Page 16 - Craft Beer and Independent Microbreweries in Ireland 2018

Current Performance of the Independent Microbrewery Sector

2. Current Performance of the

Independent Microbrewery Sector

2.1 Introduction
This section of the report reviews the current state of the microbrewery sector.
It sets out the number of breweries in operation, their output levels, production
capacity and market share as well as other relevant statistics.

2.2 Number of Microbreweries
In broad terms, microbrewing comprises two different types of brewing
enterprise:
• Microbreweries which produce beer on their own premises for sale on or off the
premises;

• Brand owners that source all of their product from production microbreweries.

Throughout the report, those that produce beer in their own right are referred
to as “production microbreweries”. These include pubs, hotels and restaurants
that have a brewery on their premises. The focus of this report is on these
production microbreweries.

Those that contract out production are referred to as “brand owners”. Some
brand owners that are in the process of establishing their own brewing plant go
through an initial contract phase, before commencing production in their own
right.

It is estimated that in mid-2018, there were over 125 microbrewing companies
operating in the Republic of Ireland, of which 75 were independent production
microbreweries and the remainder were brand owners.
45

4 While every effort has been made to identify all existing microbreweries, it is possible that a small number may
have been missed, particularly among brand owners.
5 It should be noted that data from all of the 75 microbreweries was not uniformly available. As a result, many of
the tables presented below are based on a lower number of microbreweries than 75.

16