In American brewing's early days, abarrelof whiskey brought more at market than the same ofbeer, so for farmers liquefying their assets, so to speak, stronger stuff made more sense.
While people in north Wales agreed with their west Walian counterparts in identifying landscape and mining as the most important elements of their heritage, and picked a miner's lamp and abeerbarrel as objects that should be preserved for the future.
We round off the visit tasting a couple of barrel-aged beers, the 2008 edition of 25 Dodici (25th December, their Christmas beer) and two barrels of Sedici Gradi (Sixteen Degrees, their strong, dark barley wine).