Northern Irish craft brewery expands and launches new beer

One of Northern Ireland's original craft breweries has launched a new pale ale following an expansion of its operations to enable it to meet the growing demand for its beers. It's targeting the Republic of Ireland for even faster growth.

The Fermanagh Beer Company, previously known as Inishmacsaint Brewery and based at Derrygonnelly in county Fermanagh, has developed Little Dog IPA, a pale ale with citrus and grapefruit aromas.

The company was originally formed by farmer Gordon Fallis in 2009 as part of a diversification of the 30-acre family farm, located near a monastic settlement dating back to the sixth century. The monks there originally brewed beer from their own malted barley.

The first beer launched by Mr Fallis proved an outstanding success in Fermanagh and further afield, being listed by top restaurants, bars and off-licences.

This success led to a decision by Mr Fallis to expand the business and form a new partnership with successful local businessman Norman Donaldson, who runs the Old Pal's Bar in Derrygonnelly with his father Steve. It's also meant moving the micro-brewery to bigger premises behind the bar.

"Over the past year we have formed a business partnership making full use of premises at the rear of the bar, to brew, bottle and distribute the beers, and also giving the business a new name, Fermanagh Beer Company, which emphasises that the beers are still brewed in the county," Mr Fallis says.

While Mr Fallis continues to brew and bottle the range of beers by hand, the new premises provide sufficient scope for continuing growth.

The company sources hops from California and malted barley from England. Mr Fallis is also growing hops on the farm nearby for a seasonal brew, Fresh Hop Brew.

In addition to the new Little Dog IPA, the micro-brewery produces its original Fermanagh Beer, a blonde ale, a Lough Erne Brown Porter, a smooth light porter, and Pure Foundered, a Belgium-style blonde beer.

"We've upped production and we're now bottling 5,000 a month with room for further expansion having already improved the level of output since re-establishing the brewery," Mr Fallis continues.

"This is still a micro-brewery producing very special hand crafted beers and we feel there's an increasing demand for this range of beers in the Republic of Ireland, a potential market that will enable us to widen our customer-base and supply catchment area," he adds.