An award-winning Welsh brewery has shown how rural businesses can grow, invest and keep local traditions thriving beyond the mains gas grid.
Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour MP for Gower, visited Gower Brewery in Pen-clawdd as part of a day organised by Liquid Gas UK, the trade association for LPG and bioLPG, focused on powering rural businesses in off-grid Wales.
The visit put the brewery – and the people, pubs and communities it serves – at the heart of a wider conversation about fair access to energy for rural Wales.
Founded in 2011 after its owners saw an opportunity to bring brewing back to the Gower Peninsula, the business has grown from a five-barrel plant behind a pub into a 20-barrel brewery.
It now produces around 1.2 million pints a year and supports 50 jobs, selling handcrafted beers nationwide, through local pubs, supermarkets and its own venues, as well as online.
Brewing beer is an energy-intensive process. For rural businesses operating beyond the mains gas grid, having access to practical energy options that meet their needs is vital to keeping businesses running and protecting local jobs.
Gower Brewery uses a blend of LPG and bioLPG to power its brewing process, helping to support Wales’s food, drink, tourism and hospitality economy while reducing the carbon emissions associated with its energy use.
Laura James, operations manager at Gower Brewery, said, “We’re incredibly proud to brew here on the Gower. Everything we do is rooted in the local area, from the people we employ to the pubs and customers who support us.
“Being based in a rural location shouldn’t mean having fewer choices. Having access to practical energy options means businesses like ours can keep brewing and continue playing our part in the local economy.”
The day also included a visit to Calor’s Neath cylinder distribution centre in Tonna, where Ms Antoniazzi met the people responsible for keeping gas cylinders moving to customers across Wales and Southwest England. The centre forms part of the infrastructure that supports rural households, businesses and essential services beyond the gas grid.
Ms Antoniazzi said, “It was a pleasure to visit Gower Brewery and meet the team behind one of Gower’s great local success stories. Businesses like this make an important contribution to our local economy, supporting jobs and helping to showcase the very best of Welsh food and drink.
“It was valuable to learn more about the practical energy needs of businesses operating in rural and off-grid communities, and to see first-hand how they are balancing the need to grow, invest and reduce emissions using LPG and bioLPG.
“Rural communities should have access to energy solutions that work for them. Visits like this are an important opportunity to listen to local employers, understand the challenges they face, and ensure those experiences are reflected in wider conversations about our energy future.”
Francesca Kirtley-Paine, public affairs manager at Liquid Gas UK, said, “We were delighted to show what powering off-grid Wales looks like in practice. Gower Brewery is a brilliant local success story: a business creating jobs, supplying pubs and shops, and carrying forward a proud Welsh brewing tradition.
“Rural households and businesses should not be disadvantaged simply because of where they are located or whether they can connect to the mains gas grid. They need energy choices that are reliable, practical, and suited to the way they live and work.
“The LPG and bioLPG industry is committed to supporting those communities, maintaining the infrastructure they depend on and giving them the confidence to thrive.”
