Lough Gill, Ireland's newest brewery (or at least, it was when last I checked - these days it can be daunting to keep up) has been rolling out its first cans with a decent dose of tongue-in-cheek.

Two of its beers, Thieving Bastards, a 5% pale ale, and Heinoweiser, a 5.5% IPA, are clearly taking aim at multinational brewery giants, as a response to last year's craft re-badging controversy, in which a Heineken-owned product, Fosters lager, was being passed off as a local craft beer under the label Blasket Blonde in order to ensure itself an even larger market share.

1 A cheeky dig at multinational brewery giants

The Sligo-based brewery, founded by James Ward and and his wife Valerie, is the town's first in more than a century, since the former Lough Gill Brewery owned by Edward Foley wound up due to the hardships caused by the first World War.

While the Wards have no direct lineage to the old brewery, brewing is in the blood. James Ward founded one of Ireland's (and dare I say Europe's) finest breweries, Ballymote's White Hag. The company's Montana-born head brewer, Tony Wickham, meanwhile, has more than 20 years of brewing experience.

The brewery is set to have four core beers including the excellent MacNutty, a macadamia brown ale, a soon to be released breakfast stout as well as an experimental series called the Onward Brewing Project focusing mainly on small, one-off releases.

There are three categories The Irish Punch Up series for beers of more than 8% ABV, the Wild Atlantic Brew series for sours and 'funked' beers, and the Rebel Stout Series, which includes, as a first release, an 11% Imperial Oatmeal Coffee Cream stout, one of the strongest beers produced in Ireland.

While strong beers aren't to everyone's taste, Ward says: "It holds the alcohol extremely well. It's all grain, with no added sugar, which required a huge malt bill to produce."

One idea that may intrigue punters is the brewery's wedding beers service. Each order is completely customisable, and the couple can opt to be as as hands-on or off as they choose. Options range from a simple personalised branding of existing beers, to a full one-off bespoke batch just for the event.

It seems the brewery is covering all angles, in an effort to be heavily involved with its customers and the local community. It's also drumming up widespread support for the Craft Drinks Bill, Minister Alan Kelly's plan to change the law to allow small breweries to sell their product on the premises.

"We're a young brewery but we're already big supporters of the Craft Drinks Bill. Beer tourism is something that is missing from Ireland and we hope to change that," says Ward.