We're delighted and proud to share this video produced by Ulster University Students as part of their project. #collaboration #cooperation #craftbeer We hope you enjoy this wee glimpse of our brewery.
Where will this Bunny go next? In a recent collaboration with Ulster University the students took him out for the day. He seems to have enjoyed his trip.
It’s been a big few weeks for everyone at the brewery with our first ever special having just been released. We have just launched “Utopian Stout” which is part of our new Limited Edition “Salamander Series” to selected outlets. This stout is an 8%, full bodied, medium dry Export Stout with a silky smooth mouthfeel and dark chocolate & coffee notes. Our Brewer Laurie has been working on the recipe for this for some time and we are very proud of how it has turned out, and it taking pride of place in being the first of many more specials to come as part of this small batch series.
For this new series we wanted to look at a suitable way of presenting these new bottles which will be released in very limited one-off quantities. Due to limitations, both practically and financially, of doing very small quantity print runs of the labelling, we decided to go for a generically branded main bottle label that will be the same across the multiple specials in the series, but to use a small coloured neck and over-cap label that identifies the individual beer, it’s type, ingredients, and ABV.
I recently had the pleasure of visiting our label printing partners NuPrint, based in Derry/Londonderry, who have done such a great job in already producing our 3 main core beer labels for our IPA, Golden Ale and Porter.
Having been involved with the graphic design process of many items at Lacada since the brewery’s inception, it was very exciting for me personally to actually get to visit their production facility and see these new Salamander Series labels being produced on the presses and coming off the print line as the finished product.
As many print designers will know, you normally send a printing job off from the comfort of your studio seat and screen, and in the majority of cases the next time you see it, it’s nicely packaged and delivered from the printers onto your desk or to the client directly. So it was very interesting seeing the process from start to finish, and watching the machines and highly skilled operators preparing our labels.
You really have to see the new bottles and labels to appreciate how nicely they turned out with lots of lovely gold foil being the core design & print elements being used to give this new series that special look and feel.
By using NuPrint we are also very proud to be supporting another local Northern Ireland based business, and that is something that our Co-Operative takes pride in being able to source and use as many local suppliers and businesses as we possibly can. We currently purchase our bottles and cardboard boxes from Northern Ireland companies, some of our malt comes from this island, and we also use printers from across NI to produce our marketing materials and merchandise supplies.
I would like to personally thank Paul, Conor, and all the production team at NuPrint for facilitating my visit, and you can view some photos below of production and the final bottle.
Make sure to go out and buy yourself some Utopian Stout! It not only looks good with our new labeling, but is an extremely tasty and well accomplished beer in my opinion.
Keep an eye out for many more different brews in the Salamander Series being released over the coming months.
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
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!
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!
