WELSH brewing entrepreneur Simon Buckley, a member of Wales's oldest brewing family, is back in business. The first ales produced by his new West Wales brewery were launched in September 2004. The Evan-Evans Brewery in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire aims to produce one million pints of ale a year and create up to 40 jobs. Simon Buckley plans a visitor centre and pub for the two-acre site next year. Evan-Evans started brewing trials in July and the first three beers to go on sale are Best Bitter, Cwrw and SBA. The cask conditioned beer "Cwrw go iawn Cymru" is named after the fifteenth century warrior-poet Lewis Glyn Cothi who lived at nearby Brechfa. One of the first recorded mentions of the term Cwrw –Welsh for beer or ale – was in his work. This renowned poet and philosopher praised the hops of Herefordshire, then part of Wales, which are now used to brew Evan-Evans. Mr. Buckley said, "Cwrw is an every day part of the Welsh language and we hope that the beer lovers of Wales will at last have a brand they can identify as a generic Welsh brand of beer from west Wales." He said the brewery would create ten new jobs in the first six months and a further 30 when the visitor centre and pub open next year. The new brewing plant had to be shipped from Canada, where manufacturers specialise in supplying smaller breweries, according to the BBC. The plant was purpose-built in Halifax, NovaScotia. Mr. Buckley's family started brewing in Llanelli in 1767. The brewery is named after his ancestor William Evan-Evans, a west Wales brewer who married into the Buckley family in the mid 1800's. The company was due to hold a brewery open day in October 2004, when members of the public would be able to look around the new brewery and taste the new beers free of charge.

Norman Spalding