Starting a Microbrewery in Ireland

Geterbrewed have successfully established themselves as a one stop Microbrewery shop, from the installation of the equipment to the ongoing access of the finest ingredients, including malt, hops, yeast, finings and clarification products. We have installed both Speidel Braumeister Microbreweries and Brewiks Microbreweries in Ireland.

We proudly distribute for Brewiks & Speidel and as we have our own Microbrewery and first hand experience of what it takes to start a brewery in Ireland, we have a wealth of knowledge that means we can advise you correctly on the set up costs and how to make your brewery a success. We have qualified brewers that have degrees in brewing and distilling and consultants that we can use to provide help with everything that is required.

Geterbrewed can save you a lot of time as we have researched the brewing industry in Ireland and can effectively advise on what the best option is for you, we assist with site visits and the installation process, we have plug and brew options that make the start-up very easy. With the talented team we have working with us full time we can provide a first class service, the follow up service we offer is what makes us successful, speak to the brewers we have helped previously, we go above and beyond for our microbrewery customers

Points to Consider before you start a brewery?

· Size of brewery

· Licensing laws & what applications are required

· Locating Premises & ensuring it is suitable for planning permission and Health & Safety

· Planning the site – Size, Power, Drainage

· Recipe development & Ingredients

· Water treatment – this is critically important in making the best beers

· Packaging – bottling & kegging

· Regulating fermentation temperatures

· Distribution & route to market

· Training for the brewers, staff required

· Financing the brewery, is it via Loans, Grants or Investors

Geterbrewed will guide and support you through the whole process if you are working with us for you Microbrewery project

What size of brewery are you considering? We highlight 4 options

1. Brewpub - 200 Litre system brewing beer for sale on the premises

2. Microbrewery - 500 Litre System for distributing beer via trade to both on and off sale in your locality

3. Microbrewery – A 10HL or 20 HL system for professional medium scale distribution, for distributing throughout the country and looking at export opportunities for future growth

4. Contract Brewing – Have another brewery make your beer, this can be an initial option with the aim of leading to owning your own brewery

The dream of running your own brewery has to be backed up with a business plan that sets out your aims from the start, so we suggest you choose your model and plan to make that a success, you can of course use your revenue to grow the business and brewery as funds become available. Output can be greatly increased with the addition of extra fermentation space in the interim as you plan to invest in the next step up. We can work within your budgets and have contacts for sourcing second hand brewing equipment to compliment your package

Option 1 – A brewpub or restaurant producing their own beer.

There is a lot of benefits to this system, you can have the flexibility to brew lots of different styles of beers in small quantities and excite the beer drinkers with new recipes regularly. New recipes on this scale can be very affordable. Geterbrewed can help with recipe development and have a bank of award winning recipes that they can adapt and share to suit your needs. The brewpub option works well as the profit margins are high, the beer is brewed on site and sold usually via draft taps that means packaging and transport costs are at a minimum. We can assist with a kegging option that allows you to brew and ferment the beer on site and then carbonate and keg in small batches.

200 Litre Brew systems mean that the fermenters are small and will need temperature regulation for the fermenters, meaning that it is most likely going to need a system to maintain the heat at a steady fermentation temperature. Geterbrewed have innovative ways of maintaining this heat and can set this up at minimal costs.

Anyone can learn how to use a system of this size and Geterbrewed provide full training on the equipment purchased from them and will attend on the first brewday to ensure you are confident in the use of the system.

Licensing for starting a small brewpub is fairly straight forward, there is some bureaucracy with the paperwork that needs completed but we have experience with how to complete this in a hassle free manner.

Packaging options for very small scale bottling options have been made by our in house engineer, we can now make affordable 5 head fillers that allow you to bottle beer for small scale packaging.

Geterbrewed recommend cold conditioning combined with a fining regime to ensure you are producing consistently impressive beers with a brewery of this size, we can provide help with the cooling system at a low cost and have fining and clarification products in stock

Brewpub Location & Foot fall is critical to success and well best succeed with ease in an already established bar

Option 2 – 500 Litre Microbrewery system

Again perfect for a brewpub or restaurant producing their own beer but the size also allows you to look at selling the beer to trade and even export if pushing the output hard with shift working brewers.

This size of system can be worked very efficiently to produce large volumes of beer, we have used a 500 litre stystem in the past ourselves and worked a double brewday to produce in excess of 1000 litres of beer per day, we actually used the Brewiks 500 litre system to produce 1300 litres per day five days per week, which meant we could comfortably produce 6500 litres of beer per week totaling a huge 338000 litres per year. This is fairly labour intensive to work the system this hard but it is acheiveable.

This size of system lends itself very well to running a range of special beers for periodical release to excite and deliver a new beer to your on and off trade customers

Fermentation tanks are the key point to hard much you can push this system, you can order larger fermenters that will allow you to double brew into them increasing output.

With the experience of using this size of system effectively ourselves we have been able to grow output which has allowed us to use the revenue to help pay for the next size of system.

