Ballykilcavan brewery is just 2.5km from the site of the Electric Picnic (
@EPfestival
), but we are not allowed to serve our beers there. The festival claims to be sustainable, but despite our three national sustainability awards, we're still not allowed in. Here's why.
If you think that EP chooses what products to sell based on Mr Benn's personal preference rather than the vast amount of € they're paid to stock them, I have some magic beans to sell you. Based on the huge positive reaction to our beer at other festivals, he's in a tiny minority
'I don't even like it - so why would I invite them to be here?'
#ElectricPicnic
's Melvin Benn responds to criticism for excluding local breweries from festival
For some reason, we picked up a lot of new followers yesterday. If you've never heard of Ballykilcavan before, here's a quick introduction.
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#CraftBeer
We're going to be in
@SuperValuIRL
in Stradbally from 12pm tomorrow (Friday) with our 4-can packs, a new beer and some very limited edition t-shirts for sale with 100% of proceeds going to LOFFA, the Laois/Offaly autism charity.
#Ballykilcavan
#DrinkIrish
#DrinkResponsibly
A huge thank you to the Horseshoe Inn in Abbeyleix who are now pouring our Back Lawn lager as well as our Bin Bawn pale ale. Because we haven't increased our prices, the lager now costs less than a well known Dutch equivalent.
#SupportLocal
#DrinkResponsibly
Quick update on the Electric Picnic: it's exactly the same position as last year. The organisers won't talk to us, so the world's 2nd largest brewing company gets exclusivity on beer sales, which completely excludes us and other Irish owned micro breweries.
#Ballykilcavan
Your gentle reminder that none of the beers in the "Stradbally Inn" at
@EPfestival
are brewed in Stradbally, and all are 100% owned by the world's second largest brewing company, headquartered in Amsterdam.
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#IndependentBeer
Still in shock after being named small to medium sustainable business of the year at last night's national PwC / Sunday Business Post awards. A huge thank you as always to the whole team - Joe, Dave and Niall and to Lisa who is the inspiration behind our sustainability efforts.
First confirmed barn owl chicks here for many years! Photo from our owl box by Barry of the Laois barn owl project, who's licenced to monitor and photograph them.
For many small businesses, including us, the next couple of months are critical. For us, they basically determine whether we're still around next year, so if you're buying presents or corporate gifts, or if you're going out, please support your local small businesses. Thank you!
I'll say this much for Mr. Benn of
@FRfestivals
- he's given us more free publicity than we could ever afford to buy. I'll be talking to Andrea on
@LunchtimeLiveNT
about his comments around 12:45pm.
Cleaning out under the millhouse and have unearthed the original mechanism that drove the mill. No wooden paddles like I'd thought, more like a hydro powered jet engine. Designed by Cornelius Cadle in about 1870.
#Ballykilcavan
#IrelandsAncientEast
Delighted to be bringing home the Laois Business Award for sustainability and climate action. Thanks as always to Joe, Dave and Niall for buying into everything we do to try and run the business as sustainably as possible.
@cillian32
@IveaghGael
@EPfestival
That's all we're asking for. On our scale, the big boys wouldn't even notice any loss of sales, but it would make a world of difference to us.
In total shock, but thrilled to have won Gold for our Blackwell stout and Best in Laois at the
@BlasNahEireann
awards in Dingle today. A huge thank you to the team at the brewery - all down to them.
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#FoodAcademy
In latest "rubbing salt into the wound" news, there's a new venue at the
@EPfestival
called the Stradbally Inn serving three different stout brands. Just for clarity, all of them are 100% owned by Heineken.
Drop by The Stradbally Inn where you can expect creamy pints of Beamish, Murphy’s and Island's Edge, great live music and a warm welcome… everything that's great about your favourite pub🍻 Located in The Late Night Arena🍺🎪
#EP23
#ElectricPicnic
Currently canning Resist, our anti-imperial stout, and the first cases will be in
@egansofflicence
by 4pm today. Every cent we make from selling this beer is going to the Red Cross relief effort in Ukraine. Слава Україні!
