Launch of West Mayo Brewery's Franconian beer

WEST Mayo Brewery of Islandeady is about to officially launch its latest beer, ‘Franconian’, which recently went on sale locally.

Proprietors Caroline and Iain Price were inspired to make Franconian, a smoked beer, after visiting Höchstadt an der Aisch, a town in Northern Bavaria that is twinned with Castlebar and a place where they encountered many versions of smoked beer.

They came home and developed a recipe using beech-smoked malt sourced from Franconia in Bavaria and put their own distinctive mark on their Irish version of this very special smoked beer.

The launch takew place at 8 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) in Bar One, Castlebar, under the keen eye of Mark Cadden, a leading light in the championing of local Mayo craft beers.

To mark the occasion, Sarah and Sean from De Búrca Traditional Butcher Shop on Main Street have developed a bratwurst-style sausage made using the warm smokiness of Franconian Beer.

De Búrca’s produce international award-winning handmade sausages and this is their first attempt at a smoked version. It’s called the Franconian Frank and both the beer and the sausage can be tasted for free on the night!

And if that wasn’t reason enough to head down to Rush Street tonight, West Mayo Brewery, Bar One and De Búrca Traditional Butcher Shop have all three received news this week that they are to be awarded the McKenna Guides plague, a respected badge of merit in Irish contemporary food, for 2017 – their third year in a row.