The Tallaght strategy

It's a miracle! Though perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that a brewery called Priory, with a comprehensively Catholic theme running across its branding, should be the one that managed to pull a Lazarus act.

We last saw this microbrewery in the south Dublin suburb of Tallaght on these pages in June 2019. "An ambitious set of plans" is what I noted. I don't know how far advanced those got before Covid shut the whole thing down, and with the overall decline in Irish microbrewing, I wasn't expecting to see them back. The announcement in 2023 that the building which houses the brewery -- a café and a lot of empty space when I visited in 2019 -- would be transformed into an indoor food market didn't do much to change my mind. Dublin has serious form on failed indoor food market projects. If it can't be done in the city centre, what chance of doing it in Tallaght? And besides, craft beer is over, and it would be such a 2015 move to put a microbrewery in a food hall.

Nevertheless, the Priory Market project rolled on and, in late June 2025, it opened its doors to the hungry public, the offer including Priory Brewing reborn as a "tank bar" on the site. I went along on the first weekend, genuinely not expecting much. Usually, the brewery and the beer range is the last part of the project to get delivered, if it ever does. I was surprised by what I found.

The food hall was thronged, and all the stalls seemed to be doing brisk business, though without the excessive queues you get at events which don't have their catering logistics in order. Down the back, opposite two outlying food stalls, is the bar. I found perching space across from the window which looks into the production brewery.

Tank means tank, and there are four of them behind the bar, from which beer is poured directly. Original Sin, the flagship IPA, and Venial Sin, its session-strength sibling, have made a return and are two of them. I started with one of the new beers, Helles Fire. This is no still-fermenting murk: the bright tank has left it bright; a perfectly clear golden colour. It's a little light on its feet at 4.3% ABV though I appreciated the cold pour -- 3.3°C according to the readout on the vessel. So it was definitely thirst-quenching, and while it's fairly plain, there is enough of a gentle spongecake sweetness to pass. The finish is as clean as the beer looks, with nary a hint of the off flavours that can bedevil small-batch lagers, and a nicely crisp grain bite on the end. It may be unexciting, but it's very technically proficient. Time and money has been spent on getting it right, and I could taste that.

Also new from the tanks was Atonement, a pale ale. This is in the old American style, a deep amber colour and packed out with crystal malt, contrasting with sharp US hops. A fruit candy aroma leads to a toffee-first flavour, although it's light at 4.5% ABV, and not at all sticky. There's a tannic note as a reminder that English bitter is a close relation, and a touch of crisp roast to help dry it out. The hop tang is a little bit lemonade and a little bit aspirin; unsubtle and clashing with the malt side, I thought. The intention seems to be something like Sierra Nevada pale ale, but there's none of that one's perfumed subtlety. This time, the technical proficiency can't hide the issues with the underlying recipe.

But the tank bar has more than just tanks: there's a sizeable array of keg taps on the bar, all Priory-branded except for Whiplash's Slow Life, which seems to be covering them for a dark beer for now. My in-built cynicism couldn't help wondering if some or all of these were brewed elsewhere, but then why bother with the tanks if you're shipping beer in?

I had a half of Vice Beer, the 5% ABV weissbier. Here the brewery's tendency towards clarity is a little less appropriate, because there's none of the cloudiness that has been this style's hallmark since before anyone in New England thought to make an IPA. That seems to have added a sharpness to it, manifesting initially in the slightly hot butane aroma. And while there's banana in the flavour, it's greenly acidic, which isn't unpleasant, but is quite different from the soft and sweet effect one normally gets. The hops are more pronounced than usual, with a bite of celery and pak choi. It's a valid take on the style, reminding me of the crisper, pointier, sort of weizen from north German breweries, and Flensburger in particular. If that's your particular vice, jump in. I prefer the more cuddly Bavarian take, however.

And we finish on yet another central European style: pilsner. Impeccable was also on the keg lines and arrived slightly hazy. Freshness was very much in evidence here, the aroma giving faint but persistent cut grass, like the patio doors are open and the lawn outside has just been mown. Though only 4.7% ABV it has a satisfyingly chewy texture and that adds extra punch to the noble hops, flourishing outwards into a whole bouquet of garden herbs, with basil and rosemary the ones I noticed most. Despite the density, this is still an excellent warm-day refresher and mid-session palate scrubber, and again remarkably free of flaws for a newly-created brewpub lager. Since they can do pils well, nothing else should be a problem.

I didn't revisit their double IPA, and the red ale will have to wait to next time. On the menu but not yet pouring were a stout and a bock, and there was a tap badge for a sour ale which had also yet to materialise. The ambition is incredible for an Irish brewpub but they really do seem to have the ability to pull it off. I hope the momentum stays with them and that they get the kind of local support which seems to be keeping the Rascals taproom blazing. This taproom is a new and rare jewel in Dublin's beer scene and I dearly want to see it thrive.

Back at it

Another Irish beer round up in the same week as the last one? 'Fraid so.

Wicklow Wolf, for one, has been very busy, with the harvesting and the collaborating. The 2018 edition of Locavore landed, in two cans of oatmeal pale ale with two different hop combinations, all grown on their own farm. It must be going well as they also supplied the green for White Gypsy's Emerald this year. Named literally after where the plants were growing, The Top Field is Bramling Cross, Challenger and Fuggles, while The Bottom Field is Cascade and Chinook. They should be quite different so I opened them side-by-side.

