Our 100th Beer

Often when you've got the head down and are working away there are things that pass you by.

We were coming up on the magic figure of brewing our 100th beer. Cue a scratching of heads on what to do and what to call it. Lacada Brewery is named after Lacada Point, so prominently linked with the wrecking of the Girona, and we proudly wear our own version of the famous golden salamander brooch.

But we can’t help but wonder, is there still gold down there on the sea bed? Or did Sorley boy pick up the lion's share? We ran with that and placed a plentiful number of little salamanders on a sandy bed for our treasure themed label.

As for the name, the Spanish for 100 is Ciento*
Dig into that!

*Pronunciation In Spain ‘ciento’ is pronounced ‘thyehn-toh’ (θjẽn.to for fans of the other IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet!)). But in the Canaries and Latin America, it’s pronounced ‘syehn-toh’ (sjẽn.to). Which is a homophone for ‘siento’ meaning ‘I feel’, or (with more feeling) ‘lo siento’ meaning, I’m sorry.

Ciento - West Coast DIPA (7.5% ABV)

It's is pretty awesome if we do say so ourselves...

A complex, robust, extremely tasty, classic West Coast DIPA, and it’s very easy to drink. Which, at (warning!) 7.5%, is something to keep your eye on!

With Centennial Hops (of course! 100!), Citra, El Dorado, Talus, and Mosaic (it's the law to include that!), we have a strong mix of citrus and tropical fruit backed up with piney resin.

We conditioned it carefully in order to both achieve clarity and to allow the hop and mix of heritage and modern malts to meld.

It cost a lot to make, it tastes absolutely amazing and there's only a limited supply! You know what to do folks!

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Photo credits: Causeway Camera

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Thanks!

Finally, a massive big thank you to all our co-owners, supporters, customers, and devoted fans.

Whether it was building and maintaining the brewery; cleaning, brewing, bottling and canning; making the phone calls, closing the sales, visiting the customers, delivering the beer, and managing the accounts; organising the tap rooms, giving the tours, and hosting the tastings; testing the recipes, taking the photos, writing the words, and designing the labels; or participating and putting in the hours and hours of work behind every drop of beer. None of this could have happened without all of us, together.

We all know that times are tough out there. I don't think any of us, a few years ago, would ever have envisaged our world(s) today being what it is/they are.

In business, it is scary so as a small microbrewery we try and hold firm and do what we do best and what people love.

It might seem somewhat absurd to bring out a big beer in the quietest month of the year but we know that you will absolutely love it.

Bottling beer interferes with the time and space continuum

Trust me, when you’re on the bottling production line time can quite literally seem to stand still. As you work you try not to look too often at the pallet of finished cases because when you do it seems that it hasn’t increased any, and yet you seem to have been bottling for hours.

So! Imagine the the joy, the relief, the near ecstasy of a mobile unit rocking up to the brewery, two lads eagerly beavering away on set up and prep and then hey presto they press buttons on a screen and it begins. Beer flows from unitank to canning machine and at the other end cases of lovely Lacada are stacked on pallets.

Besides the efficiency of the spectacle there is the heart warming fact that the beer is ready to go out of the door, there and then. Bottle conditioned beer is great, but we have to wait a fortnight after bottling before we can release to the wide world since we have to allow for secondary fermentation to occur in the bottle. With the unitanks to cans system we have the beer carbonated and ready to go.

What about the beer? It’s superb, no two ways about it – fresher and zing-ier. That’s not just our opinion either, that is feedback we have been getting already on the West Bay in cans. It was interesting to hear the canning lads say “we see a lot of different beers and these are really, really good.” Incidentally, they are out every day of the week, all over Ireland canning beer with four separate units so they do experience a lot of product, and tanks. They really like our tanks as well.

We’ve re-booted the branding somewhat. It’s been five years since we started, so going to cans has given us the perfect opportunity to move with the market which, as you know, is fast moving. Craft beer breweries not only continually turn over new beers and new styles, they also turn over and develop branding and design.

Of course we are spoilt here on the North Coast of Ireland for fantastic natural scenery and interesting natural elements from our coastal environment, so we are utilising some stunning photography from local photographer Gary McCall on the cans.

The East the Beast can design in particular shows the awesomeness of the surfing wave known as "The Beast" which breaks at East Strand beach here in Portrush on larger swells, so we had to have something great to match the beer in the can!

So far then, we have West Bay - Citra Pale Ale, East the Beast - IPA and now Malin - Strata IPA in cans. We’re going to continue with East and West and introduce a new beer as often as we can so watch this space. Malin is dry hopped with Strata which gives tropical fruit – think of mango, pineapple, maybe a bit of lemon. Catch it while you can!