"Recent" Irish brewery openings - list
Since there's a thread going on future brewery openings, it seemed like a good time to get one on past openings, too.
If we don't write all this stuff down now, we'll end up forgetting it, or at least arguing about it a lot.
This list was pre-approved by TBN so it shouldn't be too far off the truth.
The arbitrary starting point is the current wave of craft breweries. The boom and bust of the 90s can be documented somewhere else.
Cuckoo brewers are in, but brewers who never brewed in Ireland (like Strangford Lough) or never operated as a true business (like Big Hand) are out.
The year is the first time somebody could drink a beer from that brewery, not the year the incorporation papers were signed.
Anybody has corrections, shout it out.
2006: Hooker
2007: White Gypsy
2008: Beoir Chorca Dhuibhne (West Kerry Brewery)
2009: Inishmacsaint, Galway Bay, Trouble, Clanconnel
2010: Dungarvan, Metalman
2011: Eight Degrees, Dingle, Burren, Ards, Bo Bristle (as Breweyed)
2012: Kinnegar, Brown Paper Bag, 5 Lamps, Elbow Lane, Donegal, 7 Windows
2013: Red Hand
If we don't write all this stuff down now, we'll end up forgetting it, or at least arguing about it a lot.
This list was pre-approved by TBN so it shouldn't be too far off the truth.
The arbitrary starting point is the current wave of craft breweries. The boom and bust of the 90s can be documented somewhere else.
Cuckoo brewers are in, but brewers who never brewed in Ireland (like Strangford Lough) or never operated as a true business (like Big Hand) are out.
The year is the first time somebody could drink a beer from that brewery, not the year the incorporation papers were signed.
Anybody has corrections, shout it out.
2006: Hooker
2007: White Gypsy
2008: Beoir Chorca Dhuibhne (West Kerry Brewery)
2009: Inishmacsaint, Galway Bay, Trouble, Clanconnel
2010: Dungarvan, Metalman
2011: Eight Degrees, Dingle, Burren, Ards, Bo Bristle (as Breweyed)
2012: Kinnegar, Brown Paper Bag, 5 Lamps, Elbow Lane, Donegal, 7 Windows
2013: Red Hand
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KeeganAles - Beoir Member
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Oh thanks very much. May I just add that it wasn't without compromise on some points and that the list is still very much KeeganAles's fault.KeeganAles wrote:This list was pre-approved by TBN so it shouldn't be too far off the truth.
Seriously though, good idea to have this. I tried to do one for the 1990s and it's pretty tough.
Fermenting: Cider
Running: Pale ale, IPA, Dry cider
Stock: Mead, Kit Barolo, Imperial stout, IPA, Quadrupel
Running: Pale ale, IPA, Dry cider
Stock: Mead, Kit Barolo, Imperial stout, IPA, Quadrupel
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TheBeerNut - Beoir Member
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Trouble made their debut alongside us at Easterfest in 2010.
Pretty sure Metalman was 2011.
Pretty sure Metalman was 2011.
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noby - Beoir Member
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Oh, and nice idea, by the way.
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noby - Beoir Member
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noby wrote:Trouble made their debut alongside us at Easterfest in 2010.
Pretty sure Metalman was 2011.
Yup that'd be my recollection too
Primary :
Secondary :
Drinking :
Secondary :
Drinking :
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Wallacebiy - Beoir Member
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Just for completeness:
Porterhouse Brewing: 1989
Carlow Brewing: 1996
Porterhouse Brewing: 1989
Carlow Brewing: 1996
Andrew
in Dublin
in Dublin
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andrew - Beoir Member
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And for the oldtimers:
1995
Biddy Early Brewery
Porterhouse Mk2
Irish Brewing Company
1996
Dublin Brewing Company
1997
Celtic Brew / Twinmeadows
1998
Carlow Brewing Company
Fransiscan Well
Dwans
Messrs Maguires
1999
Balbriggan Brewing Company
2001
Kinsale Brewing Company
Emerald Brewery ?
1995
Biddy Early Brewery
Porterhouse Mk2
Irish Brewing Company
1996
Dublin Brewing Company
1997
Celtic Brew / Twinmeadows
1998
Carlow Brewing Company
Fransiscan Well
Dwans
Messrs Maguires
1999
Balbriggan Brewing Company
2001
Kinsale Brewing Company
Emerald Brewery ?
Last edited by BiddyEarly on Thu Apr 18, 2013 11:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
- BiddyEarly
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Ooo, scope creep.
