Offaly man's backyard brew makes it to the shopshelves

A TULLAMORE man has successfully brought his own beer to the market.

Brendan Kenny, founder member of the Midlands Beer Club, has a contract with Athlone-based craft brewery Dead Centre Brewing for the stout.

Another member of the Midlands Beer Club, Tullamore-based chef and award winning craft brewer Brendan Sewell, has tasted Backyard Brewing's Cascade Oatmeal Stout and given it an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“Brendan has been brewing homebrew in his backyard for many years now and at this stage it was only a matter of time before he decided to take the plunge and start his own commercial brewing business,” said Mr Sewell.

“What better name to represent his venture too! By his own admission, Brendan is taking it one step at a time while managing to juggle a full time career in IT.

Brewing an initial batch, he's going to gauge the public response and get a real measure of what it's like to become a full-time brewer which is not for the faint-hearted by any means.”

Brendan Kenny uses a 30-litre brew kit at home but this 5.5% ABV American hopped traditional stout is brewed in the much bigger commercial kit at the Dead Centre commercial craft brewery.

Mr Kenny remarked: “It came in a touch under my desired ABV due to scaling up to the 1,000 litre brew kit”.

Adding oatmeal to the recipe helps with head retention and gives the beer its body.

The beer is sold in cans and attracted much interest when it went on sale in Tullamore off-licence Carryout.

Brendan Sewell described the flavour as “spot on” and said: “This style of beer brings together both the modern and traditional elements of brewing and makes for a perfect sessionable beer. Very enjoyable indeed.”

Brendan Kenny is no stranger to stout brewing. A few years ago he created a stout which was on tap in a local bar and named it 'Black Arden' in tribute to Arden View, Tullamore.