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Hi

Just wanted to introduce myself, been brewing for the last 8 months, all grain from the start! Have brewed a stout, a red ale, a bitter, a czech pilsner and currently have a lager in a carboy at the moment ready for racking to a corny. I haven't bottled anything at the moment but have a Blichmann gun and intend to put a few bottles into the CBA competition in Derby in April. Fingers crossed feedback will be good.

As a complete novice I've done a lot of research (very few home/craft brewers in my part of the country). Did that Brewlab course in January past over at the Sunderland Uni with a view possibly of having a crack at a small commercial microbrewery - not a bad course. Here's hoping!!

Welcome! I hope you'll find the site useful.

Does the range of styles you've been brewing reflect your commercial ambitions? And where are you living?

Commercial ambitions would be to get a lager out onto the Irish market to begin with. So many lager drinkers out there yet the competition seem to have it sewn up with pasteurised product.

I'm located not far from Belfast in County Down.

I attended the Brewlab course last year and found it quite useful, if a little basic on brewing science. Sadly a lot of the info is of little use to me (and Irish brewers in general) because of the emphasis on cask beer, for which there is essential no market in Ireland.

Best of luck with your endeavours. It's a rough time to think about setting up a microbrewery with the ever increasing cost of raw material and such.

"Blacckhawk":19q4qt8a wrote: Commercial ambitions would be to get a lager out onto the Irish market to begin with. So many lager drinkers out there yet the competition seem to have it sewn up with pasteurised product.[/quote:19q4qt8a]Yeah, but that's not because people like lager. It's because it's either cheap or very heavily marketed. I think a new craft brewer would be mad to bring out a lager because it's such a difficult style to make and it's a tough field to stand out in. The Galway Hooker guys had the right idea, IMO, by making a style that people haven't really had before. At Christmas I was talking to some of my Northern relatives, Harp drinkers all, who had just discovered Hooker and were blown away by it.

Didn't mean to have a go at you in your first thread <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> , I'm just continuing a conversation I've been having with other ICBers in the pub recently.

[quote:3hk4ycu1] I'm just continuing a conversation I've been having with other ICBers in the pub recently.[/quote:3hk4ycu1]We were talking about this last week. Specifically referring to Hooker, I believe they have done well for a few reasons, none of which I have any evidence of, they are just opinions:
1. It is a style of beer which has not been on the draught market before.
2. It is branded as a 'local' beer which helped to get it adopted by locals and tourists in Galway. Furthermore it is local in an Irish context which doesn't hurt. It's so hard to compete with the multinational brewers and their marketing power if you're brewing the same style as them. You're fighting to get the average punter to abandon their mass market brew and yet are you different enough for the craft beer drinker?
3. They only brew one beer so the 'brand' is not diluted.
4. It's a bloody good beer

My thoughts only, I could be wrong on all counts (except #4).

Just one more thing, lager brewing on a small scale is a real headache. A blonde ale that looks and tastes like a lager is practically indistinguishable. If it's yellow and fizzy Joe Public will accept it as a lager.

By the way, welcome to the site <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D --> I don't mean to rain on your parade!!