Crafting a local brewery

Athlone resident LIAM HANLON is one of Ireland’s top craft brewers, having worked in the industry for several years before setting up St Mel’s Brewing Company in 2014. He told ADRIAN CUSACK about the journey to date.

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“There was a time when every town in Ireland had a brewery,” says Liam Hanlon. “We are getting back to that situation - practically every county has one now.”

Liam is one of the most experienced and respected figures in Ireland’s burgeoning craft beer scene. After working as a brewer in Dublin and Carlow, he teamed up with business partner Eoin Tynan to start the St Mel’s Brewing Company in Longford town in 2014.

He is married to Athlone woman Lisa (nee Byrne) and lives in the Valleycourt estate in the town. His St Mel’s company was founded at a time when the number of Irish craft breweries was growing rapidly.

“When we drew up our business plan, there were 11 or 12 breweries in Ireland. By the time we opened, a year later, there were 50. Now I think there are 80 with their own brewkits, and there’s more coming all the time. (The market) is becoming very crowded,” he says.

A native of Longford town, Liam says he always wanted to become a brewer. He studied biotechnology in NUI Maynooth with this career in mind.

In 2001, he started working for one of Ireland’s first craft breweries, the Dublin Brewing Company.

“It doesn’t exist any more, unfortunately. That’s not my fault - I was only the dogsbody!” smiles Liam. “They were a little bit ahead of their time. They went toe-to-toe with Guinness, and lost that fight.”

The job got him “interested in craft beer, as opposed to general brewing” and, after working in other jobs for a while, Liam moved to Edinburgh to complete a Masters’ degree in brewing and distilling.

On his return to Ireland, in 2005, he started working for Carlow Brewing Company, producers of the popular O’Hara’s range.

As head brewer, he developed some award-winning beers, including O’Hara’s IPA and the excellent Leann Folláin stout. He also helped devise the O’Shea’s range of craft beers produced in Carlow for Aldi.

“I probably did about 15 recipes over the years (at Carlow Brewing) and a lot of them won awards. Now, with St Mel’s, we’re starting to win some awards as well,” he says.

While studying in Edinburgh he met his future wife, Lisa, whom he married in 2011. In 2012, when Lisa was pregnant with twins, “we decided to move back to the Midlands so we’d have some family support, basically.”

The couple now have three children, twins Oliver and Emily, who are three and a half years old, and Lucy, aged just nine weeks.

When asked how he finds Athlone as a place to live, Liam replies: “It’s a great town. It has become the capital of the Midlands, I suppose. There’s a very vibrant population and a tourist industry here as well, which is very important.

“As a blow-in, I don’t really see the east-west divide the way local people would. For nightlife and amenities, Athlone is one of the better towns in the country. The IT is a huge boost for the town both in terms of employment and the people it brings in. There’s a lot more industry here than in other towns in the region.”

The idea for starting the St Mel’s brewery “came from a conversation at a wedding, as all good businesses do!” he laughs.

“It was at the wedding of my business partner, and co-owner, Eoin Tynan. There were a few pints on board when we discussed it. We kind of left it for a while and then came back to it.

“Eoin was working in finance in Dublin – he’s from Longford as well – and he had started his family and wanted to move back to the Midlands. It just seemed like a good opportunity. We both wanted to go in the same direction.”

The company received a LEADER grant through Longford Community Resources Ltd, which helped provide capital for the start-up.

In the summer of 2014, St Mel’s launched its core range of three beers (a pale ale, a lager, and a brown ale) with a tagline urging customers to 'convert to craft’. Liam said support from people in the Midlands has been key to the brewery’s success to date.

“We got great support from shops, pubs, and restaurants in the region. Longford, Athlone, and Mullingar is where we sell most of our beer,” he says.

One of the challenges for the business is encouraging people to try something new.

“You’re asking people to change what they’ve been drinking for most of their lives. Very few people of drinking age would have been used to having any choice in the Midlands.

“It was usually just the same stuff served up in every pub, so people would know what they were going to order before they went into the pub or off licence. It’s about getting people to ask 'what else is on?’

“That’s much easier to do in restaurants, when you can put it on menus in places like Thyme and the Ritz in Athlone. They have led for us, because they were able to speak to the customers and offer it to them.

“So the big challenge was getting people to open their minds a bit to craft beer. There’s the quality perception as well: people needed to understand that this was quality beer, and not just some sort of homebrew.”

The St Mel’s beers are now available in numerous local pubs, off licences and restaurants, and are also stocked in SuperValu stores throughout the country.
The brewery is producing 1,500 litres of beer per week and will be looking to expand its level of production soon.

“Certainly next month, if not this month, we’re going to have to add capacity which is a good place to be, really.”

Liam points out that craft beer is responsible for just 2% of the overall volume of beer sold in Ireland, so he feels there’s still plenty of room for growth.

“As long as we can keep growing, and as long as all breweries keep the quality good, there’s no reason why we can’t get up to double digits, which is where the craft beer scene is at in the US at the moment. If you can develop proper export markets - which some breweries already have - then the world is your oyster.”

Away from his work, he’s a big rugby fan. He also enjoys reading, with Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck among his favourite authors - “I must have read 'Of Mice and Men’ about twenty times at this stage.”

Running a brewery involves plenty of hard graft. “As with any start-up company, there’s a lot of work in it,” he says.

“The big thing you realise when you’re starting your own company is that, if you don’t do it yourself, it’s not going to get done. You learn that very quickly! You can’t sit around waiting for the IT department to come and fix your computer.”

Overall, though, the job is one he really enjoys. “Once you work for yourself, I don’t think you could work for anyone else,” he concludes.