The Boar’s Head Beer Festival, 2010

Posted on 05. Sep, 2010 by Robert Gale in Beer Festivals

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The Venue

According to Brew Wales, the pub dates from 1875 and was built by the Trecastle Estate for nearby tinplate workers.

The interior consists of a small, but well stocked bar with stools and seating surrounding it. When I visited this area was very popular with the locals. on each side of the entrance hall are rooms containing a mixture of seating and a fireplace. One is more suitable for dining although both have a homely feel to them rather than being in a pub.

The bar area and the two rooms are all carpeted. The room at the rear has a bare stone floor and was used to store the beer for the festival. I presuming on any other day it would be used for seating.

On the side of the pub is a sizeable beer garden. There are two decked areas (one covered) and a grass area with benches.

The Beer

The selection of beers available was excellent, especially for a festival held in a pub. No fewer than 50 beers were available with around 30 being available at the same time. The small bar had 8 ales on pumps and a further 20 or so were available from gravity in the rear room. All ales were priced the same – a reasonable £2.65.

Here’s the full list of beers that were available (courtesy of Brew Wales):-

• Brew Dog – Trashy Blond
• Brewsters – Decadence, Rutterkin & Stilton Porter
• Cheddar Ales – Gorge Best, Potholer, & Bitter Bully
• Crouch Vale – Amarillo, Brewer’s Gold & Summer Breeze
• Dark Star – American Pale Ale, Hophead & Sunburst
• Green Jack – Orange Wheat and Ripper Tripel
• Hopback – Crop Circle, Entire Stout & Summer Lightning
• Howard Town – Snake Ale & Longdendale Light
• Lodden – Bamboozle & Ferrymans’ Gold
• Mauldon – Mousetrap, Silver Adder & Suffolk Pride
• Oakham – Bishop’s Farewell, Inferno & JHB
• RCH – Double Header, Old Slug Porter & PG Steam
• Red Fox – Red Fox Bitter, Hunter’s Gold, Wily ‘Ol Fox & IPA
• Sarah Hughes – Dark Ruby Mild
• Springhead – Bare Bones, Charlie’s Angel & Roaring Meg
• Thornbridge – Craven Silk, Jaipur IPA & Kipling
• Triple FFF – Stairway to Heaven & Moondance
• Wolf – Granny Wouldn’t Like It & Straw Dog
• Wye Valley – Dorothy Goodbody’s Golden Ale, Butty Bach & HPA
• York – Guzzler & Yorkshire Terrier

Entertainment

Entertainment for the festival was courtesy of Wood Art Works, a Newport based sculptor who as carving a huge boar’s head from a 150-year-old English oak. I found this far more entertaining than band that you usually get at beer festivals.

Food

The pub usually sells a variety of food including Sunday Roasts and curry but for the festival an excellent BBQ was provided on the Saturday afternoon and was free. This was a welcome surprise and each person got a burger, jumbo sausage a chicken drumstick.

More Photos of the Boar’s Head

Venue Location

The Boar’s Head

Tyla Garw

Pontyclun

CF72 9EZ

Tel: 01443 225400

View on Google Street View

Robert Gale (Twitter: @awv)

Beer Taster, Pub Attendee, Photo Taker

Robert Gale likes beer, pubs and beer festivals. He also likes to take photos of beer, pubs and beer festivals. Most weekends of the year you can find him travelling around the UK (and sometimes beyond) photographing and reviewing good quality pubs and beer festivals. He also has a day job in the form of a web developer for Ozum.