Top craft brewery toasts beer title

One of the country’s top craft brewing houses is toasting another national title.

The Franciscan Well Brewery in Cork scooped the best beer of the year award for its Shandon Century Extra Stout following an online popular vote organised by Irish beer consumer group Beoir.

The stout, launched just before Christmas, was the first in a series of limited-edition bottled beers produced from a recipe based on the brewery’s popular Shandon Stout.

It is the second time the Franciscan Well, established on the city’s North Mall in 1998, has won the national title. It won beer of the year in 2008 for its Purgatory Pale Ale.

Beoir said every single one of the 130 beers brewed in Ireland, at about two dozen breweries, were eligible for the top prize.

Runner-up prizes were awarded to the Metalman Brewing Company in Waterford, whose Windjammer Amber Ale and Metalman Pale Ale placed second and third in the ranking.

“The Irish beer scene today is full of innovative, exciting beers brewed by people with a love for their craft,” said Beoir chairman Séan Billings.

“The winning beers are great examples of the quality and choice now available to the Irish beer drinker.”