First black IPA in cans from Northern Irish brewery

Hillstown Brewery in Northern Ireland has teamed up with a coffee business to launch an innovative beer in cans featuring a new identity.

The craft brewery, which is based on a family farm near Randalstown in county Antrim, has launched Pamoja, a black IPA (ABC 5.6%) in 330ml cans (RRP £2) aimed primarily at the off-trade in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The company is also hoping to sell the new black IPA to Great Britain. This is the company's first venture into canning beer.

The black IPA uses Kenyan coffee from the Middletown Coffee Company in nearby Ballymena for a distinctively bitter sweet fruity flavour.

"The cans give us something quite different," says Nigel Logan of Hillstown Brewery.

"Pamoja is a beautifully complex beer that delivers various layers and depths of flavour. The Black IPA is perfectly balanced with an initial upfront hit of fruity hops, underpinned by a delicious malt presence and, then the exciting part: the coffee.

"We have been looking for different flavours that would help set us apart in a very competitive craft beer marketplace. We also decided on a different identity for the cans and came up with an African look featuring zebras in an unusual branding that's quite different from any craft beers on the shelves here and in the Republic.

The initial taste is bitter from the hops, with a beautifully fruity and floral aroma. The beer has a complex malt profile along with hop bitterness, the complexity is completed with the finish of coffee at the end.

"Pamoja is also the Swahili for collective especially with the off-trade. The collective is Hillstown and Middletown Coffee. We decided to concentrate on our six-strong range of 500ml bottle conditioned beers as the offering for major supermarkets. The off-trade has been pushing us for a specific product. The colourful Pamoja cans are a direct response to this request.

The Pamoja cans and the bottled beers are being distributed in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by leading wholesaler Drinks Inc in Belfast. The coffee is roasted by 3fe in Dublin for Middletown.

The beer is brewed with the finest base malts from the Malting Company of Ireland and new Bavarian speciality malts from IREKS which haven't been used before in the UK or Ireland - combined with the finest hops from all around the globe. Pamoja Black IPA is available 24 X330ml cans.

The farm also uses spent grain from the brewing operation to feed cattle for its own wagyu-style meats.