The primary aim of the Geterbrewed Brewers Collaboration Series is to showcase our valued customers and provide them with some marketing support to help collectively lift the Irish Craft Beer Scene. In our latest feature we have worked with Dundalk Bay Brewery
Who are Dundalk Bay?
Marketed as the brand Brewmaster they are an independent family run business based in Dundalk, co founded by Father & Daughter team Tony Healy & Faye Healy. They have a unique position in the market in that they also own Spectac International which is a Stainless Steel Engineering company with great industry experience in the manufacturing and designing of breweries and distilleries. Dundalk bay has a 50 HL brewhouse and distillery on site with large scale expansion plans. They have Brewmaster & Ravenrock Spirits as their current brands
Tell us about the Dundalk Bay Team?
My interactions would be with the Owners, Brewers and Quality Management team. Tony has a wealth of industry knowledge in terms of engineering brewing and distilling equipment in the Irish Craft Beer Scene and he has built a facility that is impressive allowing for large scale production & packaging. Faye is the Managing Director of the company and is driven to push the brewery and distillery to build the brand. Recently Dave Guilfoyle has came on board as head brewer and Dave is a well recognised talented Irish Brewer with a lot of experience, he is already putting out some incredible quality specials and I’m excited to see how he fine tunes the recipes in the near future. Tanya looks after quality control with incredible attention to detail and ensures you are getting a high quality product consistently as she works closely with production and packaging. The sales team have been pushing hard recently and I got chatting to Cillian the brand ambassador to hear that things are very positive for the brand, you get to meet the team in the youtube video.
So what was the focus of this collaboration?
In terms of the beer style we had decided on brewing a summer sour, this is something that Dundalk Bay hadn’t brewed before so it seemed like a great style to experiment with and also given the time of year it was fitting to brew a super refreshing low abv sour to be enjoyed in the sunshine, be that in the garden at home or beer garden with friends. Sour beers have started to rise to popularty in the Irish Craft Beer Scene with many none beer drinkers being attracted to these fruity sour and tart yet super refreshing and tasty beers. Attracting a non beer drinker into the Irish Craft Beer scene can only be positive for the industry , you’ll be surprised at how many people enjoy a sour beer when they try it for the first time
The Ingredients used in the collaboration brew?
Malt – Crisp German Pilsen and Crisp Wheat Malt for the malt bill – Traditional 50/50 Pilsen/Wheat malt split
Hops – Amarillo to impart those delicate orange notes
Bacteria – Lallemands Helvetica Bacteria – Kettle sour process brewing the beer over two days to allow the bacteria to drop the ph in the kettle before continuing to the boil process
Yeast – Verdant IPA Yeast from Lallemand it imparts a beautiful Apricot flavour to the beer
Fruit Puree – Mango & Passionfruit – The passionfruit adds a note of perceived bitterness and the combination is delightful
What is a kettle sour?
Kettle souring is achieved after you have mashed your grains and created the wort, at this stage you drop the temperature of the wort in the kettle to your desired temperature to let the bacteria work its magic in dropping the ph. When you have the optimal temperature achieved (38-42 degrees c) check the ph, you want to aim for a starting ph of 4.5 if you need to adjust before adding bacteria you can do this with some (lactic acid or phosphoric acid) then you pitch the freeze dried bacteria (lallemand sour pitch or helveticus) the conditions are optimal for the bacteria and it will then lower the ph( this process usually takes 24 hours) when you return after 24 hours you want to check the ph is your desired rate then you bring the wort to a rolling boil, this then kills the bacteria and you continue on making the beer as you would with any style, adding yeast and fermenting out. So a kettle sour is a safe way to create sour beer removing risk of contaminating your brewery for brewing other styles. If your interested in our kettle sour products they are available here
Can I buy the collaboration brew?
The beer is now available on the Dundalk Bay Website https://www.dbbd.ie/product/brewmaster-mango-and-passionfruit-sour-special-edition-collab/
Checkout the Youtube Video of the collaboration brew including tour of the Brewery : https://youtu.be/8B3yjnJd4Gk