Geterbrewed recommend you buy pressurized fermenters with this size of system, you can then produce carbonated beer on site which can have a bottling and kegging option added, we have designed a range of addition bottle filling and keg filling attachments that can add value to the pressurized tanks

Option 3 – a 10HL or 20HL Brewhouse for professional medium scale distribution

These size of breweries make it possible to produce some serious volumes of beer.

Geterbrewed just recently ordered a show model 10HL system for their showroom in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

A larger system can mean less staff and of course less wages meaning you can produce more beer in a single brewday and use your own personal time more effectively to grow sales, complete paperwork /invoices etc

Economies come with scale in terms of production costs but be aware that a large scale brewery will require you to have to have a route to market for a large amount of beer. In Ireland there is problems with tap ties and getting draft launched successfully is extremely difficult due to publicans & restaurants taking payments in exchange for exclusive draft agreements. That means you will need to carefully consider your route to market, export will most likely be required to achieve the volumes you need to make it profitable

Geterbrewed have 10HL & 20HL options from Brewiks, the Brewiks company has been making brewing equipment for 27 years, the new generation have been very clever and have designed a highlt effectient brewhouse with innovative technology and industry leading diagnostics. We recommend you join us for a brewday and you will get a feel for the quality of the equipment. We recommend you get the right equipment first time, there is steel fabricators out there that will make a system that is dangerous or problematic due to design flaws as they have tried to copy other breweries without having any formal brewing knowledge. We work with Brewiks as they have the knowledge and experience and lead the way with this size of system.

A Brewiks Microbrewery will draw customers to your location as it is visually pleasing & a beautifully simple machine to operate. Brewiks has upgradeability so in effect you have left open the ability to expand right from the very start.

Option 4 – Contract brewing In Ireland

Lots of breweries offer this service, we have the luxury of multiple size brewing systems at our showroom and brewery and we have contract brewed for Hotels, Restaurants and start up Microbreweries, we even brew one of specials for a range of bars. This leaves you time to focus on sales & marketing of your brand, the key selling point of this way of starting a brewery is that you don’t have to worry about the production or consistency of the quality of the beer. Obviously the brewery making the beer makes a margin but for the unexperienced brewer it may be a good place to start, make sure you highlight from the start it’s a contract brand and show the production trial, craft beer drinkers don’t like to be fooled with false marketing.

At the time of writing this (October 2017), Ireland has 90 breweries in total, 62 Breweries operating and producing beer and 28 contract brands. Northern Ireland has 32 Breweries, 6 of which are contract brand. Only two thirds of these breweries export in small volumes with 3 major breweries making up the majority of export at a rate of about four fifths.

So if we compare this to countries who are further developed craft beer countries it is clear there is still space for many more additional breweries. With the current output share of 3.4% of beer consumption being craft beer, the major challenge appears to me to be production capacity to allow this to increase in Ireland.

The size of startup Microbreweries in Ireland in recent years has consistently been on the increase, further strong growth is expected and predictions of many new microbreweries are still to come. To match share of beer consumption of the likes of America which currently sits at five times that of Ireland you can have confidence that now is a good time to invest and start a microbrewery.

With the recent developments in the Summer of 2017 in licensing and the ability for Irish breweries to now sell their own beer from the brewery it is predicted that this will grow sales further, unfortunately Northern Ireland may take a little longer as they have no sitting government in Stormont.

To conclude it’s an excellent time to start a Microbrewery in Ireland in my opinion but I do personally feel it’s either a brewpub or large scale brewery that are required, my experience is that these are the most profitable and successful. We love to share our knowledge about starting a microbrewery as we are passionate about making a difference in this industry so feel free to contact us for a chat and some help and support, we’d love to work with you on a Microbrewery Project in Ireland.

Brewiks Microbrewery Equipment

· Knowledge & Expertise – the company have been making brewing equipment for the last 27 years

· Extreme Brewing – ability to brew high gravity beers, cereal mashing, Decoction and basically can make any kind of beer you can think of

· Plug & Brew – the smaller 200, 200 & 500 litre system are simply plug and brew

· Designed by brewers

· Minimal Space required plus the smaller systems come on wheels

· Touchscreen Controls

· Highly Efficient & Highly Satisfied Customer Database

· Patented Mixing System which can also adapt to become a keg cleaner

· Impressive Heating System plus Heat Recuperation – perfect for double brewdays

· Easily Cleaned & simple to use

· Hand Made by skilled Slovenian workforce

· Guaranteed – excellent aftercare

· No Moving Parts to break – only the pump which has been designed to be removeable

· Combined Lauter Tun & Whirlpool – mist/fog sparging from a built in heat exchanger, perfect size grain bed, whirlpools correctly producing good clarity wort

· Built in Counter Flow Chiller – real time cooling built into the Brewiks

Speidel Braumeister Microbrewery Equipment

· Well known German manufacturer of brewing equipment

· Principles are nearly identical for all sizes of braumeister

· 5 sizes available – 10, 20, 50, 200, 500

· Everything takes place in one cauldron – Mashing, Lauetring, Boiling, Hop Boiling, Whirlpooling

· Mobile & Easy to Move

· Patented Technology

· Tried & Tested Compact Brewing unit

· Minimal Space Required

· Ideal for Restaurants

· Touch Screen Control Panel