Where one business has failed, another thinks it can make good.

At least that's what Jeff Payne, Roger and Marcus Betschart and the other shareholders of Bermuda Brewing Company are hoping; their first beer, called "Island Ale'', debuts in seven pubs today.

The company operates at the former Industrial Park Road, Southampton site of Bermuda Triangle Brewing, the company that closed down last year after only five years in operation.

In the four months since Bermuda Brewing was formed, the company has refurbished the 5,000 square foot micro-brewery, replaced infrastructure and bought equipment from Triangle Brewing's liquidators. The result, operations manager Marcus Betschart said, was a brewing system more efficient than its predecessor. (Unfortunately, for the new company, the kegs are imprinted with the name of their former owners.) Caught in the shadow of Triangle's collapse, Bermuda Brewing has its sceptics.

North Rock Brewing, which opened for business in early 1997, is the only other local label to have succeeded thus far. The company distributes solely through its brew pub in Smiths, making Bermuda Brewing's product the only widely-distributed local beer.

And after conducting market research, the brewery's owners are confident there is strong demand for a local draught beer. They don't see Bermudians' partiality toward their Heinekens as a problem. "We've got a lot of support from marketers,'' Mr. Payne, the company's president, said. "There is a big demand for beer in Bermuda and that demand has not been met with good beer.'' Indeed, micro-breweries have experienced explosive growth worldwide, and in the United States especially.

Bermuda Brewing, he said, was capitalised differently than Triangle Brewing and was for the time being focusing on one -- not half a dozen -- brews.

The micro-brewery brought in a brewmeister from Colorado to develop three variations on the same beer to determine what locals liked. Customer sampling at Cup Match and the Non-Mariners' race eventually decided which beer would bear the Island Ale label.

The company says there are plans to eventually introduce a second beer and perhaps even a specialty one. But it is intent on perfecting any existing products before developing new ones and entering the bottled beer market is at this point only a long-term aspiration.

"You walk before you run,'' Mr. Payne said. "And if people drink every pint of a single beer, we can live with that.'' The Island Ale is not pasteurised and does not incorporate chemicals or preservatives, an approach that Mr. Payne thinks will give a fresher, more natural and unblemished product.

Company raises glass to future Bermuda Brewing's promotional materials describe it as "easy to drink''.

The company plans to diversify beyond beer sales by selling merchandise and offering tours (beginning August 28) of the plant.

Bermuda Brewing has signed Burrows Lightbourn as distributors for the drink and hopes that stalls at Harbour Nights will spark interest in the local brew.

The interest of pubs has already been sparked, it seems. "Bars have been calling us and asking if they could get test batches,'' said an excited Mr.

Payne.