Rascal’s Brewing Co’s founders got down to business in peripatetic fashion – Cathal O’Donoghue hails from west Cork while Emma Devlin is from north Donegal. The duo met in New Zealand in 2009 and set up their craft beer business in Dublin in 2013. Prior to that, Cathal (33) worked as a pharmaceutical engineer, while Emma (30) worked in energy management.

“We started home brewing while living in New Zealand,” Emma explains. “It was Cathal’s dream to return to Ireland and set up a brewery. It took a long time to come up with the name but we finally decided on Rascal’s, as we felt it represented ourselves as well as something ‘Irishy’, fun and bold.”

The couple located their 950-litre brewery in Greenogue Industrial Estate in Rathcoole. “We wanted to have a brewery in or close to the city on public transport lines but we couldn’t find anything within our budget,” says Emma, who adds that the business was funded with their savings.

Making the best of slim resources, the Rascal’s founders focused primarily on the Dublin pub scene to sell their beer. “We are lucky in that the accounts we secured in the first six months of business have kept us busy. We are in Dublin bars who are open to craft beer and who want to support a local brewery,” says Emma.

Fierce Competition

The competition for pub taps in Dublin and other urban centres around the country is fierce. Rascal’s seeks to differentiate itself through the beverage quality and unusual seasonal batches such as Ginger Porter, Wit Woo and Big Hop Red. The company makes three staple beers and several seasonal variations, for which it has picked up a number of awards.

In Association with

Rascal’s Brewing brews around 7,000 litres of beer each month and the company founders stock 20 pubs themselves, while distributors stock another 20 or so pubs in Cork, Galway and Donegal. According to Devlin, strong branding is important with craft beers. “Our branding is sharp, which helps when your tap is one of 20 or 30 in a single pub,” she says. “We considered many designs before we settled on the final look. Cathal’s sister is our designer.”

The key hurdles faced by the Rascal’s founders are the need to be innovative and to maintain product consistency and quality. “This can be a challenge when your brew is dependent on the raw materials you receive. For example, barley and hops can come from various locations here and abroad, grown in different soils under various weather conditions.

Sound Advice

“In addition, the typical craft beer drinker is always looking for the next new thing. In terms of business dealings, we like the advice from Scott Baigent of Eight Degrees Brewing, which is not to do business with jerks. We believe he is dead right - they will always let you down.”

For the time being, Rascal’s is focusing on the pub trade. “We had planned to be bottling our beer a lot sooner but this still hasn’t happened. Thankfully, we have been busy with the keg market and we are currently planning a brewery expansion in order to increase production and start packaging the beer.”

Niche beers: Cathal O’Donoghue and Emma Devlin