Brewing in Laois: ‘We weren’t really affected by the pubs closing’

The Walsh-Kemmis family arrived in Ireland with the Normans, lived in Kilkenny for a few hundred years and then came up-country in 1639, according to David Walsh-Kemmis, the 13th generation of his family to farm at Ballykilcavan in Stradbally, Co Laois.

The 440-hectare mixed farm used to supply barley to St James’s Gate, but prices were poor. “I felt we needed to do something else to survive, so now all of the barley we grow is specifically for us and for Waterford Distillery, who use it to make a single-farm whiskey.” Walsh-Kemmis says.

They built their own brewery in the old grain store in September 2018. Water is supplied by their own well, and virtually all of the barley (other than a few speciality malts) comes from the farm. They even have a small hop garden which provides hops for their annual fresh hop beer. At least three generations of the family have grown barley here. It is malted in Minch’s, 11km away.

Visitor centre

“Overall, we are doing okay,” Walsh-Kemmis says. “Almost all of what we do is in bottle or can, so we weren’t really affected by the pubs closing. It’s a very crowded marketplace but we are small and have an interesting story with a genuine farm and family provenance. Our plan was always to build slowly. We had hoped to open a visitor centre and tap room in the 240-year-old farm buildings later this year. That might now be pushed back into 2021.”

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In the longer term they plan to open a food hub where artisan producers can sell their wares, and offer walks in the mature woodlands.

The Ballykilcavan beers are widely available through independent off-licences and online from Beercloud, Craftcentral and Thebeerclub. See their excellent website, ballykilcavanbrewing.com, for a comprehensive list of stockists.

On May 14th, they will release an American-style raspberry wheat beer, the first of a limited edition series called Clancy’s Cans, after five generations of the Clancy family that have worked, and still work, on the farm. The rest of the range is very good too, the Bambrick’s Brown Ale being a personal favourite of mine.