– Hauling 25kg bags of malt over the shoulder
– Mashing in with your custom paddle
– Smelling the aroma of a brimming mashtun, packed with flavourful malts
– Weighing out the hops in precise quantities
– Being mesmerised by floating hops and steaming aromas from the kettle
– Having a mashtun you empty by hand
– Ringing the local farmers to collect the spent grain for the pigs
– Hugging the fermenters as yeasties work their magic
– Knowing its an art form to pick the right moment to bottle
– Spending 10 hour days with friends bottling manually
– Popping open bottles to test conditioning and carbonation
– Satisfaction knowing now is the time to send your beer to the market
– Feeling like you know your beer better than any machine
– Wondering if you qualify for a degree in cleaning
– Using only natural ingredients
– Giving the beer time until perfection
– Not charging a premium price for watery swill
– Knowing how to strip, clean and assemble every piece of machinery. Personally.
– Not pretending your beer is carted around by shire horses
– Being brave enough to call it like it is
– Dumping batches you’re not happy with
– When bars and off licences have your work, home and mobile numbers – Just so you don’t miss an order.
– Investing everything you earn back into your craft
– Being in awe of the people that drink your beer
– Being an expert in plumbing, electrics and repairs
– Knowing the people at the bars and off licences that support you
– Buying as much as you can locally
– Refusing to cut corners for profit
– Swearing some day you’ll buy a pallet truck
– Wishing you’d studied graphic design, video production and accounting in some past life
– Not knowing where tax havens are
– when a new tank is a BIG deal
– Dealing with sales along with brewing, cleaning and plumbing. In the same day.
– Praying today is the day the pump won’t fail
– Knowing that brewing is damn hard work but loving it anyway
– Tasting your beers before breakfast so the palate is clean
– Walking in and seeing 100 parts you built yourself
– Feeling guilty for missing family life so much
– Losing count of the tiny variations of the same recipe until YUP!  That’s the ONE.

We’ve spent all our money on beer but thrilled that we’ve invested in our hometown as a location for our brewery. Bank managers know us on first name terms. A few check in to ensure I haven’t died. I reassure them I’m reasonably well and not drinking the takings. They sleep easier that night. Pallets of bottles, grains and boxes pack out the brewery until we really can’t take in another pallet without moving something (what happened that floor plan I had?). No forklift either so it’s a case of get stuck in.

Then, suddenly, it’s the day of launch. Well, that snuck up on us. Not.

The response has just been fantastic. We’re pretty humbled by the reception we get from the bars and off-licences. From putting up displays of our beers to hanging posters, to windows displays, we can only describe the reception as ‘open arms’. We’re buzzed and a bit in awe by every bar and off-licence that stocks us. Heck, they’re great establishments, built up over years by their owners trading on their reputations and suddenly our beers are on offer. Yikes.

To make great beer, you just can’t beat quality ingredients, time and an obsessive brother/brewer – in no particular order. I’m not sure great beer can be made without all three. Our first two lagers, Fir Bolg and Blackguard, use more grains, more hops and more time requiring a saint load of patience until everything has blended and mellowed. Then boom! Local craft beer arrives in Youghal. Hooray! The Craft Beer Revolution just got that bit stronger.

It’s been well over 100 years since there was a brewery in Youghal. A large porter and ale brewery by Messrs. Deaves and Eustace was in operation around 1837 at the Northern end of the town – possibly on Cork Hill. It even had a malting operation going with it. Youghal harbour was the scene for serious imports and exports of grains, barley and firkins, with quantities far bigger than even Cork City – potentially the beer was being exported in firkins! In a 1787 directory of Youghal, there were a a decent few occupations listed as ‘brewer’. Wouldn’t it be mad to to think that someone in 150 years would be looking up when Munster Brewery was established?