Crafty Devil Alcohol-Free Beers

Crafty Devil is an independent Cardiff brewery, started in 2014 on a home-brew kit in a garden shed and now brewing in Canton. Its alcohol-free beer is Born Free, a 0.5% pale ale hopped with three forms of Citra and Motueka hop kief, The Alcohol Free Co says.

Who are Crafty Devil?

Rhys Watkins and Adam Edinborough started Crafty Devil in April 2014, after a brewery tour at Otley Brewery in Pontypridd, the Companies House blog reported in 2017. They began on an oversized home-brew kit in Rhys’s shed and brewed there for nine months before moving, the blog said; Local Welsh Food places the shed in west Cardiff. Adam was a pipe fitter, and Rhys had run catering for Cardiff Council. The name, Rhys said, was a “brain child of texting back and forth really”.

By March 2017, The London Economic reported, “a two-man band operating from a B&Q garden shed” had become “a 2000 litre-a-week brewery employing nine people”. The ambition then, Rhys told the Companies House blog, was to “become basically Cardiff’s craft brewery”. Its Untappd page today says: “Cardiff Brewed, Cardiff Bred!”

Both founders have been directors since the company was formed in September 2014. Companies House lists Adam Edinborough as the person with significant control, with more than a quarter and up to half of the shares; Rhys Watkins stopped being listed as one from 1 January 2025 and is still a director. The brewery calls itself “an independent craft brewery based in Cardiff”, and we found no drinks group involved, so we list it as independent.

Where Crafty Devil brews, and its bars

The brewery has been at Unit 3, The Stone Yard, on Ninian Park Road in Canton since 2017, CAMRA says. It doesn’t brew cask ale regularly; it makes keg, canned and bottled beer, and runs two small bars, one in Cardiff and one in Penarth. The Cardiff one is Crafty Devil’s Cellar on Llandaff Road in Canton, a bar and shop with keg beer and no cask, which also sells home-brew supplies, CAMRA says. Wales.org says the Penarth bar serves food alongside the beer and welcomes dogs, and that eight taps run at the Canton site.

In late 2017 Crafty Devil crowdfunded for its first city-centre pub, aiming for £15,000 on top of private investment, the Morning Advertiser reported. Backers who gave £50 got a bar tab and a lifetime 10% discount card, The Drinks Business reported, and the founders hoped it would become “a haven for the people like us”. The site it first wanted, on Cardiff’s High Street, “faced numerous setbacks”, and in May 2018 Good Beer Hunting reported that Crafty Devil had bought the Cardiff branch of Small Bar, on Church Street, from Bristol’s Left Handed Giant, planning to rename it “Beelzebubs”. We couldn’t confirm whether it opened under that name or still trades.

What Crafty Devil brews

Untappd lists 214 Crafty Devil beers, mostly hazy pales and IPAs. Its core range, Local Welsh Food says, is Basket Case, Sunshine of Your Love, Gimme Chocolate, I Am The Resurrection and Born Free. On Untappd, Basket Case is a 4.5% session IPA, Sunshine Of Your Love a 6% hazy IPA and I Am the Resurrection a 5.5% American amber; we didn’t find Gimme Chocolate’s strength. Its most-logged beer on Untappd is Mikey Rayer All Dayer, a 4% session IPA first listed in 2015.

The rest of the range on Untappd runs from Helles Bells, a 4% Helles, and Safe As Milk, a 4.5% milk stout, to Tax Man, an 8% double IPA, and Rrroad Rrrage, a 10.2% English barleywine. Of Mr Mojo, an American pale ale, the brewery says: “This beer is our homage to the classic American pale ales that helped inspire the brewery back in 2014” (EEBRIA lists it at 5.4%, Untappd at 5%). The founders are “really into our rock music”, Rhys Watkins told the Companies House blog, and The London Economic called the beers “music-inspired brews”. We found no awards for Crafty Devil’s beers, alcohol-free or otherwise.

How big is Crafty Devil?

We found no current figures for its output, staff or turnover. In 2017 it brewed about 2,000 litres a week with nine people, The London Economic reported, and was sending all its beer to contract canners. Brewing had gone from “1–2 times a week” to “up to 5–6 times a week”, the Companies House blog said, and the beer went to Bristol, London, Birmingham and Manchester and online. Untappd now shows 41,276 ratings across its beers, at an average of 3.77.

Crafty Devil’s alcohol-free beer

Born Free is a 0.5% pale ale in 440ml cans, and the only alcohol-free beer from Crafty Devil that we found: the 25 most recent beers on its Untappd page include no other at 0.5% or below. Untappd added it on 4 February 2026, and a post on the Barry Beer Reviewer blog is titled as Crafty Devil’s “First AF Beer Launch” (we could see only the title). Local Welsh Food, last verified in July 2026, lists it in the core range.

We couldn’t read Crafty Devil’s own description: its online shop was still password-locked on 31 October, behind an “Opening Soon” page. The Alcohol Free Co, which says it’s brewed in Cardiff, calls it a pale ale “with a proper hoppy punch”, “Packed with Citra, Citra Dynaboost, Citra Cryo and Motueka Hop Kief”: “Hazy golden to light amber”, with a “Big hop aroma with citrus, tropical fruit and a fresh juicy lift” and “a clean bitterness”. “This is not a shy or watered down alcohol free beer,” it adds.

Nobody says how it’s made, and we found no launch quotes. Nobody publishes its ingredients, malts or calories that we could find. The Alcohol Free Co calls it vegan-friendly; nobody claims it’s gluten-free. We found no awards for it.

How Born Free compares

Alcohol-free pale ales from UK breweries in our directory. Calories as published; checked 31 October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

The Crafty Devil beer in our directory

Checked October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

Where to buy Born Free

On 29 October 2026 The Alcohol Free Co had six for £27.02, or £4.81 for a single can (an affiliate link). Dry Drinker and Wise Bartender don’t list it, we found no supermarket stocking it, and Crafty Devil’s own online shop was still locked. We couldn’t confirm whether its bars pour Born Free. For more, see our guide to the best alcohol-free pale ales.

Facts checked against Companies House and its blog, CAMRA, Untappd, Local Welsh Food, Wales.org, The London Economic, the Morning Advertiser, The Drinks Business, Good Beer Hunting, EEBRIA and The Alcohol Free Co, 31 October 2026.