Anarres

If Utopian Stout was the silky stout we were dreaming of when we started, where would we find ourselves here in the future?

Earlier this year, Jack and Laurie tried to find out. They turned everything up to 11. There’s more black, more molasses, blackberry, chocolate, vanilla and raisin. And it’s really rather nice. But it’s also rather scarce. And we’re a cooperative. So we’d like to share it with you so that you can share it with others.

Laurie re-read ‘The Dispossessed’ a couple of years ago. The magnificent Ursula Le Guin explores a Post-Utopian society on a planet called Annares. Things hadn’t worked out the way they were planned. Still, they persisted, and evolved, and succeeded. After chatting to Jack, they realised that both had been subconsciously informed by it when deciding that Lacada would not be organised as a traditional company. Ursula passed away, aged 89, in January 2018 and we feel it would be great to draw attention to a woman whose writings are so inspirational.

We wanted a new way of running a brewery, and we’re proud of what Lacada has achieved in our three odd years.

Anarres Post Utopian Stout, is our first beer in a 750ml sharing bottle.

You can expect notes of molasses, blackberry, chocolate, vanilla, raisins which will merge over time.

350 bottles have been numbered individually. The first of these will be go to one lucky reader of Paul McConville’s column in the Irish News this weekend.

There will be one cask available at CAMRA NI’s Belfast Beer & Cider Festival from Thursday 8 November.

And the rest will be making its way to our stockists.

Enjoy it now, drink one this Christmas or save for the future!