Passion for beer stirs a Belfast legend…

An old Belfast ghost story provides a colourful backdrop to the launch of Northern Ireland’s latest craft beer label…

There can be few readers from the trade who will have failed to notice the recent surge of interest across Northern Ireland in the brewing – and drinking – of craft beer.

There are now close on 30 indigenous craft beer manufacturers in the province – two years ago there were fewer than half that number.

When the Belfast Beer and Cider Festival was first staged 15 years ago, Northern Ireland’s beer-brewing prowess was represented by only one local company, Hilden. When it was last held in November, there were five local brewers present and in future, it’s likely that one of the four bars at the event will be given over solely to Northern Irish micro-breweries.

One of those who’s buoyed by the recent resurgence in the fortunes of craft beer is Belfast-born Declan Holmes (26), whose passion for the brewing tradition has led him to launch his own golden ale called ‘Gallopers’.

Brewed with locally malted barley and three hop varieties, Gallopers is 4.3% with a distinctly citrus aroma and Declan – whose father is the well-known broadcaster, Eamon Holmes – believes that the beer is “an ideal stepping stone” for those drinkers who are unfamiliar with the craft beer scene.

“Many craft beer drinkers will have close friends and family who aren’t really into craft and we’re keen to engage them and encourage them to try craft beer as well,” he told LCN recently.

Declan is very passionate about beer. He’s worked in the local licensing trade for eight years, chiefly in Café Vaudeville and Horatio Todd’s in Belfast and for Bacardi Brown-Forman as a sales person on the road. Those experiences gave him a taste for the industry and helped him see just how resurgent craft beer had become. Combining that with a long-held personal ambition to own his own business, Declan says that launching his own beer label seemed like the natural thing to do:

“We’ve been planning it for some time and it’s certainly not a vanity project,” he adds. “We see this as a viable business opportunity. I have a passion for the product and a real desire to make the business work. I see this as the first steps into the hospitality trade for us and this has lots of potential to be an international brand, although we know that’s going to take a lot of hard work.”

Distribution proper began at the start of October and Declan’s NightCap Beer Co. already has 25 accounts on board across Northern Ireland. Belfast-based Whitenoise Studios has taken care of the branding for him and Anzac Wines and Spirits, based in Ballycastle, are the distributors.

Declan runs the business from an office in Belfast although the product is currently manufactured by a micro-brewery in the English midlands. This is a temporary arrangement, says Declan, until a permanent base can be found.

And he says that the priorities for the business include increasing the range of product, perhaps to three or four beers.

“So far, the beer has been received very well,” adds Declan. “People love the story behind it [see box] and the branding and I personally think that it stands out well against its competitors.”

Declan says that he’ll be pushing sales in the run-up to the busy Christmas selling period. Extensive marketing activity and sampling is also planned in order to increase awareness of the province’s newest craft beer offering.

The Galloper rides again…

The Gallopers branding is built around the Belfast legend of Galloper Thompson. The story goes that a local man called Gordon Thompson once told his friends that if he didn’t find a place in heaven, he would return and haunt the streets of his native Belfast.

And after being decapitated in an accident at a local mill, he did just that.

In Victorian Belfast, people would frighten each other with tales of Thompson’s ghost borrowing horses from stables in the dead of night and leaving them back at dawn, filthy and exhausted, to the bemusement of their owners.

Parents in the modern era have used the tale in a cautionary fashion in a bid to keep their offspring in line – those youngsters that stay out late are sometimes warned that they risk the wrath of ‘The Galloper’…

Our main picture shows Declan (left) enjoying a glass of Gallopers with dad, Eamon Holmes and distributor, Garry Connolly of Anzac Wines and Spirits.