Metalman Brewing Launch Their Pale Ale

It’s exciting times for Irish microbreweries. Last year saw new breweries Trouble Brewing and The Dungarvan Brewing Company fire up their kettles for the first time and this year sees the launch of another new Irish brewery. It’s called Metalman and it is run by Grainne Walsh aided and abetted by Tim. I have to say I love the name of the brewery which is very fitting as they will be based in Waterford close to the Tramore home of the real metalman which is a statue used to mark the harbour and a ships navigational aid. The design of the logo is also very distinctive and will help set them apart. I love art deco so I very much approve of the metropolis vibe.

I emailed Grainne and asked for an interview before the launch of Metalman pale ale in the Bull and Castle last Thursday night. (Apologies for the washed out photo, it’s dark in the pub!)

How did you get into brewing?

Probably the same thing that gets a lot of people into brewing beer – a desire to drink beer! When I first started visiting the UK regularly over 10 years ago, I was amazed by all the different types of beer available and the variety from pub to pub – it was a far cry from the same 5 or 6 draft beers available in every pub in Ireland back then. There was a little activity on the Irish micro-brewery scene, but it was very early days, and not easy to find their beers in your local pub. I subsequently lived in the UK for a while, along with spells on the continent, so I continuously sought out and found different beers in different places. I then moved back to Ireland in 2005, and it was a bit of a shock to the system to be back to those same 5 or 6 beers everywhere. Even some of the micros that seemed to have been on the up back in the late nineties were gone by the wayside (Dublin Brewing Company RIP), and it seemed only those that also had their own pubs had survived. So I started brewing at home so that I could have a choice of beers that I actually wanted to drink, rather than those that almost every bar, off-license and supermarket wanted me to drink.

How did you learn how to brew?

Initially, mostly by reading books, searching on the internet, and making terrible beer! Then one winter evening, the other half and I came across a website called “Irish Craft Brewers”, which was a community of like-minded people who were interested in all things beer and brewing related, who met up every month in a pub very close to where we lived in Dublin to taste each other’s beers, swap advice and information, and give constructive feedback to anyone seeking it. When we went to our first meeting, we didn’t realise it at the time, but it would change the course of our lives considerably. I can probably say with confidence that if we hadn’t stumbled across ICB at that time, Metalman Brewing would not be in existence today.

Why is that?

Lots of reasons, I guess. Mainly, I suppose, we were amazed at the quality of some of the beers that we got to taste on that first ICB evening. We were making very mediocre beer out of kits at that time, and ICB really opened our eyes up to the fact that with a little research, practice, and experimentation, you really could make excellent quality beers at home. Secondly, they were just so supportive – it didn’t matter that we were rookies, we were welcomed with open arms, given tons of very welcome advice, asked about what it was we were brewing (and with more than just feigned interest!) and encouraged to strike outside our comfort zone, to try new and different things. Before long, the beer kits were dispatched with, and we progressed to all-grain brewing within about a year.

What kind of beer were you making?

Everything and anything, really. I love to experiment, so we rarely made the same beer twice – American pale ale, English bitter, Irish stout, German lagers….and anything that you can throw a bit of chilli into! Porters are especially receptive to chilli, I find. (Much to the dismay of the other half.)

What made you decide to set up a commercial brewery?

I’m not sure there was any one single reason, it really seemed more like a culmination of years of inadvertent research 🙂 Over the last 12 years, anytime himself and myself would travel together, we found ourselves seeking out different beers, looking for breweries to visit, trying to theme our weekends away around good beer opportunities. Once we started brewing ourselves, and understanding the scientific aspect of it a bit more, we also started looking at the commercial aspect of it a bit more as well, in particular with a view towards the growing Irish craft beer market. At the same time, I was looking for a career change from I.T., and much to my mother’s dismay, beer seemed to be the obvious answer.

How are you finding it different from home brewing?

It’s still early days, so you should definitely ask me this again in 12 months time! Consistency is key – when you’re making a beer at home, for primarily your own consumption, you don’t have to worry about whether it tastes the same (or even similar!) to the last time you made that particular beer. This clearly isn’t the case with a commercial beer, because if people buy Metalman Pale Ale because they liked it the last time they had it, then they expect it to taste the same as last time as well. Reproducing the same beer repeatedly is going to be a challenge, and something that we’re going to need to be really careful with when we move production from the Templemore brewery to our own brewery in a couple of months. Aside from that, I guess brewing is such a small part of the whole brewery programme, when you sit back and think about it – so much of my time is spent on organisational work, financials, planning, selling – much more time than I can spend on the brewing side, regrettably! It’s all good fun though. (And very essential.)

Can you tell me more about the name Metalman?

The name of the brewery is inspired by a navigational aid on the Waterford coast. The figure of the Metal Man was erected in 1823 after a military transport ship called the Sea Horse was wrecked off the Tramore coast, resulting in a significant loss of life. The Metal Man stands on one of three pillars overlooking the bay, and is a well known local landmark. Not many people know this, but there were actually 4 figures of the Metal Man cast during this time, one of them being commissioned for the Tramore pillar, and another for a similar landmark in Rosses Point in Sligo. No-one seems to know where the other 2 ended up though.

Also the graphic design is fabulous for the logo. Maybe tell me something about that design as well.

When we first started working with the designer, the brief I gave him was “Art Deco”, and to his credit, that’s exactly what he delivered. The reason I chose Art Deco as a style is probably due to spending a good deal of my time in Seattle with my last job – I really admired the architecture and found the influence very visually appealing. I had also seen and liked what some American breweries had done with this style, and given the lack of any significant Art Deco influence in Ireland, I felt that branding in this way would really help Metalman stand out. So nothing to do with the Metalman himself, I’m afraid, just a purely selfish desire for an attractive logo!

What is first beer going to be? Can you tell me more about the style and your thinking behind creating it?

Our first beer is going to be a pale ale, influenced by the American pale ale style, but not as strong as some of the American versions tend to be. It comes in around 4.3% ABV, and is bittered with Magnum and flavoured with Cascade and Amarillo hops. As it is golden in colour, we felt that heading into spring and summer this was a good style to launch with, giving people an alternative to lagers to drink as the weather warms up. (We hope!)

Many people are surprised that there are women brewers but women are increasingly involved. Are there any societies like the American pink boots society in Ireland and UK? Do you think women bring something different to brewing?

There are none that I know of yet, but things seem to be changing so quickly in the beer industry, that I think it’s only a matter of time. In March, I am heading over to a UK brewery called Brewsters for a female collaboration brew under the Venus UK project. The plan is to do a 4-nations type brew – we’ll agree on the recipe, then a female brewer each from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will each brew the beer in their own brewery, starting with Brewsters in Lincolnshire, England. More to come on that next month!

So there you have it, exciting times ahead! I wish Grainne all the best and every success with Ireland’s newest microbrewery. I had a taste of the pale ale at the Bull and Castle at the very busy launch night. I really liked it as it’s light but it has a nice crisp bite of hops at the end with a long bitter finish. I think it will do very well for them in the coming months as we hopefully get some sunshine. The Beer Nut has more wisdom on the beer here. Keep an eye on Metalman’s twitter stream or faceook for more updates on stockists and upcoming events.