TOPIC:

Very interesting reading, those figures. Now the question is what can be done to attempt to replicate those conditions (or at least the ones that are likely to help) in Ireland?

It's something to strive for. But it's very difficult to do just about anything in Ireland. The amount of red tape is suffocating, and the state bodies make life very difficult.

Export will be key to major success for any Irish craft brewers. Having your own pub helps no end, but the cost of a license makes this damn near impossible for anyone starting on a small budget.

"bigears":tpfycabk wrote:

"jspruit":tpfycabk wrote: and a system that allows for cheaper bottling opportunities...[/quote:tpfycabk]Jake, what system is that? Just wondering how it could be applied over here, if at all. It's a shame more Irish craft beer isn't available to take home.[/quote:tpfycabk]

To be honest, I actually should admit that I don't know that much about bottling. I do know that there are alot of small breweries/brewpubs here (as indicated by the beernut's figures), and more than a few of them seem to be bottling. They might have contract brewing with someone larger, I'm not sure. I've seen a few of the bottling operations in the country and they're just set up in large barns/industrial types buildings. Maybe they had lots of equipment already in the country, maybe it is cheaper to get licensing here, or maybe they just have more money-I'm not sure really. I do know that more than one of the breweries got some its funding from sort of an IPO-publicly owned shares system when they needed to upgrade facilities; I don't know how that would fare in Ireland though. I'm in the country now for Christmas so I'll see if I can find something out. Is it the cost of license and red tape that hendrixcat refers to the most difficult obstacles to bottling back in Ireland? Or is there also a shortage of facilities and the cost of getting them too much?

"jspruit":2n5n2ho6 wrote:

"bigears":2n5n2ho6 wrote:

"jspruit":2n5n2ho6 wrote: and a system that allows for cheaper bottling opportunities...[/quote:2n5n2ho6]Jake, what system is that? Just wondering how it could be applied over here, if at all. It's a shame more Irish craft beer isn't available to take home.[/quote:2n5n2ho6]

I'm in the country now for Christmas so I'll see if I can find something out.[/quote:2n5n2ho6]

I spoke with a few guys that brew/bottle in Denmark over the Christmas break and they said that the smaller Danish breweries are getting their beer bottled in various ways:
1. Teaming up with a larger Danish brewery to use their bottling facilities (and sometimes contract brewing as well as TheBeerNut has referred to in the past I think.)
2. Having their beer brewed and bottled in Belgium or elsewhere in the EU.
3. Buying small CIMEC and Meheen bottling lines themselves.
4. Many of them actually hand bottle and gravity condition their beer on gravity fillers.

The last two options I am quoting verbatim from a guy brewing/bottling in Copenhagen as I don't know the technical aspects of bottling. I was also told that a couple of years ago when Danish breweries were popping up left and right (and making money hand over fist), some of them bought these small bottling lines only to go under shortly thereafter when the Danish craftbrew market resettled (see TheBeerNut's figures at the beginning of the post.) I was told that there are actually a few of these bottling lines that are in disuse in Denmark that could be had for less than 10,000 Euro, if someone had that sort of money.

Nice work, jspruit, and interesting reading.

Good ol' no. 2 eh? We know a bit about that here. EBCU are a bit exercised at the moment about the issue of what constitutes a brewery -- I guess the Danish branch has been counting firms using methods 1 and 2 as actual breweries, which they're not. And not that it makes a whole lot of difference from the drinker's point of view: Mikkeller is still fantastic Danish beer even if the guy doesn't have his own set-up.

"TheBeerNut":1out6egn wrote: Mikkeller is still fantastic Danish beer even if the guy doesn't have his own set-up.[/quote:1out6egn]Yes it is, what is his set up?