The second annual Indie Beer Week runs from 22nd June to 1st July – show your independent brewery some love, and meet the people behind your favourite brew.

Indie Beer Week 2018

Indie Beer Week 2018 runs from 22nd June to 1st July and it’s the perfect time to swing by and explore your local independent brewery – where real beer is made.

A week-long celebration of independent Irish brewing, Indie Beer Week 2018 sees local craft breweries all over the country opening their doors for tours, tastings and behind the scenes craic, while pubs, restaurants and off licenses will be celebrating the very best in local independent beers. With over 50 events scheduled all over the country, almost every county in Ireland has a day out to enjoy, fuelled by the Irish public’s love and appreciation for independent beer.

Ireland has a vibrant and exciting independent brewing scene, with interest from the public growing exponentially, year after year. Indie Beer Week capitalises on that interest, providing the opportunity to meet the people behind the beer, putting a face to the name of some of Ireland’s most interesting and innovative independent brews.

The week-long schedule of events by independent Irish breweries, which began with the inaugural Indie Beer Week last year, focuses on emphasising the very real and important connections Ireland’s brewers have with their local communities.

Last year during Indie Beer Week 27 breweries held 35 events in 18 counties with approximately 3,000 attendees. This year there are more than 30 participating breweries across the island of Ireland, with over 50 unique and intriguing events, and a hoped-for attendance of up to 10,000 guests at events which range from brewery tours, talks and tastings to beer house yoga, jazz and trad sessions, long table beer-matching dinners, scavenger hunts and much more.

Working closely with other local food producers, craftspeople, musicians and artists to showcase the independent spirit of their region, the independent Irish brewers participating in Indie Beer Week are all flying the flag for community and connection. As well as making great beer, many small independent breweries act as a hub for other local activities, providing not just economic stimulus in any given region, but also acting as cultural and social catalysts.

Here at Dungarvan Brewing Company we are celebrating by opening our doors once again to welcome chefs Shane McGrath and Paula Hannigan to present a long table dinner, celebrating our local producers with a Food the Waterford Way Local Producer’s Feast on Saturday 23rd June.  Shane joined us last year for our inaugural long table dinner and we are delighted to welcome him back with Paula to present a shared-dining feast.

On Saturday 30th June we will be hosting an open day at the brewery and will be welcoming visitors throughout the afternoon for music, tours and beers with some special guests. Pre registration will be necessary, and more details will follow.  If you are interested in attending please drop us a line to reserve your space.

Indie Beer Week is how the independent brewers of Ireland get to say thanks to the communities that support them, and we are also in the process of organising more events with some of our local stockists. We’ll be releasing details of these as they are finalised so keep an eye on our Events here and on our Facebook page.

 For a full calendar of all events nationally please see www.indiebeerweek.ie

During the summer of 2018 we will be busy with lots of events, both in the brewery and elsewhere and we’d be delighted to have you along to join us at some of them!

Currently in our calendar are the following:

Summer Series Tour and Tasting Sessions

From Friday 1st June we once again kick off our always popular Summer Series with a tour and tasting session lasting 90mins at the brewery. Learn about the brewing process, taste the ingredients and finish with a tutored tasting of a range of Dungarvan Brewing Company Beers.

Long Table Dining

Following the success of last year’s inaugural Long Table Dining event at the brewery, which was followed by a night of Middle Eastern dining in August, and a Mexican Feast at West Waterford Festival of Food, we are delighted to welcome back some of our friends from the best of the Irish food scene for another range of long table dining events.  These will kick off in June, as part of the Indie Beer Week celebrations, with a celebration of Waterford food as chefs Shane McGrath and Paula Hannigan present a feast of local produce, all paired with Dungarvan beers.

Tastings and Festivals

We will as ever be participating in lots of tasting and festivals over the summer – more details as we confirm things but first off we will be participating in the Meet the Makers event in Ardkeen Stores on Saturday 2nd June, 12-3pm.

Photography by Pawel Lorenc, ‘I do’ Photography.

Last Friday we were delighted to host our first dining event at the brewery, a long table dinner in which we showcased West Waterford produce as part of the Waterford Way series of food events taking place throughout the summer.

