Boyne Brewhouse

A short drive north of Dublin is the historical town of Drogheda, one of Ireland’s oldest settlements. Bestowed with its fair share of Irish legends and steeped in brewing and distilling history, it makes for a fascinating stop on our journey. As well as being the birthplace of Boyne Brewery (which we’re here to see today) the town was famously once home to Aeneas Coffey, inventor of the ‘Coffey Still’, otherwise known as the now widely-used ‘Patent Still' (see page 90). 

Meeting us as we arrive at Boyne Brewhouse is Peter Cooney, who leads the company’s exports. “We’re surrounded by history here,” he explains. “It’s probably a bit weird, but the local church even holds the withered head of Saint Oliver Plunkett.”

 Leading us into the brewery, we’re struck by the building itself. “Back in boom times, this place was a car dealership, built out to the absolute top spec,” Peter says. But, as with many companies in Ireland, after the crash a few years back, the premises were taken into receivership by the Irish state. Peter and his family took the opportunity to give the site a new lease of life as a brewery, distillery and soon visitor centre. 

A former car dealership might seem like an unlikely home for a craft brewery and whiskey distillery, but in fact it couldn’t be more perfect. From the outside of the building, the glass walls that once helped to display top-of-the-range cars now proudly give passing traffic a peek at the company’s whiskey stills glistening in the sun.

The contrast of the showroom’s marble floors, copper stills, steel brewing vessels and wooden maturation barrels creates an impressive setting for the company s taproom. Leading us upstairs to a mezzanine level, offices that were once no doubt home to eager car salespeople are now where Peter, one of his two sisters, Sally Anne, and his two rothers, Patrick and James, sit.Their father, Pat, is also whistling along the corridor when we arrive and offers us a friendly welcome.

The scene is of a classic Irish family business that has, in fact, been a long time in the aking. Pat founded Gleeson Group, a major player in the Irish drinks business. Its first major success was with Tipperary spring water, which ultimately became the top selling mineral water in Ireland. The company grew to become a leading cider producer, the largest importer of wine in the country and a major producer of cream liqueurs

Then the wheels came off the Irish economy and the family decided to sell most of their business to C&C, except for their cider and cream liqueur brands, and hatched a plan to become focussed on exports rather than the domestic market. The family owns around 10,000 cider apple trees, many of them at their family home in Meath and their Irish Cream Liqueurs are exported to dozens of markets around the world.

Boyne Brewhouse isn’t the company’s first foray in the world of beer, having opened a brewery years ago, called 'No. 1 Brew'. “At the time, people thought a craft brewery should be cheaper than the big boys, which obviously just wasn’t going to work,” Peter explains. But thanks to the modern resurgence of beer, the family have been able to get back into brewing.

Having just taken a 6,000-mile road trip around more than twenty breweries in the US, Peter’s eyes light up talking about the stops he and his siblings made along the way. “We stood in line for hours to try a new can release from Treehouse and tried some incredible New England IPAs at Trillium,” he tells us.

Bringing some of this inspiration from their US trip back home has helped them to create their American Pale Ale, featured in this month’s box. Head brewer Andrew Jorgensen, from Hamilton, New Zealand explains, “We decided to use Azacca, which is a hop some folks might not have tried before.” It gives the beer awesome pineapple, mango and other juicy tropical notes. 

Proudly showing us their German-built Kaspar Schulz brewhouse is brewer Richard amilton, who is a long-time friend of Andrew’s from when they were both teaching philosophy at Trinity College. “Before our new colleague Bill Scott joined us, we used to joke that we were the only brewery in the world staffed entirely by doctors of philosophy,” he laughs.  

The brewers are excited to share with us some of their successes from Alltech, the leading craft beer festival in the country, which included three gold medals. In terms of plans for the future, the family will soon be distilling ‘Boann’ whiskey, named after an Irish goddess, and laying it down for its long maturation. Excitingly for the brewers, this will eventually provide a ready supply of casks to produce barrel-aged beers.

Peter takes us through the barrel cellars and shows us the branding for their upcoming whisky releases, including their ‘Whistler’ brand, named in honour of their father. Loading us up with a carry out, including their double-decoction Vienna lager and Imperial stout aged in Irish Whiskey Sherry Casks, Peter sets us on our way, although we’re sure we’ll be visiting again to see how their plans unfold.