Snowdon Craft Bitter

Snowdon Craft Bitter is a 4.2% ABV best bitter from Snowdon Craft Beer, a brewery based in North Wales that combines the smooth, familiar character of a traditional English-style bitter with a more contemporary approach to brewing. It is sold in 500ml bottles and sits within the brewery's core range alongside its better known lager and IPA.

Snowdon Craft Beer was previously known as Great Orme Brewery, which began brewing in 2005 or 2006 from a small shed on a family farm near Glan Conwy, Colwyn Bay. The brewery grew steadily over more than a decade, picking up regional CAMRA recognition early on and later winning Champion Mild of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival in 2013. As its lager became the brewery's best-selling beer through the 2010s, the business relocated and rebranded as Snowdon Craft Beer at the start of 2019, before moving again more recently to a new site near Conwy and Llandudno Junction, where it now operates a larger brewhouse alongside a taproom and shop.

Best bitters like this one sit between milds and stronger pale ales in the traditional English cask ale spectrum, built around a balance of biscuity, caramel malt character and moderate, earthy hop bitterness. Snowdon Craft Bitter follows that template closely, with the brewery describing it as classic, caramel and mellow in character, aiming for the smooth drinkability of a traditional bitter while retaining enough modern hop presence to keep it interesting. At 4.2% ABV it sits at a fairly standard strength for the style, making it suitable for extended drinking sessions.

As a caramel-forward bitter, Snowdon Craft Bitter suits classic British pub food particularly well. Steak and ale pie, roast dinners, strong Cheddar and other traditional Welsh cheeses, and simple grilled meats all complement its malt-led character, while its moderate strength and bitterness mean it does not overpower lighter dishes either. Served at cellar temperature rather than fully chilled, in the traditional manner, it shows its malt character most clearly.

For anyone interested in how a small North Wales brewery has evolved from a traditional cask ale producer into a broader craft beer operation, Snowdon Craft Bitter offers a link back to the brewery's original identity as Great Orme, carrying forward a classic English bitter style within a modern Welsh brewing setup.