'If your glasses aren't getting nicked, you're doing something wrong,' says Tiny Rebel's Brad Cummings with a laugh.

Often the bane of pub landlords' lives, it's not such an issue at Tiny Rebel's own bar in Newport, South Wales. 

A few years ago, missing glasses might have been more of an issue for their bottom line. Now it's a mere inconvenience. 

Cummings and co-founder Gazz Williams have built a behemoth of a beer brand that has, despite the odds, managed to stay independent and win a legion of beer enthusiasts.

Angharad Carrick took a behind the scenes look at the brewery and spoke to Brad about how Tiny Rebel has grown... and where it is heading in the future. 

'We fermented beer in an airing cupboard' 

Located in an unassuming industrial estate, Tiny Rebel's bar is a playground for beer enthusiasts who can sip their pint with their beer brewed in the next room.

At the same time, it's a home away from home for Newport locals from every walk of life. 

When I arrive, it's hosting a walking group that meets every Tuesday, but Cummings tells me they also have antenatal classes, running clubs and even host Christmas dinners for the homeless.

It's certainly in keeping with the image they like to portray of a family business. 

Cummings and Williams are, in fact, brothers-in-law - Williams is married to Cummings's sister - and grew up nearby in Newport and Blackwood, respectively.

The duo met at an electrical company in Newport and soon developed a friendship after Williams started to date Cummings's sister.

'The beer side has always come from Gazz who grew up around cask ale and his grandad used to homebrew,' says CEO Cummings. 

'I was a 20-year-old lager drinker, but Gazz opened my eyes.'

At the time, you'd be hard-pressed to find many beers in South Wales that weren't brewed by Brains, so the pair bonded over hunting for new beers in Bristol and London.

'We started home brewing off the back of drinking those beers,' says Cummings. 'We couldn't buy them in our local pubs, so we thought, why don't we just make them at home?'

In 2009, the friends started homebrewing on a Friday night with a homemade kit that involved plastic buckets, cooler boxes and some rewired kettles. The beer was left to ferment in Williams' airing cupboard.

After some time, Gazz and Cummings put in £500 each to buy a proper homebrew kit from Germany. For two and a half years, it remained a hobby, but the positive reaction from friends and family prompted them to think about making a real go of it.

But the jump from brewing 50 litres to 2,000 was a big one, so Cummings and Williams spent time touring other breweries to work out what they needed to do.

In 2010, they swiftly put together a business plan that was based on selling Tiny Rebel beers around South Wales in a van.

'Our five-year plan was that we might have five employees, possibly a bar, but really we wanted to work for ourselves and make beer we wanted to drink.'

Coming off the back of a recession and with pubs shutting daily, the bank rejected their plan. 

Cummings' parents lent him and Williams' some cash and their garage, but it wasn't until the beginning of 2012 that the pair made the leap and quit their full-time jobs.

By the time they had launched with a red ale, IPA and a pale ale, the craft beer revolution was in full swing, but consumer tastes hadn't yet adapted.

Their first order came for a St David's Day beer festival in London, but 'there wasn't a massive demand for it, especially with the brand and type of beer,' says Cummings.

'Education was the biggest thing. Pretty much every pub we went to sell in, we'd go and do an event there. We'd stand on a chair in the corner, but no one would be listening.'

At the same time, they had quietly built a loyal following in South Wales with their core portfolio of beers, as well as limited edition drinks. 

Their experiment with putting fruit in beer became Clwb Tropica, now one of their biggest sellers.

'We were on the top of the wave [of craft]. People started to follow what we were doing because we were ahead of everyone else. 

'If we'd started three or four years later, it would have been a lot tougher. I think we still would have got to where we are, but it would have taken longer.'

'Beers in pubs are all owned by the same people'

Camden Brewery's sale to AB InBev in 2015 accelerated the distribution of craft into the mainstream, but other global breweries quickly cottoned on. 

Heineken's acquisitions of craft brands like Beavertown meant they soon had more power to win distribution and listings.

It has led to the gutting of the craft beer market, with independent breweries closing in droves over the last few years. 

That Tiny Rebel has not only managed to cling on, but succeed, in this environment is to be commended.

The pandemic certainly helped to keep them afloat, banking £4million in sales through their online shop, as customers looked for new drinks with pubs shut.

But the bigger brewing companies' near-monopoly of the market has made it more difficult for Tiny Rebel to operate.

'The market is pretty much dictated by the major breweries,' says Cummings. 

'You can walk into any pub and I guarantee you, there are four breweries on the bar. They have different brands, but they're all owned by the same people.

'The people we're competing against to try and win have a bigger budget than us. They can give a publican £10,000 for two beers. We can't do that.'

Changing drinking habits forces a pivot 

For the last few years, Tiny Rebel has been in decline in line with the rest of the market, but in 2025, Cummings says they're making small steps towards growth.

'We were down 10 per cent but we've now pulled that back and on 5 per cent growth.'

Part of this is because of a forced pivot towards flagship brands Clwb Tropica and Rebel IPA as people's drinking habits change.

'People want more of a sessionable beer. There's a time and a place for a 6/7 per cent IPA and it's not in the pub. 

'Where people are going to explore is buying it from a supermarket and having it at home.

'I know I've changed my drinking habits. I don't want to have something that's going to challenge my taste buds massively or on an ABV level.'

Another important source of Tiny Rebel's growth is its independence, despite the financial firepower of bigger brands.

'I think "indie beer" is more relevant than craft beer [as a term],' says Cummings. 

'It probably means more to a consumer that a brand is independent. We're not like Beavertown, owned by a global brewery.

'Craft has changed but in my view, it's changed for the better. 

'People are more aware of craft and people are more of brand marketing that's wishy washy and fake.'

Tiny Rebel has had its fair share of marketing mishaps, itself, though. 

In 2021 it received a slap on the wrist from the Advertising Standards Authority for appealing to underage drinkers, sexual references and causing offence. 

'It's what we call impact marketing,' Cummings smirks. 'We haven't got big marketing budgets, we can't brand every bus stop in the UK. We have to do it on a different level.'

'Do we still need to do that? No. We're focused on putting effort into Clwb and Rebel. It was impact, it was Tiny Rebel brand awareness, not specific beer brand awareness. We've learned our lessons.'

There is a risk though that, like with Brewdog, consumers have tired of wacky, cheeky marketing, even if Tiny Rebel has reined it in somewhat. 

The cheeky upstart soon fades when you also want to build credibility and be taken seriously. 

That they have even challenged some of the bigger beasts of beer from a small town in Wales is no mean feat, though. 

And to their loyal fans, this independent brewery can do no wrong.