Brains opens new pub and beer experience in Cardiff’s Brewery Quarter

The Old Brewery, Brains’ new pub and immersive beer experience, has opened its doors to the public in Cardiff’s Brewery Quarter.

The new venue is a collaboration between Brains Brewery, Heineken and hospitality group Breaking Brands’ director Steve Lewis.

The venue marks a return to the site where Brains Brewery was based on St Mary’s Street from 1882 until 1999, before the site was redeveloped into a leisure complex in the early 2000s.

Brains cask ales and beers, as well as Welsh spirits, accompanied by a Welsh barbecue menu will be available to customers.

The Old Brewery will also offer Bayside Flavour Fusion, allowing customers to choose from three Bayside lagers – original, cherry and grapefruit – from a single three-tap font.

The venue features sports simulators where guests can play games including rugby, football, cricket, golf across real-world venues using smart-net and motion-tracking technology.

Nick Payne, CEO of Brains, said: “The Old Brewery is a fantastic celebration of everything that makes Cardiff and Wales special, bringing together our proud brewing heritage with a fresh and exciting vision for the future.

“It’s brilliant to see the doors open and people enjoying the space, and there’s something particularly special about being back home on the site where Brains brewed beer for more than a century. We can’t wait to welcome people through the doors and see the Old Brewery become part of the fabric of Cardiff once again.”

He added: “It’s also great that the Old Brewery is home to the first Bayside triple-serve system of its kind. The new serving system represents the latest innovation from Bayside, combining our award-winning lager with a fresh approach to how it can be served and enjoyed.”

Breaking Brands’ Lewis added: “Opening a venue like this is hard graft, and it takes a proper team to pull it off. The Old Brewery has been a labour of love, taking a site with this much history and giving it a reason to matter to Cardiff all over again.

“We wanted to build somewhere that felt like it belonged to the city, where you can feel the history in the walls but everything around you is built for now.

“Whether that’s watching the rugby with a pint in hand, having a go on the sports simulators with your mates, or just finding somewhere decent to eat after work, we wanted it to work for all of it. That balance was the whole challenge, and I think we’ve nailed it.”