Big Beamish brewery carry-out gets under way

IT IS some carry-out.

Three huge fermenting vessels have been removed from the former Beamish & Crawford brewery and transported just over a mile away to the Heineken Ireland site at Leitrim Street.

The fermenting vessels – which have produced many a beer-belly in Cork and beyond – are to be used by Heineken Ireland, which took over the old brewery last year.

Each metal container is capable of holding a mouth-watering 220,000 pints of beer.

For those who like figures – and alcohol – it would take some consuming.

A person drinking five pints a day, 365 days a year would take 120 years to swallow the lot.

Heineken Ireland corporate affairs manager Declan Farmer said his company would also be using some other brewing equipment from the South Main Street site which is currently being decommissioned.

“We closed the (Beamish & Crawford) brewery last May and this is the first part of the decommissioning process,” Mr Farmer said.

He said it would take up to 18 months to fully decommission the site. It will then be put up for sale on the open market.

Mr Farmer said some of the remaining fermentation vessels would be sold on to some of Heineken’s other plants worldwide.

“Others will go up for sale on the open market to other breweries,” Mr Farmer said.

Beamish & Crawford was Ireland’s oldest brewery. It was founded in 1792.