PIPES Brewery

What a great place in a great location. If you can find it.

An absolute gem of a micro brewery, a great tasting range with occassional experimental brews. All served by a great team in a great location.

While visiting the UK from the states we stopped in Wales to see Cardiff and all the castles and wanted to try few of the local breweries. We tried Tiny Rebel and a couple others but Pipes was by far the best. Pipes embodied what local craft beer is all about, prioritizing authenticity and quality over gimmicks. This small, independent brewery stood out by focusing on brewing and good beer rather than pushing merchandise or global domination. It’s down a cool alleyway surrounded by other artisan shops with outdoor picnic tables and seating. Apparently the taproom is only open at certain times so we felt lucky it was open while we were there and we got the true local craft beer experience. If you you’re in Cardiff and can only visit one brewery I would say this is a must.

Interesting idea but the beers were poor

A nice relaxed place to have a couple beers with my old friend Ian. Early on a Friday evening. Very simple - wooden benches outdoors in an old industrial yard, some under cover. Pleasant staff. You can see the brewing equipment. They don't have traditional British beer and didn't have the Czech style pilsner lager when I visited but they had a modern hoppy IPA for Ian and one more traditional lager for me (Mexican?), both at £5.50 and we both liked our respective drinks. Crisps at £1 a packet not as expensive as many trendy bars or pubs now. I didn't try the pizza that was on that weekend, or the Asian type street food but it all looked very good and I will try it another time.

Turned up for a pint of pipes and they were booked out for a wedding! Great for pipes but a wasted journey for punters. A bit of warning on your social media wouldn’t go amiss.

Great yard, good beer.