The planning application for this year's Electric Picnic is in. If you think the festival should offer independent Irish beers along with the usual multinational ones, now is your chance to let Laois County Council know on planning
@laoiscoco
.ie before March 19th.
I loves me county, so very happy to be on the Theatre of Food stage at EP tomorrow at 2pm to promote Laois as a foodie destination. I'm on with some of the best food producers and chefs in Ireland, all based in the county. If you're around, it would be great to see you there.
Thrilled to have made it to another national sustainability final! We're in for the small business category of the
@ChambersIreland
Sustainable Business Impact Awards. Fingers crossed.
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#SBIA
Congratulations to David & team from
@Ballykilcavan
! They're finalists in The Sustainable Business Impact Awards
@ChambersIreland
- showcasing best practice in sustainable business development and social responsibility in Ireland. We wish them the Best of luck this Thurs Sept 14!
Not long now until our 19th century walled garden is converted into a glamp site for this year's Electric Picnic. Luxury tents, showers, hot tubs, a sauna and a bar serving beer actually brewed in Stradbally. More details at .
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
Thrilled! We've just won the small and medium business category at the national
@SEAI_ie
energy awards. A huge thank you to the whole team for embracing and improving on our energy saving practices.
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#SEAIAwards23
It's Head Brewer Nigel's last day today before he retires. He's taken us from an empty farm shed to where we are today and we couldn't have done it without him. We'll miss him, but wish him all the best for his retirement.
Very proud of our small team. We've just been awarded
@OriginGreen
Gold Member status for the 2nd year in a row, the highest level in
@Bordbia
's national sustainability programme. It comes from our work on energy, water and plastic reduction, biodiversity and community support.
We're up for this - brewing a Ukrainian Anti-Imperial Stout from the
@DrinkersUkraine
recipe, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross humanitarian effort in and around Ukraine. Just to check, if we brew it, will you buy it?
1⃣ - RESIST - A Ukrainian Anti-Imperial Stout, designed by brewers in Ukraine, in solidarity with the beer community in Ukraine, with a little taste of Ukraine.
Pro-brewer and home-brewers - download the recipe now, and get brewing!
Start of a new era today as
@Joe_ODriscoll
takes over as Head Brewer. I can't think of anyone who deserves it more and it's brilliant to know that the future of the brewery is in great hands.
@MissArMeisce
@EPfestival
That's all we'd like to see - clearly we couldn't supply the volumes of the big brewery, but wouldn't it be great if you had a choice of breweries in there?
Live radio is genuinely terrifying, but thank you to
@andreagilligan
on
@LunchtimeLiveNT
for covering the difficulties that small independent breweries have getting into large festivals and venues due to exclusivity deals with large multinationals.
We've had to retire our old diesel van, so we've replaced it with a new, fully electric one from
@JoeMallonMotors
in Portlaoise. It means we can charge it for free off our own solar panels and means we're now carbon negative on our in-house emissions.
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
Delighted to announce that our beers won three medals at the international Concours de Lyon competition in France, including a gold medal for our Brickyard red ale and silver for our Bambrick's brown ale and Millhouse IPA. Great work as always by Joe and Dave in the brewery.
Time to stop picking on EP for allowing multinationals to buy exclusivity, because many other festivals and gigs do exactly the same. We'd like to see provisions made to also allow some access to small local businesses, and I'll be on
@LunchtimeLiveNT
at 1:20pm to discuss this.
Happy Birthday to us! This day two years ago, we brewed our first ever beer (a batch of Long Meadow) in our on-farm brewery. It's been an interesting two years, but thanks to your support, we're still going strong.
