‘The Low Down’: 12 Acres Brewing Company
12 Acres Brewing Company is a new family based farm enterprise in Killeshin, Co Laois. We are in the process of setting up a craft microbrewery on our family farm. This would be the first microbrewery of its kind in County Laois. We have a natural spring water source on site and the farm produces malting barley for the brewing and distilling industries. These are the two main ingredients for producing beer. We have developed and tested some unique local recipes, using our own raw materials as the main ingredients, to brew and sell on a commercial scale.
We hope to create up to 5-7 rural jobs within 5 years and Laois Enterprise board have been very supportive of our business plan to date. The craft beer market in Ireland is going through a period of huge growth and currently holds under 1% of the beer market, industry experts expect that in the coming years this figure will grow up to 10% in line with other countries.
In the short term we have contracted with a microbrewery in Co Cork to brew and package our beer with our own ingredients until we have our own microbrewery operational. Our first beer 12 Acres Pale Ale is available in a number of retail outlets throughout Laois, Carlow and Kilkenny and is being distributed through a local Laois distributor Tully’s Wholesale in Arles (0599147744). Our Pale Ale was very well received at Portlaoise Craft Beer festival in Kavanaghs Pub recently. Another local company Penhouse Design in Stradbally designed our logo, branding and labels also. A list of our stockists can be found on our Facebook and Twitter pages.