Hope Beer, which operates a brewery in Kilbarrack, Dublin, is to invest €150,000 in the premises in order to "keep up with the growing demand" for its beer.
Hope Beer is brewed, canned, bottled and kegged at Howth Junction in Dublin. Founded in 2015, it has a team of six people, with sales close to €1 million, and exports to Italy, Russia, Netherlands, and France.
Its products are available in independent off-licences, as well as O’Briens, Molloys, SuperValu, Dunnes Stores, EuroSpars, Fresh Supermarkets and many pubs and restaurants.
The company said the expansion will facilitate its new packaging requirements due to the changing purchasing patterns of consumers which saw the brewery switch its product mix to a greater focus on canned beer.
The expansion will result in the brewery gaining additional warehouse space, the addition of a new packaging area as well as a dedicated lab space for the brewing team.
The new lab brings more capabilities in-house including yeast analysis, which is important for healthy and consistent fermentation, as well as the ability for microbiological quality control testing.
The investment also includes the purchase of a new canning line which gives the brewery greater control over its canning operations and schedule.
“Last year saw a fundamental shift in how people were consuming our beer and we had to adopt quickly,” said Wim de Jongh, co-founder and managing director of Hope Beer.
“Prior to the pandemic up to 40 per cent of our output was kegged for the on-trade, 40 per cent was canned and the remaining 20 per cent was bottled, but with the closure of the hospitality sector canned beer now makes up 95 per cent of our packaged beer.
“We were massively relieved when we ended up being busy for most of 2020 as at the start of pandemic things were looking bad.
“We wouldn’t have predicted we would be in the position of being able to expand our operations but here we are and are really looking forward to the year ahead.”
In addition to the physical expansion, Hope Beer is also growing its team of six with the recruitment of a brewery assistant and an assistant to the brewery.
The brewery also recently signed a contract with NorEast to be its distributor which will see their range of beers, including their core range, limited editions and seasonals be more widely available across Ireland.
