Clonakilty is available in drinkstore now.
Here's the press release but the beer has been locally available since August.
Its All about The Beer for Clonakilty Brewing Company and a little about a Monkey.
A new Micro-Brewery has opened in Clonakilty, ‘The Brewery Town’ and there’s lots of tales to be told.
From the start, the vision of Clonakilty Brewing Company has been to create really good beer which will stand on its own or with food and to keep a strong connection with its roots in Clonakilty. Their first two beers, an American Pale Ale called ‘Tojo’ and a Porter called ‘Smuggler’, are brewed and bottled in the West Cork town. The names are also from the place; Tojo was a Brazilian Spider monkey, the mascot of an American crew that crash landed off Clonakilty in 1943. He was buried in the town with full military honours. Smuggler is a tribute to the Deasy family who owned and ran a brewery in the town for 200 years (hence the name ‘The Brewery Town’). Before this, they were very successful smugglers off the Irish coast.
Keeping this close connection to Clonakilty is extremely important to the brewery’s founders; Norwegian accountant-turned-brewer Frank Fredriksen (aka ‘Thirsty Frank’) and beer enthusiast Joan Harrington. As Frank says ‘Clonakilty is at the centre of such a positive mix of beautiful scenery, amazing food, interesting characters, quirky local stories and strong town spirit. We consider ourselves hugely lucky to be able to make our beer here and become part of the tapestry of this place. It also pushes us to brew beer that stands with the best and make the town proud of what we do’.
Clonakilty Brewing Company have been trading locally and in several other select areas (with a very positive response) since August 2016 and plan to expand nationwide in 2017. A new Belgian Blond Beer ‘Inchydoney Blond’ will be launched at the Alltech Craft Beers & Food Fair in Dublin at the end of February. There are also plans to utilise Frank’s knowledge of the rich Norwegian beer culture with interesting one-off brews and for several beer and food projects. The ‘Clonakilty Brewing Experience’ was a very successful recent event in the Brewery and so the possibilities for tours and group visits to the Brewery itself are being explored. It’s an exciting time at Clonakilty Brewing Company.
