It’s July, and that mean a happy birthday to Underdog – Dublin’s finest craft beer* bar [Edit in November 2025: Underdog has, alas, now closed]. And while independent beer of all stripes is not nearly as ubiquitous here in Ireland as in many other countries, given that the majority of pubs are still generally ‘Guinness and Heineken‘ shops, there are some other standout spots; let’s dive in.
Porterhouse began as a brewpub, and their Temple Bar location still offers a range of their own beers, as well as a few guest taps. There is also sometimes a cask option, which is very much a rarity here, and that beer selection makes it the only spot in Temple Bar we’ll willingly visit. And while no longer Porterhouse-branded, Tapped – formerly Porterhouse Central – also has a wide range of local and European craft beers. There are Galway Bay pubs all over Dublin, and while they aren’t brewpubs in the brewed-on-site sense, they do offer a standard and rotating group of Galway Bay beers. Some of our favourite Galway Bay pubs include The Black Sheep (also the only other spot you might find a cask option), Molly’s Bar, The Beer Temple/The Oak and The Brew Dock. And while all offer food as well, each pub has its own vibe, so it’s worth trying a few to find your favourite.
Dudley’s usually has a nice selection, as does The Belfry, and the Animal Collective spots are always reliable: Caribou, Kodiak and Bonobo have a nice mix of independent beers on tap and in cans and bottles. Bonobo is also Kinnegar’s local spot for Tap Room Only (TRO) beers in Dublin, so you don’t need to go all the way up to Donegal for some of their rarer offerings. And speaking of taprooms, they are very much an exception instead of a rule in Ireland, but O Brother has recently opened one down in Greystones, so just accessible via Dart.
Also somewhere in between ‘taproom’ and ‘brewpub’ is Rascals, which does offer the best of both worlds – a full production brewery, pilot brews and excellent pizza. Rascals beers are also available at some of the better ‘normal’ pubs around town like TP Smith’s, The Cat & Cage and The Bald Eagle (to name just a few). And there are two brewery tours that you can arrange with advance booking – both Hope and Rye River offer these options. We’d consider the Guinness Storehouse a ‘brand experience’ rather than a brewery tour, and arguably the same is true of the neighbouring Open Gate Brewery, but the Open Gate does have some seasonal specials, interesting test brews and excellent pretzels – it’s also more or less in the taproom category. The Four Provinces in Kimmage carries their own beer (they make an amazing mild that we can’t wait to have back in more regular service), but looks like a ‘typical’ pub in other respects, and there’s a bit of everything at The Circular.
‘Foodie’ pubs with good craft beer options include L Mulligan. Grocer and Juno (which has some secret Ballykilcavan cans – something we especially love) – booking is highly recommended for both. Brickyard also offers a fantastic selection of food and beers that’s nearly unparalleled, semi-suburban location notwithstanding, while Urban Brewing has excellent food and beers from O’Hara’s, plus local specials. We have a few other favourite pubs that only offer one or two independent taps, like The Morris Bar, MeMa’s, Doyle’s Corner, Hynes’ Bar, The Palace Bar and The Barber’s Bar.
Finally, no list of craft beer in Dublin would be complete without a mention of Fidelity, Whiplash’s beautiful bar with its custom tap lines and sound system, and their smaller sister pub on Parnell Street, The Big Romance. Both offer fresh beers from Whiplash and their friends, as well as cocktails and music. There’s louder music in an enjoyably dive-y setting at Cassidy’s, but it’s got one of the best beer selections in the city – if you don’t mind shouting a bit.
And while we absolutely understand that everyone is going to have that pint of Guinness in town – we’d recommend The Hut or The Gravediggers – there’s a much wider range of independent Irish beer to enjoy; you just need to know where to go. We got you.
