Wales is a mountainous country of three million people located to the west of England and comprising part of the United Kingdom. It is to Wales that the ancient Britons were driven by a succession of invaders, from the Romans to the Anglo-Saxons. The fleeing Celtic tribes were known for their brewing skills. Saxon records from the 7th century onward mention “Welsh ale” (or bragawd/bragot), a heavy brew laced with spices. It was as highly prized as another Celtic drink, mead, made from fermented honey.
Today beer is still the national drink, but the industry has had to make its way in a society far more hostile to alcoholic drinks than neighboring England. In the late 19th century the dominant non-conformist chapels were appalled by public displays of drunkenness. The powerful anti-alcohol movement succeeded in establishing the Welsh Sunday Closing Act in 1881, shutting pubs on Sundays; members of the movement also pressed for prohibition. The country’s leading brewing center, Wrexham, in northeast Wales—once known for its strong ales—was largely shut down, though its pioneering lager brewery, Wrexham Lager, continued producing until 2000. When founded in 1883, it had promoted its lager as a temperance drink.
Those that survived concentrated on brewing relatively low-alcohol beers. Wales’ leading brewer today, Brains of Cardiff, chiefly brewed a mild, dark ale. “Dark” accounted for the bulk of its production until the 1980s. Stronger pale ales mainly came from England, notably from Bass and Whitbread, which later took over many Welsh breweries. The only other survivor is Felinfoel of Llanelli, which pioneered beer canning in Britain in 1935. But from the 1980s a fresh wave of craft brewers sprang up to meet the demand for local cask beer, with 40 brewing across Wales by 2009.