Table Setting for our Waterford Way dinner

Chef Shane McGrath of the Cliff House Hotel put together a showstopping six course tasting menu featuring delights such as Harty’s Oysters, Grantstown Tomatoes, Seagull Bakery breads, local lobster, halibut and monkfish, Ardmore carrots, Little Milk Company cheese, local strawberries and more.

Chef Shane McGrath getting ready to serve

Guests were welcomed with a drink in our tasting room, before being brought through to the brewery which had been transformed for the evening into a fine dining space with white linen tablecloths contrasting with fermenters and brewkits.

Jen – An Bean A Leanna – welcomes guests

Pre dinner drinks in the Tasting Room

Fine dining in an industrial unit – table waiting for guests.

The brewery had undergone a transformation, and as the sunlight left all the wonderful magical lighting touches brought to life the surroundings

Bottles repurposed into candle holders.

The menu for the Long Table Dinner showcased the best of the region, with many of the producers featured part of the newly launched Waterford Way food trail.  Using as many of these producers as possible, Shane put together a sumptuous menu which thrilled all the diners.  Each course was paired with a Dungarvan Brewing Company beer, with head brewer Cormac talking diners through the beers and the selection.

Each course was paired with a Dungarvan beer.

The menu showcased producers from the Waterford Way

First course of Harty’s Oysters and Helvick Smoked Halibut, Potato and Dill Cake is served.

Convivial atmosphere, friends old and new.

Flutes of Black Rock served with the first course

In all, it was a superb night and a long time goal of ours met here at the brewery. We look forward to doing it all again soon, and would like to extend a huge thanks to our diners who put their faith in us and came along to this crazy idea we had, to Shane for producing the most magnificent feast which absolutely astounded the guests, Jack for his assistance with Shane, Leeanne for creating the amazing atmosphere and serving on the night, all the local producers who got behind the event and provided ingredients and of course Pawel for coming along to photograph the night and giving us these amazing images.

See more of Pawel’s work at idophotographydungarvan.ie

Join us for our next dining event on Saturday 19th August, a middle eastern feast with our friends at Mezze.

From the very beginning, our mission has always been to brew distinctive, quality beers. Through continued exploration and innovation we have decided to release a selected number of limited edition special brews.

Brewer’s Select Range

While we continue to brew our core range and seasonals on a day to day basis, the fun part is in trying out new recipes, playing around with flavours and tinkering with the pilot kit. Usually the results of these brews are released as one off casks or kegs, often coinciding with one festival or another.  Until now these one offs haven’t made their way into bottles, so we’ve decided to do something about that and roll out more one off, small batch releases.

Thai Wit

To kick things off, we’ve sent out a batch of what we’ve decided to call a Thai Wit. This is a classic wit beer, brewed with Irish wheat malt, Irish barley malt and Munich malt, which has been flavoured with some Thai-inspired ingredients, namely palm sugar, kaffir lime leaves, coriander, galangal, cardamom seeds and lemongrass.

Tasting notes: This pours a dark golden colour, with the classic pillowy Wit head. The medium body has a chewy mix of dryness and sweetness, which is lifted by the freshness of the lime and lemongrass flavours, while the initial coriander and cardamom notes give way to a lingering heat.

Food Pairing: Obviously something Thai would work great with the flavours here, but this beer would stand up to more robust dishes and stronger flavoured meats. Try a Massaman curry (our favourite is from Little Thai Kitchen) with beef or duck, or alternatively move towards a beef stroganoff or hearty venison stew.

Cheese Pairing: Again, stronger flavours would work great here such as a good vintage cheddar which the maltiness of the beer works well with while the spice kick lifts the whole pairing.

Alcohol: 6.4% ABV

Hops: Challenger, Cascade

IBUs: 35

Allergens: Contains Barley and Wheat

Availability: On very limited bottle release from August 2016

Ah Summer! Ok, we’re not having the greatest one weather-wise here this year but at least there are some constants, like our Summer Series brewery tours and tasting sessions!

