Food & Wine

How an Athlone craft brewer got a taste for soft drinks

Liam Tutty, founder of Dead Centre Brewery, found lemonade he had made for radler was too good not to also sell on its own

Liam Tutty, founder of Dead Centre Brewing, has launched sister soft drinks operation the Irish Craft Soda Co. Picture: Kirsty Lyons

We all know the old adage about making lemonade when life gives you lemons. But for Liam Tutty, a radio DJ turned brewery founder, that clichéd advice ended up being a literal business strategy.

In 2020, Covid forced Tutty to close the new brewpub he had opened at his Dead Centre Brewery in Athlone, Co Westmeath. To keep busy, he began experimenting with developing his own radler, a German-style beer made of 50 per cent ...