The Carlow Brewing Company, makers of O'Hara's craft beer, has announced a collaboration with a US brewer.

The US-style craft beer, with the working title Future Favour, will be launched on July 4th for Independence Day.

It will combine an Irish-style red ale with Falconer's Flight hops which can only be grown in the United States. An Irish-style beer for the American market will be launched around St Patrick's Day next year.

The beer for Independence Day will be brewed in Carlow, while the other beer for the American market will be brewed in the US.

The two breweries intend to collaborate together on future projects.

Starr Hill is a small independent American brewery based in Charlottesville, Virginia. It has won multiple awards internationally for its beers.

Company’s reputation

Starr Hill chief executive Brian McNelis said the collaboration with O’Hara’s has come about as a result of the Carlow Brewing Company’s reputation as the oldest and largest of Ireland’s independent craft beer companies. Carlow Brewing was founded in 1996 and makes both O’Hara’s and O’Shea’s.

In the US, the craft beer market has almost quadrupled in size over the last decade from 3 per cent to just more than 11 per cent of market by volume and 20 per cent by spend.

In Ireland, by contrast, it is just 1.5 per cent of the Irish beer market but growing rapidly.