The National Centre for Brewing and Distilling has been officially opened by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon TD.
It’s located at the Teagasc centre at Oakpark, outside Carlow Town.
€2.3 million, allocated by the government since 2020, has paid for equipment at the centre to help producers in the beverage sector pilot new products and innovate their practices.
Additional equipment for brewing and dealcoholizing processes will be purchased and is expected to be installed by the end of 2025.
The equipment will also be made available to students doing educational courses.
Previously much of the testing for Irish craft beers and spirits was done overseas.
Speaking to KCLR News, Manager of the National Centre for Brewing and Distilling Lisa Ryan said that the facility would play a key role in innovation.
“I’ve worked at Diageo for two years, and I’ve worked in two other distilleries, and really, what the centre can do in terms of supporting those guys is to allow them to do small-scale trials and to innovate, and that’s really the big driver around the centre, to enable innovation.”
“So if you can imagine, if you had a big distillery, and you wanted to do a trial, it can be quite costly, but this centre will give you the capability of doing the trials on a smaller scale.”
