Each week here on JOE we’ll be bringing you the personal thoughts and tips from Irish entrepreneur Michael Cowan, founder & CEO of the Manor Brewing Company.
“Steady as she goes…”
It really feels like we’ve made big in-roads this week. The pace things develop as a start-up business in Ireland is extraordinary. The widespread entrepreneurial culture here in Ireland means you are not short of genuine people giving you genuine help, ideas, and contacts to help you move forward.
After many years of working for big marketing companies I’ve begun to realise many ‘fast moving consumer goods’ are made by ‘slow moving stuffy corporations’. After nearly 12 months of jumping through all the hoops to get our idea of making a distinctive ‘Irish Mountain Beer’ off the ground, I’m pleased to report things are now moving at break-neck speed.
Although, while the speed of development and progress is not an entirely new experience personally, it’s the freedom to make bold decisions that is the most exhilarating feeling of all.
So here’s our biggest, boldest decision yet: we’ve named our beer, and it has a distinctive look and feel. So we can now reveal it to the world, and an EXCLUSIVE first for JOE readers:
Mont is a naturally brewed Irish Mountain Beer. The story of Mont will be revealed over the course of the Manor Brewing Company’s Start-Up Diary here on JOE.
For now we can tell you our flagship product will be a Pilsner-inspired Lager at around 5.2% abv., with a range of other styles released over time.
We are pilot brewing at the moment, so follow us on Twitter @ManorBrewingCo to find out when you can trial it over the summer.
In the meantime, we will be beavering away inside The Bell Tower brewhouse (pictured below), and we hope you enjoy following our progress, ups and downs, as we bring Mont to market.
Yours in craft,
Michael Cowan…
