
The Irish beer scene has seen a boom in popularity in recent years, with more than 100,000 people in the country now drinking the world’s largest variety of craft beer.
But for some craft brewers, the boom has come at the cost of quality, as the industry has suffered from a lack of local competition.
With the craft beer boom at an end, craft brewers are beginning to look towards alternative markets to tap into, particularly overseas markets, but it is the quality of their products that is most worrying.
“The quality of our products has taken a big hit,” said Brian O’Neill, owner of the legendary O’Brien’s Brewery in Cork.
“We have been working hard to get to where we are now and we have not been able to do it.”
But we have been able, through our collaboration with Guinness, to bring back a lot of our traditional product.
“I think it is just the quality that has been hit the hardest.”
A lot of people are saying that we are in a golden age of Irish beer and we need to take a step back and look at how we are going to get back on top.
“The industry has been growing steadily for the last four years, but production has declined steadily.”
It is very frustrating to say the least,” said Michael Walsh, chief executive of Guinness.”
What happened in the last couple of years is that the production of craft products has fallen by a huge margin, especially in terms of our own product.