So It Has Been A While

It’s a little over two years since we launched at the Easterfest in the Franciscan Well, at this point it’s fair to say we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we started.

Obligatory festival picture, here at Brewers on the Bay

Initially when we set up the brewery we had to take out a loan, this process involved a lot of form filling and conjecture. Essentially success or failure of our application was based on our assumptions of how much beer we would sell. Obviously we had hopes and expectations but it was practically impossible for us to predict if people would like our beer, or if publicans would be willing to give us an opportunity by putting a tap in their pub.

It was very difficult for us to imagine two years ago that we would have so many pubs and off-licenses that would be stocking our beer and so many people supporting what we do.

Over the last two years our sales have continued to grow and grow, and this has meant that we have now gone from occupying one very small space in Allenwood, to occupying three small spaces in Allenwood. During this time we have put in place the facilities to double our production capacity from what it was originally.

Here's to the RDS Festival in 2012

While we pride ourselves on making the highest quality beer and giving great customer service, it is also fair to say that we have been caught up in a serious craft beer revolution. It might be clichéd, but I really feel like we are part of a movement with more and more people coming to realise the variety and quality of beer available to the craft beer drinker. This has resulted in a surge of demand for beer from all over the country, leaving us and the other craft breweries a little stretched, but in a good way naturally.

Over the past couple of weeks alone we have put new lines into two new craft beer bars in Cork (The Crane Lane Theatre and The Mardyke), one in Drogheda (WM Cairnes & Son) and one in Navan (The Central Bar). We have been working our portable bar hard at Bloom 2012, Brewers on the Bay, Whiskey Live, the Yelp Back-yard Bazaar and have supplied beer for the festival in the Porterhouse.

We were ready to go for Bloom 2012

Now is clearly not a time to for sitting around drinking beer, (for us anyway), over the next six months we are looking forward to introducing a new beer and a couple of seasonal beers. A bigger, bolder Trouble Maker competition will crown a new champion of Irish homebrew in 2013 (we might even buy a trophy). Plans are also in place to increase our capacity even further. It’s all go at Trouble HQ.

For your continued support we are grateful!

Stephen.