The peak high above Westport, Ireland, has been a sacred spot for thousands of years. According to locals, St. Patrick fasted for 40 days and nights upon the mountaintop. More than 20,000 pilgrims annually make the hike to the top as a chance to commune with nature, follow in St. Patrick’s footsteps and experience the summit views.
St. Patrick may very well have climbed down the mountain and broken his fast with a beer crafted by his personal brewer, Mescan.
I enjoyed a few cold beers brewed and bottled in the foothills of Croagh Patrick. Mescan Brewery, owned and operated by Cillian O’Morain, operates out of a nanobrewery just below the peak.
We had planned on meeting a day earlier, but as O’Morain explained, “The gods laugh at the plans man makes…and I do suspect someone is laughing at most of the plans I make.” A brewing setback put the visit in jeopardy, but with a little Irish luck I was able to visit the following day.
O’Morain and his original brewing partner, Bart Adons, were working veterinarians in the Westport region. It’s a job that takes a toll even as it rewards.
ILB: How did you go from veterinary work to brewing?
O’Morain: Bart and I have known each other for 30 years. We loved our jobs, but we disliked the out-of-hours work. A fateful day happened when Bart arrived at my home in very bad form.
He had driven out to see a sick animal on Achill Island. After a long night dealing with the animal, he arrived at my house. As a friend should do, I poured the man a beer. Then he poured me a beer. And then we were a bit thirsty, so we had another beer.
Somewhere around the fourth beer, after much complaining, Bart suddenly looked up and said, ‘Why don’t we do something else?’
ILB: And brewing was the answer?
O’Morain: I just happened to be at the right stage of frustration and relaxation to say yes.
ILB: And the next morning didn’t change anything?
O’Morain: Sometimes, something just feels right. At the time [2011], there were roughly 11 microbreweries in all of Ireland. So we thought this was a brilliant, novel idea: We’d brew Belgian beers.
ILB: Belgian ales in Ireland?
O’Morain: I had been to Belgium with Bart many times and those were the beers I liked. So we were going to teach all of Ireland to love Belgians. How could it go wrong?
ILB: They are delicious.
O’Morain: All of the beers we make are beers I want to drink. We’ve never made an IPA, and we will never make one as long as I am here. Not just because it’s the work of Satan. [laughing] Have I just offended half of San Diego?
ILB: Only the beer-drinking half.
O’Morain: We make very simple, traditional beers. For me, people putting chocolate and pastry and other stuff in their beer should be placed in sacks and beaten with sticks [again, laughing]. Of course, that’s not true. It’s just not for me. Simple is good and traditional is good. And for us, taking things slowly is important. That’s the biggest difference between what we do and what is considered normal practice. We won’t rush anything. Nothing is filtered and everything is bottled conditioned.
ILB: Tell me about this beer we are drinking.
O’Morain: This beer, Carnal Knowledge, was named right here at the barrel we are standing at. The idea for the beer had its origin in a brewing course we ran. We wrote a recipe to teach people how to brew with as many steps as we could think of and didn’t really expect the beer to come out so good. We were quite surprised. With a bit of tweaking, that beer became the one you’re drinking.
ILB: And the name?
O’Morain: The story of the name is quite different. After a long, painful day of brewing. Many things went wrong. Eventually, the job got done. We were tired and a bit grumpy. Being mature adults, we decided to console ourselves with a quadruple brandy. We were standing at this barrel saying nothing, looking at the stars, feeling sorry for ourselves, sipping our brandy and apropos of nothing, Bart said, ‘The next beer we make, I want to call it Carnal Knowledge.’ And I said, ‘Bart, you can call the beer whatever the #$%& you want to call it.’ By happy coincidence, this beer became Carnal Knowledge.
ILB: What’s next for Mescan Brewing?
O’Morain: We aren’t interested in taking over the world. Mr. Guinness spills more beer than I brew in a year.
ILB: In town, they are very proud of Mescan beer.
O’Morain: That means the absolute world to us. Our brewery is here because this is home. I’ve lived in Westport for 26 years. As a veterinarian, you get embedded into the community very quickly. You’re traveling all the small roads, visiting all the farms, meeting all the people. You’re seeing people when they are vulnerable with their sick animals. You feel locked in very quickly. And there’s something about the mountains and the sea. I never wanted to leave. There was never any question of going anywhere else.
Jeff Spanier is the co-host of I Like Beer the Podcast. The entire interview can be listened to wherever you get podcasts. Follow Spanier’s adventures on Instagram @ilikebeerthepodcast.
