PowerPoint Presentation

IRISHHOPREVIVAL

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THE HISTORYIreland has been known for centuries as one of the great beer producing nations. With the growth of the beer industry in the 18th century came the growth of grain farming. Wheat, Barley, malt and hops became the crops of choice for Irish farmers as the expanding breweries needed greater and greater quantities of each in order to keep up with increasing demand.The Barrow Valley Region in Carlow was one particular area which, for a time, was Irelands main malt and hop producing area.

THE FADEHowever, after the increase in demand during the 18th and 19th centuries, the 20th century brought global trade to the world and breweries gained access to cheap ingredients from abroad.

The bad weather of the 1930s and the greater accessibility of hops from abroad lead to the hop plant being all but wiped out of Ireland by the end of the decade.

THE LAST In the 1970s a group of four people got together in Kilkenny in order to grow hops for the Guinness Brewery.

Between 3 farms there was over 100 acres of hop plants being grown with over 90 people employed to pick and process the plants during harvest in the late Summer.

Initially the project was successful with Guinness buying up the entire harvest each year and maintaining close contact with the farmers to ensure the best quality.

The problem that doomed the project was not that hops couldnt be grown in Ireland, they could indeed be grown successfully over many years. However as breweries went bigger and bigger, they eventually became so big that if they bought ingredients cheap they could save millions.

The project ended when the farmers decided the risk of losing their contract to Guinness was too great to justify continuing investing in the farm. With all the smaller breweries in Ireland bought up by the larger corporations, there was no other potential buyers.

A REVIVAL? Since 1990 there has been a sort of craft beer revolution going on in Ireland. Consumer demand has shifted from wanting cheap and mass-produced beer to demanding carefully made, small batch beers from microbreweries.The microbreweries have grown exponentially in Ireland to meet this increased demand and combined they have a 1.5 percent market share in beer and cider sales and producers believe they will reach a 5 percent share by the end of 2016.

However the vast majority of these microbreweries still import their hops from abroad

NOW IS THE TIME

The time is right to bring hops back to Ireland once more. Our goal is to provide the growing craft beer industry with the last quality ingredient they need in order to brew a wholly 100% Irish beer.

We want to put the south east of Ireland back on the map as one of the great hop producers by creating a farm, a brand and a taste scale for hops grown in the south east, which brewers can use to inform their consumers.

Depending on which variety is grown and other variables, such as the weather. The flavour of from hops can be widely different. We aim to test every batch of hops harvested and grade it according to our taste scale. This will give a back of the bottle talking point for consumers to compare their own taste experiences.

THE QUALITY MARK

Each individual variety grown will be given its own branding which represents its individuality. The branding will highlight the qualities of each variety and draw upon its history and the country it originated from.This branding can then be used by the brewers as a sub-logo on their bottles as an extra selling point.

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