State agri food agency Teagasc has opened a new research centre to aid Irish brewers and distillers to develop new beers and whiskeys to keep pace with changing consumer tastes.
Martin Heydon, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, opened the centre, at Teagasc’s Oakpark facility in Co Carlow at the weekend.
The National Centre for Brewing and Distilling includes equipment for testing grains for malting to allow the production of small batches for the craft beer and spirits industries.
Irish producers previously had to go abroad for such resources. Teagasc plans to buy and install equipment for brewing and de-alcoholising this year.
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Speaking after the opening, Mr Heydon, whose department invested €2.3 million in the centre, pointed out that the research would involve the use of native grains, which was important for Irish agriculture.
He noted that third-level students who wanted to take courses in brewing and distilling would also be able to use the centre.
“In 2010, we had two distilleries in the whole country, now we have 40-plus. These companies need to train their staff and have had to send them abroad,” he said.
Mr Heydon stressed that work on new products was key to maintaining a strong drinks industry in the Republic. A rapidly growing market for non-alcoholic drinks opened new opportunities for these businesses, he said.
And against a background where the risk of tariffs on European exports to the US was growing, he argued that the Irish industry needed to build new markets.
Mr Heydon said brewing and distilling offered benefits to tillage farmers who grow the grains that the industry needs.
The Minister’s department has also provided €925,000 for laboratory equipment at Teagasc’s Food Research Centre at Moorepark in Co Cork to analyse factors influencing flavours and aromas. This, he said, would give “valuable information on the characteristics that make Irish whiskey a quality product”.
Teagasc’s Oakpark centre focuses on tillage farming. Frank O’Mara, the organisation’s director, said developing higher value markets for that part of the industry was a priority of its crop research programme.
“Increasing the use of Irish grain” by the drinks industry was “one of the areas we have been researching”, he said.
