Belfast Beer & Cider Festival

With such a successful launch of the Lacada beer in October of this year I was thrilled to hear that we would be showcasing our range at the CAMRA Beer & Cider Festival held at the Ulster Hall in the centre of Belfast from Thursday 19th - Saturday 21st November.

This annual event showcases real ales and ciders from the four corners of the UK and NI and from what I had heard from past attendees is a chance for beer geeks far and wide to critique, quaff, drink and be merry. So naturally I was intrigued and felt no better reason to escape the drudgery of work than attending the festival.

I had visited the brewery weeks before the event and watched in curiosity as Laurie and Phil prepared the firkins of ale, these were to be left in the brewery’s warm room to condition in anticipation for the masses. The day had been marked with a big red X in the diary and the time had come for rounding up as many co-owners as possible for this boozy pilgrimage.

The 'Lacada Armada' set sail for Belfast on the Thursday morning, the first day of the event, with the clear intention of tasting as many types of ales as possible. Well that was my intention anyway and much to the bemusement of the others I was armed with a printed list of the ales, all rated with several highlighted as 'must try'.

Having arrived in Belfast early afternoon we filled our fuel tanks with grub from the City Hall market and headed around the corner to the venue for liquid refreshment...let the quaffing commence forsooth!

The stillage was a sight to behold, the tower of firkins stood centre place in the Hall rising up towards the ceiling holding upwards of 90 ales, 26 of which were locally brewed. Wrapped around this was a bar with an unending array of pumps. It was great to see the Lacada pumps as soon as you walked through the door, they couldn’t have been placed in a better position.

The Lacadians rallied and began the marathon quaff! At one stage Heather (our chairperson) was in one corner doing a media interview and Laurie in another deep in conversation with other brewers from Farmageddon and Hillstown in what eventually got coined as 'brewers’ corner'... literally a corner of the bar! All the while another co-owner Roy Willighan was doing his best behind the bar to aid in the quenching of everybody’s thirst.

I made my way through about 20 different beers some excellent some not so excellent. All 3 of the Lacada range tasted fantastic (not biased in anyway) other favourites of mine were the Darkstar range, deliciously hoppy and well balanced, the Farmageddon Mosaic IPA and the Salopian Oracle.

The eventual winner decided by the CAMRA representatives was the Elland 1872 Porter a fantastic rich complex number with coffee and choc flavours, well deserved, I gotta say though (again not being biased!) Lacada’s Stranded Bunny Porter tasted as good if not better than the winner.

Having sampled as many beers as the belly and mind would allow some of us headed back to the North Coast, and so it was up anchor and homeward bound, a fantastic day’s revelry was had by all.

It was great to hear really strong, positive feedback from strangers and CAMRA reps alike about the Lacada range and how well they tasted. Proof being that all six firkins were sold out by the Saturday, a resounding success I would say.

Onwards and upwards.

Neil "Hamy" Hamilton

Topsham Ales Visitor To Lacada

So it finally came to brewing on our kit, now alone to get on with it and prove ourselves.

What a lovely surprise then to be visited by a brewer from another co-operative brewery. Robert Patterson is a brewer with Topsham Ales in Exeter, Devon. He had spotted our co-op brewery on Facebook and, on a visit here he popped into to Kiwis Brew Bar in Portrush and they told him how to find us. The strange thing is, I had spoken to a colleague of his at Topsham Ales about two years ago to pick their brains about how a co-op brewery works and what their experience was. So to have Robert turn up out of the blue was a real surprise.

Robert Patterson of Topsham Ales

And on a long day, after many long days, it was a real boost to hear from him that we had made a great start in setting up our wee brewery.

He realised the amount of planning that went into getting the layout design just right. And he thought some of the small English start-up breweries would yearn for a brewery such as ours.  

So thank you Robert for visiting, we look forward to seeing you again on your next trip home to witness Lacada’s journey and growth. You are very welcome!

You are very welcome!

Building our wee brewery

Here’s the photo album of the journey to get our first ever beers ready for you all.

It’ll not be long now, all the bottling is done. Just some labelling to go and the beer is conditioning away all the while. The yeast is doing its bit getting the beer ready for you. 

Are you ready for it?

All cleared and ready, tidy looking isn’t it?

After Paul and the boys brought their sledge hammers!

The welcoming party

What do we do next then?

ElectricianS at work

Now that’s a tidy job!

Drainage Channels?…check

That’s Paul our builder at work

Our lovely shiny Brewing Kit – just arrived!

Hammy admiring his work with the paint gang

Getting plugged in

Nearly there…

Mark our happy PBC install guy

Hops have arrived!

Happy as Laurie!

Inside the mash tun for the very first time

Getting ready to bottle

All bottled and ready for labelling – Phew!