Once again this year we are running tour and tasting sessions on Friday evenings, kicking things off at 5pm with a brewery tour and following this with a tasting of our beers and some food pairings. Sessions last approx. 90 minutes and are a relaxed, fun session and a great way to kick off the weekend.

For an idea of what to expect on our Summer Series, have a read about Billy Lyon’s visit with us in 2014 on his blog corkbilly.com.

Contact us for more info, dates available and to book your spot on one of our Friday evening sessions, or book for yourself or someone else via our online shop.

Mine Head on a trip to the beach.

For visits to the brewery outside of these sessions please contact us in advance and we will do our best to accommodate you. Be advised that summer is a busy time for us with production and visitors so advance notice is required. We have more information about visiting the brewery on our Brewery Tours page.

We have been asked many times about brewing a gluten free beer, but up until recently we were not happy to do so, as it would mean either brewing with a gluten-free grain such as sourghum or chemically altering the beer, which is not something we are willing or happy to do.

Gluten Free Comeragh Challenger

However, new brewing products have come available that can break down the gluten in the beer, and after a bit of trialling and experimentation our head brewer Cormac decided to make this year’s Comeragh Challenger gluten free.  Comeragh Challenger is our regular summer seasonal since it was first released in 2012 and is an always popular one.

After a few delays and hiccups along the way, the beer was brewed and bottles from each batch have been tested and certified – the results of the analysis are showing a gluten content of <10ppm (far below the threshold of <20ppm for a food to be considered Gluten Free).  All batches brewed this year so far have been tested, so any Comeragh Challenger currently on the market is gluten free. We released some of the bottles before receiving certification but you can rest assured that even if the bottle isn’t marked as such, all stock out there is certified. Cheers!

Not one, but two 800th birthdays being celebrated around us this weekend!

Dungarvan 800

From Waterford County Museum:

On 3 July 1215 King John issued a charter at Marlborough which granted the customs of Breteuil (in France) to Dungarvan. It freed the burgesses in the town from tolls and customs owed to the Crown. The 800^th anniversary of this important event takes place on 3rd July this year.

Dungarvan will be spending the weekend celebrating this occasion, beginning with the arrival of ‘King John’ by boat to Dungarvan quay on Friday at 5.45pm, accompanied by a flotilla from Dungarvan Harbour Sailing Club and there’ll also be a medieval banquet at Crews Restaurant, a market at King John’s Castle courtyard and a series of lectures organised by Waterford Museum.

Sherry cask which we aged Copper Coast in.

Crews were keen to serve a beer at the medieval banquet, which let’s face it would be a lot more fitting historically than “other drinks”, so we decided to barrel age some of our Copper Coast for the night – we used the same sherry barrels that Blackwater Distillery aged our Poitín collaboration in. It’ll be served from a cask on the night along with their fantastic medieval menu.

Crews’ Medieval Banquet Menu

Dromana 800

In tandem with this, Dromana 800 also takes place this weekend, celebrating 800 years of Dromana House. We will be taking part in their Georgian Fete on Sunday, 5th of July and will also be serving our barrel aged beer there, alongside our core range of beers.

For a taster of what will be happening in Dungarvan this weekend take a look at the RTE Nationwide programme which aired on July 2nd and features lots of familiar Dungarvan faces and places.

Father’s Day is tomorrow. But you knew that, right? And you’re all sorted with gifts and cards, right? Riiight..?

Ok, you’re not. But don’t panic just yet – we’re looking out for you here and have a back up plan for you.  First, you need a card – no probs, download the image below, print, fold and write your greeting. Card sorted.

Click on image for full size.

Then, for a gift run to your nearest off licence which stocks great craft beer, grab a bottle and present it with the card. Job done.

Too hot to run to the shop? Or finding it hard to let go of Dad’s bottle? The why not book a brewery tour and tasting session for him. We have a Friday evening series running throughout the summer, bookings can be made on our webshop and we can send you a printable ticket to include with your card. Bingo! Instant status as best son or daughter ever.

If your Dad likes his card, send us a pic on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or even a Vine. Our favourite will get a goodie pack from the brewery 🙂

Here’s to the Dads! 🍻