Publican's Morning Advertiser gets its own beer

The 10 barrel brewery has been up and running for a year but has already generated a number of successful brews that have gone on to become a permanent part of the Brains range.

These include the Welsh whisky infused Boilermaker, which won last year’s Ultimate Collaboration Beer Challenge, in which beer writers were invited to the brewery to create guest brews.

This year the competition is running again, which is how I came to be there.

For someone who has never brewed anything it was tremendous fun, but what really came through was the enjoyment the Brains team are having, getting inventive and back to real hands-on brewing.

Of course all this isn’t just about letting brewers have a jolly old time, ultimately it makes good commercial sense because it drives creativity and helps the category evolve.

Ale and craft beer has, by and large, won over the affluent 30+ male crowd - but they were the easy win. To keep momentum, the sector now has to attract a wider audience: the less adventurous, less affluent and less, well, male.

However popular - or otherwise - is the product of my brewing debut (a schwartzbier or dark lager), I’m grateful to have done my bit for the beer cause.