Co-operative Alternatives AGM

It seems a long time ago now that I made my way to the launch of the Northern Ireland branch of a Co-operative Business Hub in the Nerve Centre in Derry. It was November 2012 and I had gone along with the tentative idea of running a brewery along Co-operative lines, without much knowledge of what structure that would involve. There I met Tiziana O’Hara and Jo Bird of the Hub and their enthusiasm and the inspiring talks at the launch led me to forming a small group to look at starting a Co-operative brewery. At the time, there were very few Co-operative businesses or societies in Northern Ireland so we were entering new territory, particularly when it came to running a Community Share Offer. The examples we had to go on were all across the water.

Fast forward to the present and we are on the brink of installing our brewery and making it to market with a vibrant Co-ownership of 229 of us all eager to see Lacada do well. As for the Co-op Business Hub, they morphed into a new organization called Co-Operative Alternatives UK with an office in Belfast. They are still Tiziana and Jo and they continue to give brilliant and informed support to both emerging and existing co-ops. They had their first AGM on 25th June and they had invited a speaker from each of the four successful Community Share Offers that have run in Northern Ireland over the past 12 months.

First to speak was Matt Dick, the Head Brewer of Boundary. He explained the provenance of the idea of Boundary and talked about the success of their Share Offer. The AGM was actually in Boundary’s brewery on the Newtownards Road in Belfast so that was great as far I was concerned. I had a good look around and a great chat with Matt and we’re going to help each other out with a few things in the near future. It’s really cool to have another co-operative brewery and that is something I touched upon in my little talk to the audience, namely how the success of Boundary’s Community Share Offer was good for us. Of course, I mentioned the other major factors as well – more people joining with expertise in key areas; more Directors again with key expertise; a marketing committee to widen the reach of the Share Offer; more money coming in; the fantastic website; more co-owners joining thus building a momentum.

The other speakers were Karen Arbuckle from Northern Ireland Community Energy. They aim to provide solar roof panel installations to community buildings. Their Share Offer finished on 19th June and they raised £150k. Next was James Orr of Down to Earth.  They will bury you in a cardboard box and plant a tree on top of you - only if you want that, of course. James made some very interesting points about the subject, not least the experience of woodland burial sites showing that they very quickly went from being taken up by pagans and 'alternative' types to being accepted and used by the ‘mainstream’. It was easy to see why from photos of existing sites. What’s not to like about a woodland with its trees and flowers?

So, overall it was a smashing day of Co-operative people coming together. Folks, we are amongst the first people to begin Co-operatives in this part of the world. In the last 12 months there have been four successful Community Share Offers raising a total of over £350k and as we go from strength to strength it will be a great source of pride to us all to say, and show, to others that co-operation works!

Laurie Davies (Director)

ABV15 Beer Festival

Last week on Friday 22nd May, 3 intrepid adventurers set off from Portrush to Belfast on the mid-day train en route to ABV Fest, a brand new beer festival taking part in the Titanic Drawing Offices.

We had been very excited for this day to arrive for quite a while, as not only had the event been sold out for over a month prior, but just the anticipation for what we knew was surely to be a unique and incredible event for beer in our country after seeing what breweries were going to be in attendance.

After arriving in Belfast, a swift pint was acquired in The Hudson and with another fellow Lacadian collected we set off towards The Titanic Quarter.

Probably arriving a good few minutes later than planned due to our built-in “North Coast” Sat-Nav not working very well, we found the amazing venue and well… this was our ABV15 as noted on our very nicely designed and presented festival menu cards.

OH YES!!
Love it x2
Tart
Average
Champagne of the North AKA the beer side of Prosecco
Crisp IPA for me
Fresh & clean, very good
Top notch for a low ABV
Pretty damn special
Uuum? Cherry Ale
Decent, a bit sweet?
Sour
Good
Top job
Derivative, generic, BUT!, why are the beers so cold?
Nice lager, very clean
Just about the beer side of syrup
Jedi knight stuff, well sour
TBH I didn't pay too much for that
Big rhubarb aroma and taste
So, so
Aaaahh, ooofff, errr, oooookaaay, think I'll have another... 4 the road
Awesome, belter
All dayer
Good IPA
Bitter…Fleg!
Hefty & Boozy
Sulphur, but good
Peppery, smokey
Solid
Kernel is better
Only a stout could taste anything like it
Light with an almost milkly mouth feel
Unreal sourness
Peppery, big body
THE BIG DOG. An outrage!

Laurie's Top 3:
Kinnegar - White Rabbit
Marble - We Are (Magic Rock Collab)
The Kernel - Table Beer

Hammy's Top 3:
Magic Rock - Cannonball IPA
The Kernel - Table Beer
Galway Bay - 200 Fathoms

Greg's Top 3:
Beavertown - Bloody ‘Ell
Siren - Half Mast
Galway Bay - 200 Fathoms

Jack's Top 3:
Galway Bay - 200 Fathoms
White Gypsy - Belgian Scarlet Sour
Buxton Brewery - Pic Tor

We'd just like to say a massive congratulations to Matt, Michael, Darren, Felicia, and anyone else that helped out in arranging such an amazing beer festival (as well as the amazing food on offer). We are very much looking forward to ABV16 already!

