Hi, I'm Bernard Sloan, Managing
Director of the Whitewater Brewing Company
in Castlewellan.  We're classified as a
microbrewery or a craft brewery.
We brew all kinds of lagers, ales and stouts.  We package in bottles, kegs and cans.
Craft beer has a bit more of an emphasis on flavour. We're using premium hops
and we're producing beers that are
generally matured longer
and are fuller-flavored than mass-produce beers. The
market since we started in 1996 has
grown. It's had its challenges from a very very small start, but it's a market where
customers are looking for something
different. I decided to start the
beer business in Northern Ireland 
after living and working in England
I worked initially as an engineer and
was exposed to all different types of
beers that we probably weren't exposed
to and different flavours and styles
This was something I wanted to replicate back home in Northern Ireland
There were a handful of outlets selling cask conditioned beer. We researched those outlets which
were in the Greater Belfast area and
then looked up the potential for other
parts of Northern Ireland to roll that
out to. We were based on a farm
about 16 miles from here in the village of Attical. 
It was a fifth-generation farm.
We did a farm diversification grant at
that stage plus also our own funding.
Subsequently we've worked with Invest
NI.
We started with a gas-fired 800 litre tank.
We've now progressed from 1996 to 2000
with a 2000 litre plant.
We're now have a 7,000 brew size.
Sales in the beginning were challenging
there's no other way than saying that. We
found that in 2006 when we installed our bottling line we were able to reach a bigger audience.
Sales have gone exponentially especially in this past 3-4 years.
Legal considerations running a brewery
Firstly, we produce alcohol so we have to
account for the the duty associated with the alcohol.
Health and safety considerations have changed a lot over the years running our brewery.
Initially it was myself and my wife operating an in a small brewery in Attical on our farm.
Now we've nine employees.
We have bottling machinery, canning machinery. We've
got steam equipment.
.Anybody when they come into our business, we have to make sure we carry out an induction.
The health and safety of employees is very very important.
Alcohol is a very very competitive market.
Our businesses of craft brewery is based on creating a high quality product and getting ourselves noticed
in different competitions over the world.
In terms of reaching customers and selling to customers, we sell into the
supermarket channels,
we sell into restaurants, we sell to bars.
Currently our largest market outside the United Kingdom would be Russia.  After that we're selling
into Japan and other European countries as well. 
Every market has different
legislation, labelling considerations and
obviously the logistic operations of
selling out a beer to Tokyo or to Moscow
 are challenging.
To promote our beers we do a lot of tastings. 
We organise tastings in bars,
tastings in restaurants and events.
We have a visitor centre.
We get a lot of interest from people around the world currently
The first tour group was 19 Swiss home brewers.
The second group were Campaign for Real Ale - 40 people came from England.
We've done meet the buyer events as well to introduce ourselves to tour groups all over the world
Being a small place, being isolated,
having a limited supply of alcohol suppliers
tends to suppress the market a
little bit but we've managed to overcome
that challenge to get our distribution
agreements in place.
Some people say we're it were an overnight success after 23 years, but it takes alot of hard work.
Looking at going to export market earlier was something that we probably would have would have done.
My top three tips for running successful brewery would be - number one hygiene. That's first and
foremost in anything that we do.
Secondly we would have to look at
putting your beer at the right price
into the market.
Thirdly, consistency - making sure that you consistently make that beer to the best of your ability.
