| Otley Brewing Company, Ltd. | |
| Location: | Pontypridd, Wales |
| Owner: | Family-owned |
| Opened: | 2005 |
| Active Beers: | |
| Seasonal Beers: | |
The Otley Brewing Company Limited, colloquially Otley Brewery, is a brewery located in Pontypridd, Wales. Established in 2005, it has won several awards, including the Champion Beer of Wales in 2006. The head brewer is Charlie Otley. In October 2016, the brewery was put up for sale by its owners.[1] In February 2018 the brewery ceased trading.
The Otley family owns and operates three pubs in the Pontypridd area; a natural synergy was perceived in establishing a brewing operation. Some trials on the homebrewing scale, when the recipe for O-riginal was developed, led to limited production at Moor Beer Company in Somerset; a full-scale five barrel brewplant was purchased from Moor and production on an industrial estate in Pontypridd began in August 2005.
Beer is currently available in casks regularly at the Otley-owned pubs in Pontypridd and Trefforest and as guest ales in other pubs in the Rhondda valley and Cardiff areas. They also produce bottled versions of Dark O, O1, O2 and O-Garden. 20 litre (36 pints) polypins and 10 litre (18 pints) minipins are also available for most of their beers.
Otley beers generally have floral/citrus hop flavours, making heavy use of American hop varieties, particularly Amarillo hops; and display a dry finish on drinking. Otley's beers often do not fit closely into the beer style scheme generally applied to British beer.
O1 is the most common beer available, a golden ale at 4.0% ABV. While classed as a pale ale by the brewery, CAMRA's categorization scheme treats it as a golden ale.
By the same token, Otley O8, the current Champion Beer of Wales, is classified as a barleywine under CAMRA beer style definitions, and as such stood unopposed in its category at the Champion Beer of Wales tasting; but the beer is formulated as a strong golden ale.
Otley Brewing Company has won several awards for its beer since its establishment, and won five medals at CAMRA's Great Welsh Beer and Cider Festival in August 2006, the first year of its eligibility for the awards.
2005
2006
2006-2007
2007
2008