The study first collected data readily
available from Beoir: Ireland's craft beer consumers group. Their list
qualifies “Irish Micro-breweries” as “produced on the island of
Ireland by an Irish company which makes less than 30,000hL per year”
(http://www.beoir.org/index.php/craft-beer-directories/a-z-of-ireland-s-beer-cider). This means breweries that were Irish owned at the time such as Franciscan Well is included and breweries that have relocated to Ireland more recently, such as Rye River are excluded. From here a data base was built listing:
- Brewers Brand name- defined as the label brand of the brewer, in order to include contract brewers who use other breweries facilities to produce their product. Figure 2 lists breweries discovered with those which closed and those for which there was incomplete information noted.
- Core beers- defined as by the author as “consistently brewed for throughout a year for at least a year” to exclude seasonal and special brews).
- County- which of the 32 counties of Ireland the brand's business is based.
- Province- which of the 4 provinces of Ireland the brand's business is based.
- Beer Style- styles was recorded based on the brands own identification which resulted in 46 styles, these were then aggregated into 11 broader styles (See Figure 1).
- Start/End- the year a beer became available and the year it was discontinued if so.
