Read about the

scandal in the

SUNDAY TRIBUNE...

I want to tell you about a scandal. And, before I do so, let me just say that I have heard this story not from the Dublin Brewing Company, nor from any of the big drinks companies, but from a publican.

Beckett's Irish Ale is produced by a micro-brewery in Smithfield and is sold, on draught, in 22 pubs around the centre of Dublin. It is a superb product, probably the most interesting beer that you will find on tap in any of the pubs that stock it.

Beckett's is produced in minute quantities. Even if it achieves the success it deserves, it will still be a local beer, brewed close to the pubs that serve it, with, perhaps, a few bottles travelling further to delight connoisseurs of beer throughout the land.

There's no way it will become a major brand. The people who make it don't want it to. And anyway it's debatable if you can make something so good in vast quantities.

Here's the scandal. Sales reps from one of the Big Three beer companies are offering free kegs to publicans who will de-list Beckett's. There's nothing new here of course. The brewers have been offering all kinds of inducements for years but this developement is worrying. It's one thing for two big brands to slug it out, quite another for one of the big boys to deny you and me the right to to enjoy a product like Beckett's.

So what exactly is this beer which causes such fear and loathing amongst the purveyors of brand lagers?

Beckett's Irish Ale is a brown beer with a wonderfully... malty, hoppy aromatic whiff. There's a rounded, toasty quality, a wholesomeness which makes most of the big brand beers seem lean and ungenerous in comparison. There is a definite bitterness or astringency on the finish which makes a remarkably complex beer.

Interestingly enough, although Beckett's is brewed in Smithfield, the water comes from Co Wicklow.

The Dublin Brewing Company firmly eschews pasteurisation and instead uses micro-filtration to ensure clarity and stability. The resulting beer is nothing short of masterpiece. Just one taste could change your attitude to beer for good...

A newly formed brewery is to challenge the might of Uncle Arthur Guinness on his own doorstep of St. James's Gate in Dublin.

The idea comes from 34-year-old Co Roscommon man Kevin Finnerty, who has set up a micro-brewery in Smithfield, just across the river from the Guinness brewery, making a light ale called Beckett's.

Christened in reverence to the great Dublin playwright Samuel Beckett, Finnerty is hoping that instead of a 'pint-of-plain', Dublin pub goers will get used to ordering a 'pint-of-Sam' instead.

Recently Finnerty held a tasting session and was more then (sic) pleased with the reaction from a specially selected panel. He says a definite niche market exists for Beckett's lighter flavour and texture among beer drinkers.

Finnerty, whose background is in the US publishing music magazines, plans to brew 130 kegs a week in his first year for distribution in upmarket Dublin pubs buts (sic) sees export opportunities further down the line. At full capacity his Smithfield brewery - once the home of the Jameson distillery - can produce over 900 kegs a week.

The new brand, which is chemical and additive free, will be officially launched in the spring and in the meantime it will be introduced on a gradual or dripfeed basis to assess reaction. The main ingredients are Irish malt, hops and water.

To help him out he has enlisted the help of Scots-Irish brewer Liam McKenna, who has moved from the US to Dublin and has been involved in a number of successful start-ups there. Microbrewing is widespread in the US and a number of nationally known brands like Samuel Adams have grown out of small-scale operations.

In fact, the late 18th century Dublin supported no fewer than 33 breweries but that number fell to just one dominant brand by the 1990s. Today the city only has one other micro-brewery, The Porter House pub in Temple Bar, which opened in 1995.

However, the concept is becoming increasingly popular among those who believe that Guinness has remained unchallenged for too long.