FOLLY FARM: Zoo launches its own beer — inspired by a penguin’s monobrow

A Pembrokeshire zoo has launched its own beer — and it owes its name to a penguin’s monobrow.

Folly Farm has teamed up with Tenby Brewing Co to create MonoBräu, a pale ale inspired by the Macaroni penguin and its trademark yellow crest feathers — the “monobrow” the species is famed for.

There’s a brewing in-joke in there too: “Mono” nods to the beer’s single hop, while “Bräu” is the German for brew.

The single-hop pale ale comes in at 4%, sold in 440ml cans and on draught.

The Macaroni penguin is one of the residents at the Folly Farm zoo near Kilgetty — and every drinker will be doing its wild cousins a favour.

The attraction says 20p from each can and pint sold goes to its conservation partners working to save endangered wildlife.

Macaroni penguins are classified as vulnerable to extinction in the wild — making the species a fitting figurehead for a fundraising beer.

Thirsty locals don’t have to visit the zoo to try it: in Tenby the ale is pouring at Tap and Tan and The Brewery Yard.

It’s also stocked at Hwb in Narberth. The Foundry in Haverfordwest is pouring it too, along with the Hungry Farmer restaurant and Holiday Park shop at the attraction itself.

Can collectors can order 440ml tins online at tenbybrewingco.com or call into the brewery shop on weekdays.

The can art puts the monobrow front and centre — a stylised Macaroni with its red beak and shock of yellow crest wrapped around every tin.

For Tenby Brewing Co — the independent brewery that styles itself “brewed by the beach” — the tie-up pairs its ales with one of Pembrokeshire’s biggest visitor attractions.

The beer had its official launch at the zoo’s Penguin Coast habitat, with the brewery and Folly Farm teams marking the tie-up — and one of the resident penguins giving the first cans a close inspection.

It has been quite a run of animal headlines for Folly Farm: in December the zoo celebrated the birth of a critically endangered eastern black rhino calf — only the second ever born in Wales.

And its penguins have previous when it comes to making news — one of their keepers was crowned Miss Earth Wales in 2025.