Laurie, Hammy, Greg & Jack

The ramblings of a Portrush man who loves beer...

Introducing a new blogger for Lacada, one of our co-owners Erol Bucukoglu. It charts his first discovery of Craft Beer...

Ireland, the two beer state - Guinness or Heineken?

I know that's slightly unfair, we have a number of stouts available; Guinness, Beamish and Murphys being the best known, a plethora of lagers and a few red ales. But for me, it's the stout really matters, it’s our national drink, the beer renowned around the world for being Irish.

St Patricks Day, Six Nations rugby, GAA, Summer, Winter; a pint of stout is the finest drink known to man the nectar of gods, brewed in Ireland, perfected in tiny country pubs around the Emerald Isle. Am I getting carried away here?

What makes stout so interesting to me and other stout lovers is the care and pride required to store, pour and serve the perfect pint. It's such an important aspect of the drink that people like me will travel the length and breadth of the country in search of the perfect pint of stout. Points awarded for temperature, time to settle, creamy smooth head and of course taste.

I’ve traveled to the four corners of Ireland in search of the perfect pint, a task I take on all in the name of research although I can hear the cynics now. From the giant hostelries of Dublin, the buzzing pubs of Galway, Cork & Belfast to the unassuming one room pubs of Donegal....I’ve been up mountains, across water, down valleys, well there's a slight exaggeration there but you're getting the drift...

Always in the back of my mind was this overriding desire to establish an out and out winner or at the very least some form of stout league table and whilst this will sound very strange indeed I’m pleased to announce I have achieved neither! As odd as this may sound I found a sort of comfort in my defeat, the pressure was off!

In hindsight this was an impossible task because there are far too many unquantifiable, immeasurable and intangible variables that contribute to the perfect pint. Location, the company, the time of day, the friendliness of the barman, the smell of the peat fire... I could go on and on

So the only possible winner could have ever been.....me! As cheesy as this sounds I honestly feel that in my journey to uncover the perfect stout I’ve had the great fortune to meet some lovely, friendly, interesting people who have showed me that community is still alive and kicking across the Isle and the pride locals , young and old hold in their local stout is heartwarming and a reminder that it's not just a drink, it is an embodiment of everything Irish.

Onwards & Upwards

Not one to sit still and not one to be deterred I have now turned to a new challenge. Craft Beer! As a beer lover, it’s a bandwagon I was only too delighted to jump on for the ride. A new kid is in town.

Over the last few years I’ve noticed the number of taps at the bar have slowly been increasing. The fridges behind the bar have been filling up. The colours and advertising in pubs and clubs around Ireland have been changing. Its not a lager, its not a stout or a red ale, it’s a new world order, a movement changing the face of beer.

First developed in America as microbrew in response to the English real ale movement, the craft brewer was initially defined by the American Brewers Association as “small, independent and traditional”; only to be redefined a couple of years later as undefinable. I know I’m paraphrasing but in essence, that’s the beauty of craft beer, its undefinable, just brew what you have to hand and innovate.

Ireland appears to be embracing this new world order. Rising to the challenge, creating newer and tastier beers city to city, town to town, everywhere seems to be brewing beer and it's fantastic!

So, off I go again, I have a new goal! To uncover and hopefully taste as many craft ales as is possible in Ireland in a bid to understand whether we can or even want to break away from being a two beer country and truly embrace craft beer. I know I know, I can hear you now, that man is selfless and all in the name of research.

First Stop - Cork and the monster Rising Sons Brewery; Big beer, Small Batches is their catch phrase and in the Rising Sons on Cornmarket Street you don’t just get to taste the beer but you can see it being made with huge vats capable of brewing 50 kegs of craft ale are the backdrop behind the bar. The only recognisable brand in the pub was Heineken, and the kind lady behind the bar explained that they need to stock Heineken to please the less adventurous lager drinker but in most cases their own Sunbeam Pils will turn even the most ardent Heineken fan to craft beer. A very fine pilsner it was too; crisp, dry with a lovely aftertaste.

The house stout option, Mi Daza, is described as a traditional cork stout originally brewed in the 1850s. I found the beer to be full of flavour and lighter than Guinness which meant I could drink more:-) The house IPA though was my favourite drink of the evening, Handsum IPA it’s called, bursting with hops, not too heavy but with enough body and flavour to send chills down the spine. The amber ale is called Steeple Hemp, a lovely amber colour, rich in malt and hops and again full of flavour.

The lady behind the bar was extremely friendly and so knowledgeable about beer, everything from the process to the ingredients. She could tell me where each of the hops used were grown, the type of hops used, how the flavours are created. An absolute mine of beery information and in the end gave me a couple of rising sons engraved glasses to take home. Now be honest, you don't find much of that these days, it was both impressive and refreshing.

My favourite beer so far? Handsum IPA, but it's early days and I’m going to enjoy this journey.

To be continued….