Both are a deep orange colour, with the US-variety one almost completely clear while the English one had a slight haze. A tall pillar of foam was also common to both, one which subsided quite quickly. The Top Field is sweet, with lots of floral honey in particular, and the blackcurrant jam note I associate most with Bramling Cross. There's quite a heat for just 5.4% ABV, the flowers turning to a concentrated solvent in the finish. The Bottom Field is also quite malt-driven, giving a first impression of golden syrup rather than honey. There's a flash of sharp bitterness but it's brief, and quite waxy and English-tasting. Maybe if you bring Cascades east across the Atlantic again they turn back into Fuggles. If not exactly leaping with hops, this one is at least clean with a pleasant crispness. The Top Field does not improve as it warms, getting hotter, dirtier and more sickly as it goes. It's counter-intuitive, but new world hops seem to be the ones worth growing in Ireland.

Moving on, Dark Flight is the third in Wicklow Wolf's collaboration series, a 7% ABV five-grain porter brewed with Anspach & Hobday. It looks like a proper porter: deepest black with a crackling tan head. I thought from that it was going to be thin and crisp but instead it's rich and sumptuous, full of gourmet coffee and spendy chocolate. There's a certain cereal dryness and a lacing of bitter herbs, but mostly this is all about that coffee roast. It bears a strong resemblance to A&H's own The Porter, which is great: proper Saaaf Laahnden character in a beer from Wickla. I really enjoyed my single can of it and would suggest that if Wicklow Wolf are planning to regularise any of these arrangements, Dark Flight is the one to do again.

Whiplash had a new pale ale, a scaled back version of their Drone Logic single-hop Simcoe double IPA from last year. Let Forever Be is 5.5% ABV. The aroma is sweet and juicy with a lacing of citrus pith. Lots of juice in the flavour too, at least at first. It tails off slightly, leaving a savoury sesame seed buzz, the sort that would normally annoy me, but I think the lower alcohol helps make it less severe. There's a smooth texture that drifts over any flaws, and the residual juiciness lasts long into the finish, ending up as the feature you remember about the beer overall. The whole thing is pintable and sessionable, and very tasty: all the fancy stylings of modern hop murk, but you can drink more than one of them.

Two modest-strength Whiplash beers in a row? What are the chances? Here's Slow Life, their first porter since the original Scaldy, 4.5% ABV and served nitrokegged. And it's a very good example of why nitrokegging is generally a bad idea. Whatever flavour complexities the brewer intended to feature here have been comprehensively buried by the nitrogen. There's a vague chocolate taste and a light grainy biscuit finish, but that's the sum total. Very dull and very disappointing, this, though I'd happily give a straight-carbonation version a second chance.

Can you tell that this was originally written as an all-Wicklow post? One last Garden County beer before we move on. O Brother's If You Say So is the first in a series of arty collaborations. It's a double IPA of 8.5% ABV and an opaque orange colour. The aroma is fresh and zesty but its flavour is heavier, hot and sweet with a strong resemblance to orange cordial. Despite this, and a bit of a dreggy murk burr, it finishes cleanly, leaving just an afterglow of garlic. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you're in, it's an enjoyable one with plenty of hop wallop, a pleasant warmth and no sharp edges.

A half-step away from O Brother brings us to Red Red Redemption, which landed in UnderDog yesterday evening. It was brewed at YellowBelly with O Brother as collaborators.  The style, uniquely I think, is a New England red double IPA. And amazingly it's just what one might expect. A hazy pink colour in the glass with its foretaste presenting a massive sweet kick of tinned strawberries, brimming with concentrated summer fruit. Oily hop resins row in behind that, buoyed up on a dense 9% ABV malt body. That blend of sweetness and hops is very different, bringing in characteristics which are generally unique to red IPA, New England IPA and double IPA. Though they're combined here, each element is distinct and well defined. It may look murky but the whole creation is actually very well polished.

Two very different offerings from Dublin's Third Barrel next. Brickline is a very plain lager, created for the Two Sides brand, presumably as an approachable house beer for the principal Two Sides pubs, T. O. Brennan's, 57 The Headline and Brickyard. It was at The Headline that I caught up with it. This is a bright pale gold colour, light-bodied and fizzy like any generic industrial lager you care to name, but also with an authentically-Bohemian tasting golden syrup sweetness to serve as a nod towards flavour complexity. Mostly it's very clean and easily drinkable, with one pint inviting the next. This really achieves what I'm certain it set out to do.

From Third Barrel's own brand comes Instant Gratification double IPA. A highly involved hopping schedule had been promised here, utilising Citra and Enigma in "silly" quantities. It came out at 8.5% ABV and poured a soupy orange. There's more than a hint of New England about it: that sort of fluffy mouthfeel with a tang of sweet vanilla. The hops are indeed insane, simultaneously dry and punchy -- all grapefruit pith and lemon rind -- while also juicy and tropical, full of ripe pineapple and mango. And yet the finish is surprisingly quick for such a powerhouse, the hops fading fast leaving an unpleasant yeast bite as the aftertaste. It's still an excellent beer for this sort of super-fresh (slightly unfinished?) style. With the great and good of Irish microbrewing starting to get themselves international reputations, Third Barrel could be the industry's best kept secret.

The last beer for this week isn't exactly a new one, having been around since the summer. 9 Rubies is that rare bird, a raspberry IPA, brewed by Lacada and kindly supplied by Mr B. I wasn't expecting it to be pink but it very much is. The flavour is, well, raspberries, in no uncertain terms. It's not quite the tang of real berries but the sweeter, spicier taste of raspberry jam or sherbet. Any hops? Not really, just a very slight metallic bitterness in the finish. From the label it seems they're going for a milkshake effect here, including lactose in the recipe. It's surprisingly light-textured for that, with no cream or gumminess. This is easy-going sweet summer fun, feeling much more like a silly raspberry wheat beer than Serious Craft™ and for all that I rather enjoyed it.

 Enough local beer for now. It's back to the travel notebooks for next week.