Startup insights from the craft beer world, Richie Hamilton, Hope Beer

Interesting interview with Richie Hamilton, a former philosophy lecturer in TCD and experienced brewer is currently the head brewer at Hope Beer, a micro-brewery based in Kilbarrack in North Dublin.

What is your own background briefly?

I was a home brewer since 2004 and at the same time I was writing a Philosophy PHD in TCD. I saw a job on Twitter for a beer delivery person so I started doing that one or two days week delivering Galway Hooker around Dublin.

I was winning a quite a few medals in the national home brew competitions and by 2014 I had completed my PHD and was teaching in TCD. By that stage the delivery company had branched out to brewing to become Craft Works and they asked would I come brew for them so I ended the teaching to become a full time brewer.

It was in Craft Works that I met Wim and Des from Hope as Craft Works were the contract brewer for Hope before their brewery was completed. At the time I was brewing their PASSifyoucan Pale Ale, Grunt Wheat Beer and Handsome Jack IPA so I’ve been involved with them from the very start.

I left in 2016 to join Boyne Brewhouse in Drogheda and became their Head Brewer before moving to Hope in October 2019.

Why did you get involved with brewing beer?

I’ve always had an interest in process of how things are made. I’m interested in woodwork and do a lot of baking and cooking and also like to build guitars in my spare time, which I don’t have a lot of at the moment! Naturally, I got interested in brewing once I started drinking beer in college.

When I studied in Edinburgh I was walking past a home brewing shop and bought a book for a tenner and shortly afterward I got a present of a home-brew kit and it took off from there really.

Home brewing can get out of control quite quickly; it’s like an arms race with yourself! You are constantly making the kit bigger and adding more bits to it and you end up producing 100 to 50 litres in your shed, having way to much beer and sharing most of it with friends and family.

As most homebrewers will testify to, it takes over your life quite a bit and you find yourself with two or three fridges full of beer in your house and shed.

Craft beer with Richie Hamilton, Hope Beer

What’s your guiding mantra/philosophy when it comes to brewing?

I much prefer to make simple and straight forward styles of beer, brewed really well. I don’t see any practical value in novelty styles and I see a lot of brewers chasing styles and fads for the sake of it. There’s nothing wrong with traditional beers as long as they are done well. A well-made lager or stout is a wonderful thing and I’m not interested in current trends for sweet or milkshake style beers. Traditional styles are traditional for a reason as they have a quality about them.

How was the last 12 months? What were your big wins?

Moving to Hope was great and it’s been a fantastic 7 months. I knew them from my Craft Works days and always had my eye on them to be honest but I didn’t think my predecessor Mark Nixon would move, but obviously he did as he moved on to set up his own brand. I was surprised when Wim got in touch and it was great timing as I had it in my mind to move on and be closer to Dublin. Hope is my closest brewery spiritually and physically!

What’s been the biggest COVID-19 related challenge/success?

Overnight we had to switch our packaging. 70% of our beer was kegged and that went to zero over night while we were also getting kegs returned from the pubs. Simultaneously, we had to can everything as bottle sales bit the dust as customers for those were largely restaurants.

On top of these we didn’t know what volume we’d need as we didn’t know how much people would be drinking and it turned out we needed more than expected.  Logistics of switching packaging was difficult. We don’t own a canner so we outsource that, as does everyone else, so dates became hard to get as suddenly everyone was in the same situation.

One of the big successes was our mini-kegs. We’ve taken a couple of deliveries of 5 litre mini-kegs from Germany which allowed us to sell the beer that was destined for kegs and they’ve been hugely successful, so much as we can’t keep up with demand.

Hope produces a core range of five distinct beer styles which are available all year round as well as two seasonals and a wide range of limited-edition beers. All Hope beers are brewed, bottled, canned and kegged at Howth Junction on Dublin’s Northside and are crafted to be the perfect accompaniment to food.

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