Delighted to be sending our first pallet of beers off to Northern Italy. They're heading over in a refrigerated container so they'll still be super fresh when they arrive. Salute! 🇮🇹 🇮🇪
Are you a fan of award-winning Irish beer? Look no further than
@Ballykilcavan
! Have a tour around the farm where the beer is made and have a taste of its delicious range of beers.
What are you waiting for! 🍻
For more information, please visit:
Beyond thrilled to have arrived home with the hugely prestigious Sustainable Business Awards award in the Agri-food category for our decarbonisation project in the brewery. A huge thank you to the team on the farm and in the brewery for all their hard work and support.
Very excited to see our new fermenters arriving this afternoon. We're nearly doubling the capacity of the brewery which gives us much more scope to grow the business.
Out on deliveries this afternoon, so here's a thread of some of our wonderful off-licence customers in the area. First up is Judith O'Brien's in Athy (
@OBriensAthy
) - bar and grocery all in one and strong supporters of ours since the very start.
#Ballykilcavan
#DrinkResponsibly
We're up at the finals of the national Small Firms Association awards in the RDS this evening, keeping our fingers crossed that we can win the sustainability category for the second year in a row. Best of luck to everyone who's nominated.
📸: Conor McCabe
#SFAAwards2023
In the 1860s, a brother of my great great grandfather emigrated to Argentina and helped found a city called Las Rosas. When the local soccer club was founded in 1930, they named it after him. A huge thank you to
@WilliamsKemmis_
for sending me a shirt all the way from Argentina.
We're very proud to announce that Ballykilcavan is the winner of the Laois Enterprise Award for 2023, and we'll be representing the county in the National Enterprise Awards later this month. Thanks to Thomasina Connell and Honor Deevy for calling out to present the award.
For the first time ever, all twelve fermenters in the brewery are completely full of beer. A lot of it is going abroad - La Rochelle, Paris, Milan, Prague and Zurich, but we'll have some news on new local stockists next week.
🚨 Brown Ale Alert 🚨. We're brewing a one off, export strength version of our Bambrick's Brown Ale, for the
@CraicCommunity
community brew project. Half will go out direct from fermenter, and we're going to hang onto the other half for barrel aging.
Spent a very satisfying couple of hours clearing debris from behind the sluice gate on the river. Now flowing freely for the first time in many years. Next question is, what percentage of a brewery could we power from it?
Our
@DrinkersUkraine
fundraiser beer for
@RedCrossUkraine
is mashed in. I think it's the biggest beer we've ever brewed - certainly not a lot of space left in the mash tun. Aiming to have it on sale at the end of the month.
New beer just in from
@Ballykilcavan
. First tried this brew during lockdown in a can and really enjoyed it. Lots or biscuit notes with a nice abv! Pairs well with whiskey and in particular with their Waterford whiskey collaboration which we have in stock.
While we had the mini digger here last week, we cleared the final section of the race that leads to the mill house. Getting definite notions of somehow putting water back into it now...
Needed to look up some details of the works we've done over the last few years, so I've been digging out the pre-renovation photos.
Here's the visitor centre in 2018 vs 2023.
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#IrelandsAncientEast
We're delighted to announce that we've agreed a national distribution deal for our cans with
@radicaldrink
. We will still be looking after our local accounts, but it means that our cans will now be available across the country for the first time.
Heineken has told publicans that it plans to increase what it charges for its draught beer products by 6c a pint. The price hike applies to the entire range and kicks in from June 4th. Company is blaming "continued increases in underlying costs".
We're thrilled that our beers are going to be available in
@lidl_ireland
stores nationwide next week as part of the Lidl Kickstart programme. It's been a huge help in these uncertain times.
Respect to Karim Karoui - lovely email as Gaeilge from the manager of The First Bank in Abu Dhabi, and he has $26.7 million and 20kg of gold for me. That should fund the next round of brewery expansion.
