Gift from Northern Irish Mourne Mountains to quench festive thirst
Mourne Mountain Brewery, a leading Northern Irish craft brewer, has launched a new gift pack that features a specially brewed and innovative Christmas Stout.
The attractive gift pack comprises the stout (ABV 7.2%) and three other beers and retails at £10.99. The stout has been stored in a whiskey barrel for almost 12 months.
The other three craft beers are East Coast IPA (ABV 5.5%); Mourne Mist Pilsner (ABV 4.5%) and Red Trail IPA (5.5%). All bottles are 330ml.
Based at Warrenpoint in county Down, Mourne Mountains Brewery brews and packages all its beers on-site. They combine water from the iconic Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland's famed mountain range, with the finest barley and wheat malts, hop varieties sourced from around the world, and speciality yeast strains to give each beer its own special character and flavour.
Founded by Warrenpoint businessman Connaire McGreevy in 2015, the craft brewery recently won business with Marks and Spencer as well as Bib Gourmand restaurants.
The brewery is currently producing upwards of 250,000 bottles of beer a year to meet existing demand and expects that to grow significantly over the next few years.
Mourne Mountains Brewery is one of only five Northern Ireland-based craft breweries to achieve the Safe and Local Supplier Approval (Salsa) accreditation award, which allows the sale of products to national retailers which demand the accreditation from their small suppliers.
The brewery produces Mourne Gold, a pale ale; Mourne Mist, a Pilsner; Red Trail, the red IPA; East Coast, an IPA; and Big Rock, a German-style wheat beer as the core range, with regular limited edition specials released throughout the year, the latest being its whiskey barrel-aged Christmas Stout.
Red Trail red IPA won two stars at the Great Taste Awards 2016, the only beer from Northern Ireland to achieve that accolade that year. And East Coast IPA, which is included in the Sainbury's range, won a silver medal at the 2016 Alltech Dublin Craft Beer Cup.