A Co Antrim brewery is breaking new ground in the Irish drinks scene with a new range of complex barrel-aged beers.
Get ‘Er Brewed co-founder Johnathan Mitchell said the latest range from their Randalstown operation bridges the gap between beer and wine.
The ‘Our Brewery’ range will be presented in a special wine and food pairing event at Sleepy Hollow Restaurant in Newtownabbey next week.
Jonathan and his wife and partner Deborah Mitchell have been prominent figures in the north’s craft brewery scene for more than a decade.
Their business story started with home brewing kits in the attic of their Antrim home, where they noticed a gap in the market.
“We increasingly found it difficult to get access to ingredients,” recalled Jonathan.
“So we set up a small e-commerce web shop selling ingredients to home brewers only.”
From selling ingredients and small kits to home brewers, ‘Get ‘Er Brewed’ grew into an operation that now supplies hundreds of tonnes of malt to breweries and distilleries from a site outside Randalstown.
Their business also supplies and installs turn-key commercial brewing kits, with their work on display in two of Belfast’s best-known brew-pubs, the Deer’s Head and Out of Office, based above the Ulster Sports Club.
The couple also brew their own range of core beers under the ‘Our Brewery’ brand.
Originally launched in 2022, the award-winning range is available in Tesco and in select hospitality venues around the north.
The ‘Our Brewery’ range has now expanded with the Mitchell’s most ambitious products to date, brewed from the kit on display in their own Randalstown showroom.
“I have a passion for spontaneous and wild styles of beer. And I thought, let’s put the showroom into operation,” said Jonathan.
The beer has been brewed using unique and wild processes with premium quality ingredients and aged for years in oak foeders and barrels that previously held red wine.
Jonathan said the result is some really impressive complexity.
“These beers only work with time, patience and attention to detail,” he said.
“We wanted them to age for a couple of years in the oak and allow the development of really complex flavours.
“The idea was premium quality ingredients, no corners cut, no fast tracking, just letting nature and the environment around the brewery effect the quality of the ingredients we use and then use them in these beautiful oak foeders.”
After 27 months in oak and four months in champagne bottles, the first batch has just gone out to trade customers.
But next week will see the range presented to beer enthusiasts in a curated six course menu at Sleepy Hollow restaurant, where each course will be matched with a beer.
“This is premium quality liquid,” added Jonathan. “’Bridging the gap between beer and wine.
“If someone likes the complexity of premium quality wine, they will appreciate these beers.”
He said one of the beers has been based on a Lithuanian recipe.
“That beer has got such lovely velvety flavours and textures to it. There’s caramel, toffee, rum notes in it… It’s just not like anything you will have tried in the beer format.
“It’s definitely something that’s totally different and something to enjoy at a special moment.”
The Our Brewery x Sleepy Hollow six course beer tasting menu will be served on October 10. Limited spaces are available at £75 per head. Book via sleepyhollowrestaurant.com.