Deadline because they need more time to get beer ready

when pubs will be allowed to fully reopen.

“This uncertainty means that it’s a scramble for independent brewers to get their beer ready as they only have a few weeks’ notice and they are competing against global companies with deeper pockets who can restock pubs for free.

“Despite these challenges, our independent brewers in Wales stand ready to support our pubs when they can reopen so the public can enjoy a tasty pint of craft beer in a socially responsible manner.”

Sarah John, co-founder of Boss Brewing Co, also criticised the Welsh Government for the announcement, saying 10 days was not enough time for brewers to prepare for pubs to reopen.

She said: “First of all, I am not even sure many Welsh pubs will open. It’s really hard to open just for the beer garden, especially living in Wales, it rains a lot. I am not sure it’s commercially viable for pubs to open just the garden, we have spoken to a few who have told us they are not going to open.

“When we heard the news, I was not thinking let’s start production. It takes two to three weeks to produce a cask of beer or any kind of beer.

“The 10 days’ notice, if we did have that massive rush of orders, wouldn’t be possible.”

Ms John explained how thankfully for Swansea-based Boss Brewing Co, they have continued to brew throughout to fulfil retail sales, and started producing casks a couple of weeks ago to fulfil orders from England on the announcement that they were to reopen pubs today. She said the brewery had casks ready to be sold to Welsh pubs if they needed them.

“We have orders through from English retail but lots of brewers have completely shut down throughout this. Those shut down from Covid-19 don’t stand a chance. If it was not for customers in England we would not have casks of beer ready.”

From Ms John’s initial discussions with pub landlords, she is not expecting many orders from Welsh pubs before July 13.

However, one member of sales staff is returning from furlough on Monday, which is typically when pubs get their orders in. Ms John said she expected the calls to be more out of courtesy, and did not expect many orders.

“It will play into the hands of bigger brewers who would have kept their supply chain going throughout because of their retail operations. We have all been saying from the start we need about three weeks notice.”