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Beer has been brewed here in Cork for more than 500 years.
Beamish & Crawford, the city’s oldest brewery, was founded in 1792 on a site that had been used for brewing as far back as 1500AD. The current brewery has changed hands many times during its 200-year history – and today produces Beamish Stout and Beamish Red, as well as holding the Irish franchise for Fosters, Miller and Kronenberg 1664.
On the other side of the River Lee, Murphy’s Brewery has its roots in Lady’s Well, where it was founded in 1856. As with Beamish & Crawford, Murphy’s has changed owners many times over the years and its now part of the Dutch brewing group, Heineken.
Cork’s northside has another, less well-known, brewery too. The Franciscan Well Brewery was founded in 1998 on the site of a 13th century monastery, which, as legend goes, had a well with curative powers. Blarney Blonde, Shandon Stout and Rebel Red are all brewed here.
Most of Ireland’s whiskies are distilled in Cork. Midleton Distillery, one of the most modern distilleries in the world, produces– Jameson, Paddy, Powers, Tullamore Dew, Redbreast and Midleton Very Rare.
PepsiCo, the world’s second-largest soft drinks manufacturer, has had a base in Little Island just outside the city since 1974. In 2003, it invested $100 million in a second operation, this time in Carrigaline, and five years later PepsiCo announced that it would establish an R&D centre-of-excellence in Little Island to carry out product research into a new range of drinks offering health benefits. Pepsi Cola International Cork (PCIC) now supplies concentrate to nearly 400 bottling plants in countries throughout Europe and Asia – a complex operation which has led to the establishment of Cork as an information hub for PepsiCo worldwide.
For more information on relocating to or investing in Cork, email or telephone +353 (0) 21 4317895.