Very proud day here, as we've been awarded
@OriginGreen
Gold Member status for 2022. Gold Membership is only awarded to companies that have shown exemplary performance in sustainability throughout the year in the
@BordBia
backed programme.
#OriginGreen
#GoldMember2022
It's not exactly Newgrange, but every year in early September, the sun shines straight through the 200 year old gardener's tunnel and it's the best chance to see all the brickwork.
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#IrelandsAncientEast
Over the next five years, we're going to plant as many trees around the brewery as we need to absorb double the amount of carbon that the brewery is currently producing.
#OriginGreen
@Bordbia
@OriginGreen
I can't think of a better way to serve this than in a
@criostalnarinne
glass. Ladies and gentlemen of
@WaterfordWhisky
, thank you for using our barley and making an exceptional whisky from it.
I've just been shown the Teireoir information that's linked to from every
@WaterfordWhisky
bottle. For the whiskies made from our barley, it even includes a 9 minute audio recording of the dawn chorus on the farm. That's real traceability!
@Bikeopath1
@EPfestival
No difficulty at all matching the price point! Obviously we couldn't match the volume of the huge main arena bars, but if we can manage a full bar at
@forest_fest
, we'd happily manage a small bar in somewhere like Salty Dog or Trenchtown.
Lovely writeup here by
@ellamcsweeney
on the farm and brewery, and how Lisa and I are trying to keep them both viable for future generations - . Full interview on Ear to the Ground on
@rteone
from 8:30pm this evening.
Our first in person awards ceremony for two years! Lisa and I are up at the
@IrishCountryMag
Irish Made Awards finals in Dublin. Best of luck to everyone here.
Happy to report that the effort of hand zesting and juicing 220 grapefruits was worth it. Clancy's Can
#5
is out on Friday.
#DrinkIrish
#DrinkResponsibly
Glad rags back on again, as we're up in Dublin for the awards ceremony of the
@PwCIreland
/
@businessposthq
Sustainability Awards. Best of luck to everyone shortlisted.
The floor, lights and heaters are in. Still the glass to go into the floor looking down to the water wheel and the bar to be built, but if you didn't know, you could nearly think we were finished.
In unrelated news, Diageo's global operating profit amounted to approximately 4.6 billion GBP in 2023, an increase of 0.2 billion over the previous year's figure.
#SupportLocal
#DrinkIrish
Diageo is putting up the price of a pint again. Its draught beers (Guinness, Hop House 13, Harp, Carlsberg, Rockshore, Smithwicks) served in pubs are to increase by 6c a pint from April 15th while Guinness 0.0 is rising by 9c a pint. The company has blamed rising input costs.
We're taking a break for a few days, so we'll be quiet on here until the new year. Thank you so much to everyone who supported us during 2020, and let's hope next year is better for us all. Happy Christmas and talk soon!
Because we're short on things to be doing around here, we've started to re-roof the old henhouse. It's the last bit of really bad roof in the farmyard and a job I've been meaning to do for at least ten years.
Our eight year old reckons we look like a Viking goddess and a waiter! We're out at the Laois Business Awards in
@HeritageLaois
with our fingers crossed
Best of luck to everyone who's been nominated.
Another view of the 220 year old tunnel under the Stradbally to Athy Road. Supposedly we were allowed to put it in after getting the road supervisor drunk and then getting him to sign the permission document. Those were the days...
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#IrelandsAncientEast
One of the advantages of living in rural Co. Laois is the complete lack of light pollution, so on a clear night, you great a great view of the stars from the old farmyard.
📸 - Lisa
#Ballykilcavan
#Laois
#StarryNight
Just finished a meeting with our architect. He's off to draw up plans to convert the mill house next to the brewery into a visitor centre and, eventually, taproom. Hope to have plans into Laois Co Co before the summer.
It's 6km from home, so lovely to be able to get back to the Rock of Dunamase for the first time this year. Still as spectacular as ever.
#Laois
#LoveLaois
#IrelandsAncientEast