CRO records show late 1997 for Dwan's, so presumably there was beer in 1998. Likewise Celtic Brew is 1999.
Did Balbriggan and Emerald ever actually produce beer for sale?

CRO records show late 1997 for Dwan's, so presumably there was beer in 1998. Likewise Celtic Brew is 1999.
Did Balbriggan and Emerald ever actually produce beer for sale?
Fermenting: Cider
Running: Pale ale, IPA, Dry cider
Stock: Mead, Kit Barolo, Imperial stout, IPA, Quadrupel
Running: Pale ale, IPA, Dry cider
Stock: Mead, Kit Barolo, Imperial stout, IPA, Quadrupel
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TheBeerNut - Beoir Member
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If you're going to start a job, finish it....
List updated for dates and one omission (Kinsale).
Balbriggan did sell beer briefly. I am not certain re Emerald - they brewed and bottled it, and I tasted it, but didn't pay for it!
List updated for dates and one omission (Kinsale).
Balbriggan did sell beer briefly. I am not certain re Emerald - they brewed and bottled it, and I tasted it, but didn't pay for it!
- BiddyEarly
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Dempsey's features in Kevin Myers's Irishman's Diary column on 21 February 1984. The Irish Times carried an ad for the brewery, for sale as a going concern, on 11 August 1986.BiddyEarly wrote:If you're going to start a job, finish it
Dates for Harty's, anyone?
Fermenting: Cider
Running: Pale ale, IPA, Dry cider
Stock: Mead, Kit Barolo, Imperial stout, IPA, Quadrupel
Running: Pale ale, IPA, Dry cider
Stock: Mead, Kit Barolo, Imperial stout, IPA, Quadrupel
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TheBeerNut - Beoir Member
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BiddyEarly wrote:If you're going to start a job, finish it....
I didn't go there for one simple reason: if you're going to have opening dates for defunct breweries than you should really have closing dates as well.
Anybody want to have a go at that?
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KeeganAles - Beoir Member
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Dempsey's and Harty's are both listed as opening and "closing shortly afterwards" in 1982-1983 (source: Brewers & Malsters Guild of Ireland blurb from 1998).
John
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DrJohn - Site Admin
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Biddy Early was still open towards in 2007 at least.
As for Emerald; I don't believe they ever went as far as selling beer. I recall Aidan or Ronan saying they found plenty of Emerald beer labels in the place when they first went, but no bottles!
Dwans closed 2003, Balbriggan closed 2005.
As for Emerald; I don't believe they ever went as far as selling beer. I recall Aidan or Ronan saying they found plenty of Emerald beer labels in the place when they first went, but no bottles!
Dwans closed 2003, Balbriggan closed 2005.
John
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DrJohn - Site Admin
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I think Dublin Brewing ceased production in late 2004. I was buying the last bottles of Beckett's in Redmonds in July 2005.
Fermenting: Cider
Running: Pale ale, IPA, Dry cider
Stock: Mead, Kit Barolo, Imperial stout, IPA, Quadrupel
Running: Pale ale, IPA, Dry cider
Stock: Mead, Kit Barolo, Imperial stout, IPA, Quadrupel
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TheBeerNut - Beoir Member
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- Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 5:04 pm
- Location: Dublin
DrJohn wrote:Dempsey's and Harty's are both listed as opening and "closing shortly afterwards" in 1982-1983 (source: Brewers & Malsters Guild of Ireland blurb from 1998).
Just seen this thread. As far as I can recall, Harty's opened in 1983. I was working as a brewer in Swannell's , a short-lived micro in Hertfordshire, England up until May of that year. Oliver Hughes also worked there for a couple of months, and asked me to come over to Ireland and work with him for a short period while himself and Liam LaHart set the brewery up. The brewery was just an empty industrial unit in May 83, but the equipment had been ordered, and the first beer went into local Blessington pubs around August 83 (I may be mistaken with some of these dates, after all it is thirty years ago, but they're not too far off).
Dempsey's had been set up the previous year by Liam O'Dwyer (the publican of Mount Street) with a consortium of businessmen. In answer to another poster, Dempsey's were a stand-alone brewery in Inchicore. By June 83 their brewer had left, so myself and Oliver were working on secondment for Dempsey's, on the beer production side. I left Harty's in 84, and joined Dempsey's. I remember taking Dempsey's beer up to the Hilden beer festival in 84. I think Harty's closed in 84, and Dempsey's 85.
But why not just ask Oliver Hughes?
- Dunkel
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