Brains Brewery's Slogans & Taglines

Brains (S. A. Brain & Company Ltd.) is a Welsh regional brewery founded in 1882 by Samuel Arthur Brain in Cardiff, where it remains headquartered today. Established at the Old Brewery on St Mary Street, the company grew from a modest operation producing around one hundred barrels weekly into Wales’s leading independent brewer. Its portfolio spans flagship ales including Brains SA—launched in 1958 for the Cardiff Empire Games and affectionately known as Skull Attack—alongside Brains Dark, Brains Bitter, The Rev. James, and craft-style offerings such as Barry Island IPA. Following acquisitions of Crown Buckley in 1997 and Hancock’s Brewery in 1999, production consolidated at the modern Dragon Brewery in 2019.

Brand messaging has long been anchored by the enduring slogan It’s Brains You Want, which has defined its identity in South Wales for generations. The 1933 industry-wide Beer is Best campaign, backed by Brains, helped reinforce beer’s cultural role during restrictive times. More recently, the patriotic Brains and Brawn concept—famously deployed on Welsh rugby jerseys during the 2004–2010 sponsorship when French advertising law required the brand name to be replaced—cemented its status as a symbol of Welsh national pride.