* yes, we all agree ‘craft beer’ means everything and nothing…and yet, everyone ‘knows’ what you mean…
Stoneybatter
And the attractions are many: great support for local independent beers from the likes of Hope, Kinnegar, Trouble and The White Hag, as well as a notable cocktail list. For the more ‘traditional’ drinker, it’s possible to get Guinness, Beamish and Murphy’s, so if you’re one of those who enjoys doing the blind taste test of all three, The Belfry has you sorted. There’s also a wonderful little beer garden, and plenty of events that are very much rooted in the local community. It was an absolute oasis for this year’s instalment of the always-busy-but-great-vibes 
Our only other ‘complaint’ is that The Belfry tends to open later than some other pubs, so it’s not always handy for a quick weekend lunchtime pint. All the more incentive, really, to get there as they open to secure a comfy leather chair and a refreshing beverage…
The staircase formerly connected floors in Trinity College, and the beer garden out back can even be heated when necessary (though as with so many of the more interior-feeling beer gardens in Dublin, it can tend toward feeling very smoky). All told, it feels very ‘pubby,’ but what strikes me is the very noticeable vibe shift when the tour groups leave. It took a few visits to realise that it wasn’t just the freeing up of part of the pub that made the real difference; rather, it was the music. When the groups are in, the music is not just trad (there is, after all, plenty of good trad out there), but full-on diddly-eye trad – the sort of music that might have been featured on an American PBS station 40+ years ago. But once they go, there’s a break – either no music, or a change to something a bit more current. Perhaps it’s coincidence, but it’s something we’ve noticed on multiple visits – and it’s no bad thing!
Now, this is not to say that some of the more touristy pubs are doing their customers a disservice in any way; to the contrary, they are doing a great job of catering to multiple demographics, and more power to them. And Nancy Hands also does a great job of supporting local writers – 
Inside, the look is all Old Man Pub, but with a more diverse clientele of all ages, genders and dog breeds. There’s also good support for local independent beer from Rye River, but they also get accolades a-plenty for the Guinness here. On our visit, the hurling was on (ironically, I was trying to get as far from 
It’s that time of year when we begin to get the ‘where should I go before Croke Park?’ question. The answers will depend on whether you’re pre- or post-gaming an actual game (and, of course, which sort of actual game – the occasional rugby crowd isn’t necessarily the same as the more usual GAA crowd) or a concert. Fortunately, as a household within the ‘so close to Croke Park we get free tickets to things* from time to time’ radius, we’ve got some educated opinions on which pubs to hit up before, say, Oasis. (I was going to say ‘before Oasis hit each other,’ but it was too lazy, so it’s parenthetical instead).
There are a few ways to approach the Croke Park Pubs question: proximity, food/drink options and, well, vibes. If wanting to be in the closest possible pub is your key consideration – and on a day when it’s 70,000 plus in attendance, it’s not unreasonable – your best bets are 
If combining food and drink is of paramount importance, casting a wider net can help, but you can still start quite close by. 
But all too often on recent visits, there are multiple taps out of service or perhaps not as fresh as they might be – a real contrast to years gone by when this was a destination for beer nerds for the variety and vibrancy of the beers on offer, both from Galway Bay itself as well as other independent brewers from near and far. And it does seem that Galway Bay are making some especially interesting seasonal, one-off and collaboration beers of late, so it’s a shame that they rarely seem to be highlighted here.
And to be clear, I haven’t had a bad experience here, but the pub does look and feel, well, tired. It’s possibly unfair to compare it to a brand-new Galway Bay pub like 
Although the branding is different, Urban Brewing is an outpost of 
But what I particularly enjoy about Urban Brewing is that each part of the venue feels very different – the outside space is the go-to when the weather is good, but the modern bar in the old building has a lovely look and feel, while the vaults below are great for events – cosy and always beautifully decorated. And as a newer business in an older building, they’ve had the space to get their accessibility figured out in the retrofitting; there are lifts as well as stairs.
This week, it’s another relatively rare visit into the more touristy part of town as we visit 
Kennedy’s is another pub I’ve walked past many times without entering, but I finally had a bit of free time in the area this week, so stopped in for a sneaky daytime glass after visiting the National Gallery. While not nearly as extensive a list of craft beer taps as nearby 
There’s a lovely tiled bar in the basement for live music and events, and this space as well as the terra cotta decoration on the pub’s exterior add unique touches, while the rest of the interior feels a bit more ‘standard Irish pub.’ All told, it’s probably more of a destination for those on literary walking tours than anything else, but it’s nice to find a spot in tourist-land with a few craft beers; it’s not necessarily a given in Dublin.
Sometimes, it really is all about The Socials.
And while you’re not really here for the beer – labelled moderately-pretentiously-but-it-works as ‘pale ale,’ ‘lager’ and ‘stout’ in lower-case cursive on gold tap towers – they are, for the record, the Changing Times pale ale, Birra Moretti and, of course, Guinness. But if it’s good beer you’re after, you can do what we did and stop off at 