.

The brewery’s own pub was also due to close last week, echoing decisions already made by Wetherspoons in Wales and Brains brewery.

“What we are doing now is just a home delivery service.

“People can pick up the phone to us and order on the phone – we can’t do much else.”