Northern Irish community forms innovative craft brewery
The first handcrafted beers from Northern Ireland's first community co-operative brewery are expected to be on the market in September. Lacada Brewery was formed earlier this year in Portrush, county Antrim.
Laurie Davies, originally from Cornwall, who is a founding director of the new community co-operative formed to develop the beers, says: "The meeting was called by a group of people with a love of the Portrush area who also share an interest in craft beers.
"It also attracted considerable support from the wider community. Indeed, there's great excitement in the area about the launch of our beers. The brewery will give Portrush and the picturesque north coast another attraction to help develop tourism, so long the area's most important industry."
The town meeting led to the formation of a steering group to investigate how best to set up a craft brewery and to build a database of skills in the area. This led to a decision to set up a brewing co-operative that would be jointly owned and democratically controlled.
Davies then attended the launch of the Co-operative Business Hub, where successful examples of co-operative breweries were presented, such as Heston Newmarket, Topsham Ales and Manchester Brewing Co-Operative.
"We were quickly awarded a 4- day advice package from the Coop, delivered by Co-op Alternatives in Belfast.
"At the same time, visits were made to microbreweries in Ireland, north and south, and in England, as well as to the 1st Irish Craft Beer Convention in Dublin where we pooled ideas and learnt best practice from microbreweries across Ireland and the US," he adds.
Supporters included Phil Hernberg, also based in Portrush, who has been a member of the Campaign for Real Ale for over 30 years.
There's quite a story about the brewery and label branding. The brewery's name, Lacada is Irish and is derived from Liach Fada, which means 'the longstone' and refers to a low, mean, rocky outcrop about 300 yards east of the world famous Giant's Causeway. In 1588, one of the remnants of the Spanish Armada, a galleon named Girona, was desperately trying to return home but a relentless storm forced her onto the north coast of Ireland. She was wrecked on Lacada point with only nine survivors.
Davies continues: "In the late 1960s a diving team located the wreck off Lacada point and the salvage work brought up many artefacts, the most valuable being a gold salamander that was, originally, encrusted in rubies. The strong story, particular to our rugged coastline, had history and it had treasure! It gives drinkers something to read on the bottle - ever notice beer drinkers absorbed in reading the label?
"A keen sense of place is an integral piece of our jigsaw.
"We believe that we need a locally brewed beer for this area, to augment and strengthen the visitor experience and to show off and bring out the best in our communities here. We have people joining from different ages, genders and beliefs - a wide and diverse community that comes together for great beer and socialising," he adds.