Could Newtownmountkennedy become the gourmet ghetto of Wicklow? Within a stone’s throw you will find McCabe’s Coffee, Firehouse Bakery and Italian food and wine importer Italicatessan. You also have three drinks producers – Wicklow Way Wines, Glendalough Distillery and Bonac gin.
Now they have been joined by Wicklow Wolf in an impressive new brewery that will shortly open to the public. They are keen to stress that they are not leaving their original premises in Bray. That will continue as a brewery and cellar and remain open to the public.
Come October, they hope to obtain one of the first licences to sell directly to the public at their cellar door, and in the bar looking out over the brewery and Wicklow mountains. The new facility is capable of brewing 70,000 hectolitres a year. At the moment, they are fermenting their first beers.
“Our new equipment is not quite Mercedes, more the Audi A4,” says Quincey Fennelly, joint owner. “The beer has a direct correlation to the gear,” adds marketing manager Darryl Murphy. “Bray is hand-made; here everything will always have a perfect consistency.”
Co-owner Simon Lynch is keen that the business is sustainable. Wicklow Wolf has Ireland’s only hop farm in Roundwood and has planted eight varieties of English and American hops. They have also planted a thousand native trees to help offset their carbon footprint.
Elevation pale ale is the best-selling beer, about 60 per cent of their production, but they are proudest of their newest creation, called Fuzzy Logic, to be released on August 17th. “It is a New England-style IPA, our take on Juicy Bits, produced by our favourite US brewery, WeldWerks in Colorado,” says Fennelly. The first Newtownmountkennedy beer will be ready in the first week of September; in the meantime, enjoy the fresh citrusy, creamy Fuzzy Logic.
