7 Outstanding Beers

Winners of Multiple awards

Hand-Crafted In Northern Ireland

Using the Finest Local Ingredients

It All Started with 2 Beers and a Dream....

Why our beer is so good

  • Ingredients
    We source many of the ingredients locally to maintain the highest quality standards and to ensure we contribute to our local economy.
  • Quality Hops
    The hops we use are kept below 4 degrees from the farm until they find their way into one of our beers. This keeps the alpha acid and hop oils in tip top shape and makes sure we pass all their flavors into our beers.
  • Water Quality
    Beer contains approximately 90% water and quality cannot be over-estimated. That's why we test our water supply before every single brew to ensure it's of premium quality.
  • Yeast
    Probably the most important ingredient because without yeast there would be no beer! We have taken great care in selecting the perfect yeast for each of our beers.
  • The Process
    Our beers are all unfiltered, naturally conditioned and do not contain any artificial preservatives or other chemicals, the natural goodness and full flavours are all kept intact. Our full range is also Vegan Friendly!
  • Equipment
    Our Brewhouse uses the latest technology and pressurized tanks to ensure we not only brew really good beers but its also better for the environment!

Using just four ingredients (water, barley, yeast and hops) and only brewing in small batches produces quality full bodied beers.

  • Malt mashing
    Malt mashing
    This is the first step of the process and where the first two ingredients — water and malt — will meet. Hot water is mixed with cracked grain in a “Mash Tun.” Thanks to enzymes present in the malt, starches from the malt are converted into sugars. The liquid produced is called wort: a sugar-rich liquid made from malt and other grains. This process typically takes 60 to 90 minutes.
  • Filtration and boiling
    Filtration and boiling
    The mash tun is fitted with a false bottom to separate the wort from the remaining malt solids. We separate the wort from the malt and collect it in the boil kettle. As the wort is being collected, we rinse the malt with hot water to ensure all the sugars have been removed and assembled in the kettle, the boiling begins. The boiling process achieves a few things. First, it sterilizes the wort. Second, we introduce the third ingredient, hops, into the kettle. They impart bitterness, flavor, and aroma to the beer. All our beers are boiled between 60-90 minutes.
  • Cooling & Fermentation
    Cooling & Fermentation
    Once the boil is finished, we need to bring the wort down from 100 degrees to around 25 degrees for pitching our yeast. If we didn't do this the yeast would die as soon as they hit the hot wort. We use a heat exchanger which sends through cold water whilst hot wort is sent through the other side. The wort comes out at the desired temp whilst we collect the now hot water that we use for the next batch of beer or for cleaning.
  • Carbonation & Packaging
    Carbonation & Packaging
    It takes up to 10 days for the yeast to turn all the sugars into alcohol and settle back down to the bottom again. All our beers are naturally carbonated meaning we do not add any additional Carbon Dioxide to get "the fizz". We use the natural by-product of the yeast (which happens to be Co2) by closing off a valve a few days into fermentation to capture the rest of Co2 and to carbonate the beer. It's still not quite ready yet... As we don't filter our beers, to ensure we keep as many flavours as possible, we need to cool the beer down to -1 degrees and leave it to settle for another 2 weeks to ensure any hop matter and sediment settles to the bottom before packaging. Once packaged, we let it sit for another 4 weeks at room temperature before its ready to drink.

Interested in stocking our beer?

Get in touch with our Sales Team and they will be more than happy to deal with your request.

Where to buy

Our beers are currently stocked across Northern Ireland and Italy with some outlets in mainland UK. If you live in the UK and and you don’t have a outlet close by that sells McCrackens don’t panic. Our full range is available on our online shop along with some of our merchandise!

Since 2018, our beers and brewery have won many prestigious awards.

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