Irish Craft Beer & Cider Festival this weekend
Ireland’s biggest craft beer celebration, The Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival, returns to RDS, Dublin, this weekend from 5-8th September.
Print5 September 2013
A showcase and gathering of Irish craft brewing, cider making and whiskey distilling coupled with live music and fabulous Irish artisan food stalls, the festival rounds up Irish Craft Beer Week which ran from August 30th onwards throughout selected independent pubs and off-licences nationwide.
The festival features over 30 craft beverage producers offering over 100 beers and ciders and is expected to attract over 8,000 attendees throughout the weekend. This year, food and drinks pairing advice from Dunne & Crescenzi will be on offer as will the opportunity to meet some of the up and coming brewers at the first-ever Irish NanoBar.
Co-Founder of the Irish Craft Beer Festival Seamus O’Hara says, “The Irish craft beer industry is booming at the moment. Year-on-year growth is at an all-time high and the interest from the public in our craft and trade is making this sector a great one to be involved”.
Breweries featuring include O’Hara’s, Dungarvan, White Gypsy, Eight Degrees, Trouble, Galway Hooker, Galway Bay, West Kerry and Dingle. Cider makers include McIvors, Stonewell, Armagh and Tempted?.
The Irish craft beer industry is growing, thriving in a time of national recession with over half of the existing 37 breweries/cider makers having been set up since 2009.
Within the craft beer sector alone, industry sales rose by 42.5% last year and are expected to increase by at least a further 35% this year. This rise was experienced in both the domestic (55%) and the international (25%) market places despite an overall decrease in domestic alcohol and beer sales.
This year Kinsale Craft Brewery embarked on a journey of crowd-funding in an attempt to secure enough money to build their new brewhouse in Cork.
Bru Brewery, who will launch itself officially at the Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival, opened its 15 Barrel Brewery in Trim after two years of planning. Galway Bay Brewery, established in 2009, has only this month stated packaging its beer into bottles.
This September JW Sweetman will introduce its first collaborative brew with The Carlow Brewing Company (O’Hara’s) to celebrate The Festival. Known as gypsy brewing, this age-old technique of combining two craft beers from traditional brewing houses results in a truly unique beer.
This weekend, the festival will welcome craft breweries and cider makers at all stages of growth. From the newly-established companies in the NanoBar to the longer-established breweries in their individual stands.
The Cider Sanctuary will again have a NanoBar with newly-established cider makers and then the individual stands for the likes of Tempted? Cider and Stonewell. The festival will play host to its Whiskey Corner, welcoming brands such as Teelings and Dingle Distillery.
For the first time, the festival will open on a Thursday evening, offering attendees the opportunity to come early and experience some of the showcasing festival brews as well as new product launches.
Trade attendees are offered the opportunity to attend throughout the weekend at any point free-of-charge. For more information on how to avail of this, please log onto http://www.irishcraftbeerfestival.ie/press-and-trade.html or email carley@greydogevents.com.
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