Husband and wife team brewing up a storm with Co Cork distillery

From a simple home-brewing kit to state-of-the art, fully automated brewhouse, Blacks Brewery is a testament to the passion of the team.

Husband and wife duo Sam and Maudeline Black founded their business in 2013. “We have gone from strength to strength and now boast distribution into all major Irish retailers,” Sam Black said.

“Our products hold awards across various national and international competitions, receiving eight medals at the Dublin Beer Cup in 2019, and Gold World beer awards in both 2019 and 2020. We expanded the brand into the gin and rum market in 2015.”

Their gin found immediate success as one of the first independent Irish gins in Ireland and has gone on to win numerous awards.

“We also made history by creating the first rum to be produced and distilled in Ireland. It received international recognition as a gold winner at the prestigious and highly competitive World Rum Awards in March 2020.”

Building on the experience and success of the previous five years of gin and rum distilling, 2020 saw the beginning of in-house whiskey production, with two new dedicated whiskey stills introduced, Black said.

“In 2020, we installed a new, state-of-the-art, fully automated, steam-powered brewhouse. While increasing productivity and completing six brews per day, it has also reduced the carbon footprint significantly.

“This new system is produced by SSV Limited and is a four-vessel brewhouse consisting of a mash tun, lauter tun, wort kettle and whirlpool. With a capacity of 30HL, their chosen brewhouse system allows greater flexibility to brew innovative beer styles and maximises hop utilisation for added flavour and aroma,” he said.

“As new entrants to the whiskey market, we sourced aged whiskey to blend and finish in the distillery to give it a unique twist. This was undertaken with a view to immediately starting production of a whiskey which was distilled and matured on-site once we had the necessary equipment and approvals in place.”

In 2020, the Blacks invested further in the distillery and focused more on whiskey, with the purchase of two copper pot stills. “Our shiny copper pot stills, Bonny and Morrigan, travelled over 2,000km from Italy to take pride of place in Kinsale. They were crafted by experts Frilli Impianti, who have a long-standing heritage of producing the finest stills.”

Bonny, the larger of the two stills, has a capacity of 2,800L and Morrigan a capacity of 1,600L. Blacks have a strong competitive advantage when it comes to the wash.

“Our wash is produced to an extremely high quality. This quality stems from our experience in creating an award-winning range of world-class beer along with in-house expertise. Once the wash has been created in the brewery, it is then back over to the distillery for Bonny and Morrigan to do their job, giving the capacity to produce around 40 bourbon-sized casks (200L) per week of whiskey on site in Kinsale.”

Beers include Kinsale Pale Ale, Ace of Haze, 1601, Totally Tropical IPA, Black IPA, World’s End and Rocketship Spirits. Gins include Blacks Original Irish Gin with New Citrus Smash and Apple and Kiwi gins launching this year.

Whiskeys include Limited Edition Blacks 18-Year-Old Single Malt Irish Rum Cask Finish 56 per cent ABV, Pieces of Eight 8-year-old Limited Edition series, Maple Mayhem blended Whiskey, Citrus Galaxy IPA Cask Single Malt and Triple Threat Blended Irish Whiskey.

In order to fulfil their ambitions, the Blacks are relocating to a new waterside location in Kinsale that will facilitate a significant increase in production and storage for both the distillery and brewery.

“We consulted with expert financial advisers Westboro Capital, a Cork-based finance house who are attracting investors to the project and intend on raising a further €4,000,000 from a combination of private equity, EIIS equity and convertible loan notes,” said Black.

He said that their new home has a site footprint which is ten times the previous site and will be finalised at circa 19,000 sq ft to incorporate a visitor centre, office space and industrial space to facilitate brewing, distilling and in-house canning along with bonded storage facilities.

Full grant of planning was received in January 2022. Building work is now well under way on the new site with the initial development phase including the new production hall, visitor centre and bar due to open in April 2023.

For more information, contact Sam Black: sam@blacksbrewery.com