Our own Blue Bell Bitter at 3.5% - always on!

Now brewed by Facers in Flintshire - a traditional amber bitter. Full bodied and well hopped to give a balanced taste. Great as it is or as a refreshing shandy.

Hops: 100% Goldings. Malt: Crystal, Optic malt & torrefied wheat.

We're now up to brew recipe eight. We thought recipe six would be it but price has become an issue so after a bit of tweaking of recipe seven we think we've got it, what do you think? We're trying to get good value and great taste in one pint but we need your feedback to achieve it.

We've added wheat to improve head retention and a little more crystal malt to make it slightly darker. Recipe seven was tweaked a little to reduce the bitterness as the Goldings were a tad too bitter despite what the book says.

In recipe five we slowly removed the Liberty hops from the recipe we started with (so called, we now realise, because the cost of them now is a liberty!). The hop recipe for Blue Bell Bitter is now 100% Goldings hops.

This is a huge change for the better in terms of the beer’s carbon footprint, as the Liberty hops were grown in America but the Goldings are British. It’s also helping us keep the cost down as the Goldings have ‘only’ gone up by a trifling 111% from £7.35/kilo last year to £15.50/kilo; they haven’t actually confirmed the cost of Liberty at the moment, but we're expecting something like £25 - £30/kilo.

We used to use Maris Otter malt but price became an issue for the same reasons, poor harvest yields and some lunatic fringe growing fuel instead of food - Did you know that The Economist, End of cheap food, Dec 6th 2007 article stated that 'filling the tank of an SUV with ethanol [made with corn/maize] requires enough corn/maize to feed a person for a year,' it'll be the same with cereals too soon, OK rant over!

We actually think Optic malt comes out better in taste tests, what do you think? Your comments would be most welcomed here or over the bar so we can craft this beer not only to suit our tastebuds but our pockets as well!

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Berriew Rum Cask Cider 8.4% is a traditional dry welsh cider from Argoed, Berriew Powys.

Berriew Cider is one of the few made traditionally with nothing added (e.g. no sulphites).  The apples are from the harvest two years ago and the brew is allowed to work and mature over that time to produce a stunning albiet potent drink.

It is a lovely flavoursome cider with a nice apple bite and a hint of rum from the casks the cider is matured in! Brewed to a natural strength we're doing this one in half pints only!

As you know the first Rosie's Blue Bell Cider was launched on April 14th 2007 after our first apple pressing in October 2006. Well we did it again last October with your help and we will be launching it on the evening of Friday 20th June to coincide with our award presentation for Cider Pub of the Year and Pub of the Year from local CAMRA branch Vale of Clwyd.

The pressing was once again masterminded by our ever watchful and award winning cider maker Steve Hughes , maker of Rosie's Triple D Cider and recently won 2nd overall dry cider at the Welsh Championships and also won the medium outright at the same event. They finished runner up in the Welsh cider producers championship behind Seidr Dai in the final totting up.

Lots of Halkyn regulars donated a wonderful variety of Halkyn apples to add to our own slection from Llandela so we have a real Welsh cider! The varieties we managed to identify include: Bulmers Norman, Yarlington Mill, Dabinett and Michelin. We had (from Halkyn) Bramley, Tom Putt, we're sure there were Braeburns, Royal Gala and crab apples.

This Splendid Ale from Facers at 4.3% is looking good and drinking well, made from 100% malt and whole hops.

Splendid is golden yellow, with a rich and smooth full fruity palate including tangy orange zest, cherry and elderflower notes and a mellow dry aftertaste The nose is delightfully hoppy and tempting.

Based in Flintshire, the brewey was founded early 2006 by ex-Boddington brewer Dave Facer after a move from premises in Salford where he started his own brewery in early 2003.

A brand new specially brewed beer by Facers in Flintshire at 3.7% abv brewed for Mad Ed's Hot Five's favourite Trombonist Dr Tom Rippeth for his birthday bash.

The pumpclip features Tom and his wonderful Trombone here in action at the Blue Bell Inn.

Happy Birthday Tom! No clues about his age but it's said to be the answer!

This special beer is made with Pale Ale malt (Optic) with Crystal malt at around 3% of malt grist, Goldings hops for bitterness and 1^st Gold as late copper hops, with a generous dose of Crystal Hops added to the cask.

Should be nice'n'hoppy with a hint of orange/tangerine from the dry hops; but we shall see! (It's an art, not a science you know!).