Northern Irish and Finnish brewers collaborate on new ale

Walled City Brewery in Northern Ireland has developed a novel beer in collaboration with one of Finland's leading brewers.

Based in Derry, Walled City, one of Northern Ireland's leading and most innovative craft brewers, has linked up with Tornion Panimo of northern Finland to create a unique Lapland Red Ale (ABV5.5%) in 330ml bottles.

The new beer is based on a traditional Irish red ale and is already on sale in Finland and will soon be available in Northern Ireland.

James Huey, the founder and managing director of Walled City, commenting on the new beer, says: "The collaboration has developed under the EU NICHE Project which promotes and brokers links between food and drink producers throughout Europe that is focused on encouraging innovation.

"As a result of a visit to Finland by a colleague, we were invited by Tornion to work together on a new beer. Tornion is a much bigger brewery and is keen to explore other beers from outside the Finland.

"I found the project very beneficial and I learned a lot working with their brewers on the red ale. I think they also learned from our experience and knowledge as a craft brewer.

"And I am delighted to say that the new collaborative beer is flying off the shelves in Finland because of its outstanding flavour," he adds. "NIICHE is important because it recognises the important role of the food and drink industry across the EU and the role of collaboration in assisting product development and in harnessing technology."

Tornion Panimo was established in 2016 and is based on a heritage of brewing in this part of Lapland stretching back 140 years.

Walled City Brewery was formed in 2015 by Mr Huey and wife Louise and has since developed a portfolio of original beers. It also operates an award-winning restaurant and a homebrew academy at the brewery premises.

The project recognises that a special feature of the food production sector in Europe is that the 99 percent of the enterprises, generating 50 percent of the turnover, are SMEs. Current challenges facing the industry cannot be met by any individual enterprise but require concerted actions and coordination of initiatives.

The NICHE project, which is supported by Derry City and Strabane Council and the North West Regional College in Derry, aims to help the industry to realise its potential by effectively promoting policies in seven European regions where food has been identified as a key sector to apply existing research and innovation strengths.

By working together the NICHE partnership aims, by 2019 and through the improvement of existing policies, to achieve an average 15 percent increase in the adoption of research and innovation solutions by food sector companies in their regions and to give response to the demand of this sector identified as high-potential sector for their smart growth.

Its focus is to provide a framework that brings together all the relevant companies and bodies to facilitate technology and knowledge exchange that will be translated in new products and services.