The Last Word
Ladies like beer too. That’s what Gráinne Walsh tells Joseph O’Connor while reflecting on her jump from a successful IT career into the uncertain world of brewing.
he scene is a small café in a rural French town and it’s 9.30 on a sunny morning. There’s an elderly lady sipping on a half glass of beer or a ‘demi’ as the locals like to call it. It was a simple setting but one which Gráinne Walsh, co-founder of Metalman Brewing Company, drew great inspiration from. “I just thought it was awesome,” recalls the Waterford brewer. “Nobody was judging her. No one was looking at her like she had 11 heads. There was no problem with getting a beer at that time. It was such a normal and sensible attitude to have towards having a glass of beer on a sunny morning. It mightn’t be for everyone but it was
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definitely for this lady and it just seemed perfectly normal.” While Walsh is not envisaging an Ireland where much of its population engages in an early morning tipple, she believes a move towards an appreciation of well-produced, quality beer is a good one and this attitude has spread exponentially here in recent years. And the figures back it up. According to Bord Bia, craft beer volumes for 2012 were estimated to have grown by 44 per cent. The growth is mostly focused on the domestic market despite the recession and the relatively depressed drinks trade. Sales here were up by 55 per cent
while exports increased by 26 per cent. As consumers become more accustomed to quality craft beer and demand greater choice, a vast number of micro breweries have emerged in Ireland over the past five years. One such brewery is Metalman. Born out of a desire to see more beer produced by independent brewers in Ireland, Metalman Brewing Company is the brainchild of Walsh and her partner Tim Barber who say they were frustrated by the lack of flavoursome, authentically Irish beer on the market. Their first offering, Metalman Pale Ale, was brewed under contract at the White Gypsy Brewery in Templemore, and
launched in March 2011. The Waterford brewery was commissioned at the Tycor Business Centre and production was moved across in May 2012. Since then, Metalman have been busy producing lots of pale ale as well as seasonal brews every few months. Their beer is described as a refreshing, American-style pale ale, brewed with hops from the US west coast, and last year it was voted Beer of the Year by Beoir, an independent group aimed at raising awareness of Ireland’s native independent microbreweries.
Career Change Walsh didn’t make an obvious transition into brewing. Instead she called time on a successful IT career in January 2011 to focus full-time on establishing Metalman. Her time in the industry began with a graduate recruitment InBusiness | Q2 2014