Tiny Rebel Can Launch, Cask, London
Tiny Rebel have been on my radar since they did a tap takeover at the Belle Isle in Portsmouth around 3 years ago. With beer names like 'Zool' and 'Dirty Stop Out' and distinctive, stand-out pump clips (as well as great tasting beer, of course!) they have stuck in the memory and I've kept an eye out for them ever since. Last year, I had a pint of 'Clwb Tropicana' on cask and it blew me away - it felt like drinking alcoholic fruit juice!
Fast-forward to 2017 and the Welsh brewery is launching some of its beer in cans and to celebrate were in London to give out previews and tasters ahead of the official release. We headed to Cask in Pimlico to attend the can launch.
Cask is a great pub that I've visited several times. It boasts 10 cask ales, 15 kegs and 300+ bottle so you know you're going to have the enviable over-choice dilemma. We arrived a little bit before the event started so had time for a quick half and plumped for Tiny Rebel's Juicy, naturally. It was very good and lived up to its name.
The pub was pretty full and so we hovered around the bar, little did we know we had ended up stood directly in front of the can launch area so were immediately handed some cans from one of the Tiny Rebel guys (not until later did we discover this was co-founder Brad).
We sampled all three of the beers that have been canned; Cwtch (a red ale), Cali (an American pale ale) and the aforementioned Clwb Tropicana (a tropical IPA). It's obvious why these three were chosen as the first to be canned from their range as hoppy beers tend to keep well in cans. The pick of the bunch for me was Cali - an American pale ale overloaded with hops. Hopefully this leads to the canning of more of their range (my kingdom for a can of Stay Puft!).
We got chatting to one of the guys from Tiny Rebel and his enthusiasm and passion for beer really came through. It wasn't until midway through our conversation when we asked what his role was at the brewery that we realised we were talking to co-founder Gazz! It was a really interesting conversation where we learnt that the move from homebrewing to running a successful brewery (and two bars) is one that takes a lot of planning, hard-work and patience. Hopefully laying these sturdy foundations and growing the business at a sensible, steady trajectory means that Tiny Rebel are a brewery that stand the test of time and continue producing high quality beers for years to come.
Now we need to plan a trip to Cardiff to visit the Tiny Rebel bar!
