An Alcohol Free Exploration of Cardiff Pubs.

On Saturday 19th June Me and a group of other Alcohol Free Beer drinkers took part in a trip around a few Cardiff pubs to see what Alcohol free beers were on offer.  

Brewdog

I started the evening off before meeting the main group at Brewdog Cardiff meeting up with Jonny Stevens founder of the BetterWithout App, and his partner Dean once he had finished navigating the streets of Cardiff and managed to find somewhere to Park his car.  

Was great to finally meet up with Jonny after speaking to him online for a while.  

As this was a last minute decision to meet up here we did not book a table the pub was full inside but managed to find one outside on the pavement.  The ordering process was straight forward although Jonny could not get the app working on his phone.  Once ordered the drinks came out nice and quickly.

We enjoyed a pint of their Punk AF on draught. (£4.64 a pint)  This beer from the tap is very tropical and smooth.  It has a lovely flavour and certainly one that you could enjoy a few on a sunny day.  

Pontcanna Inn

Next up we met up with the rest of the group which included HoppyAF, Matt Jones and an old friend of mine Steve Liggett. Our first pub was the Pontcanna Inn this pub is listed as having Lucky Saint on Draught.  But sadly on the day we visited it was not available.  At time of writing unsure if this is temporary or they have taken it off for good.  (I have since heard back from the pontcanna and they are planning on bringing it back unsure of what date will be yet though) 

So we were left with the choice of Heineken 0.0 (£3.60 330ml) or Erdinger 0.4 (£4.60 500ml).  Around the table we had a mixture of the 2 beers.    I went with the Heineken which is a decent lager and a decent option to have instead of a coke.  

The ordering again was pretty straight forward and drinks came out soon after ordering.

Brewhouse and Kitchen (Bragdy a Chegin)

Our next stop was just around the corner at the Cardiff branch of Brewhouse and Kitchen.   The chain have teamed up with Big Drop to offer their Paradiso Citra IPA on draught (£4.90) in all their UK pubs.

This is an excellent beer on draught and seems to have a lot more flavour than from the can.  There's lots of citrus flavours that come through and a nice bitter finish.  

Once again the drinks were easy to order on the app and came out quickly.  We also ate in this pub and the food was great quality and reasonably priced.  I went for the Gammon Egg and chips at £10.95.  

I will definitely be back to this pub in the future.

Bubs

Next up we had a bit of a walk into the town centre and onto Bubs.   This is a small independent bar that prides itself on the selection of beers that it has available.  Sadly at present they do not have any alcohol free on draught but they do have the full range of Drop Bear Beers in bottles (£2.35 330ml).  The range includes a stout, lager, Tropical IPA and Yuzu pale Ale.  I went for the Bonfire Stout which is a great little smoky Stout.

I would advise drinking this from a glass as did find it quite gassy out the bottle. 

The drinks were again ordered simply on their app and came out quickly although we did try requesting glasses on the app but none came out.

After we finished our drinks here we said Goodbye to Jonny and Dean as they had a long drive home and headed onto our final pub

Tiny Rebel Cardiff

Our final pub of the night was Tiny Rebel Cardiff after being explained the covid regulations very clearly by the bouncer we were let in and shown to our table in the upstairs area.  

Once again we found it pretty straightforward to order the drinks and they were brought out quickly.  This time we had another draught beer the Clwb Tropica NA (£3.50 a pint).  This is a very tropical IPA.  Its quite sweet but very enjoyable.  So much so that the rest of the group decided to have a 2nd I opted for an alcoholic drink the Tiny Rebel 505 which was a very enjoyable NEIPA.  

Conclusion

This was a very enjoyable evening.  Great company and some great drinks.  Although I finished the night with an alcoholic beer the other draft beers I had during the evening were up to the same standard and during the evening I didn't feel was missing out on anything by not drinking alcohol.  Found myself enjoying the company I was with and the drinks we were trying.  It was great to finally meet up with some ofther Alcohol free drinkers and meet some of the people I had been speaking to over the last year.  I hope to repeat the event again in the near future with maybe seeing what a different area has to offer.  If we did Cardiff again I would repeat the same pubs, although probably swap out The Pontcana for somewhere with else unless they have other option available at the time.

Tim (AFBEEREXPLORER)