The Porterhouse Brewing Company was founded in 1996 by cousins Oliver Hughes and Liam Lahart. They opened Ireland's first craft brew pub in Dublin, where the brewery is now on the outskirts, providing beers to its bars in Dublin, London and New York. Exports are made to over 20 countries.
History
Ireland has traditionally had a long history of brewing. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were over two hundred breweries in the country, producing a wide range of Irish beer. This number dropped significantly by the twentieth century due to the dominance of a few large and famous breweries. It was in this environment that, in 1989, Liam La Hart and Oliver Hughes bought a run-down building in Bray, County Wicklow, which became the first Porterhouse. In 1996, the Porterhouse brewpub was opened in the Temple Bar area of Dublin city centre. The group grew to open their next bar in Covent Garden London in 2000. They opened Porterhouse North in Glasnevin Dublin in 2004, and added another in Dublin city centre in 2004. In 2010 they were the only Irish Company to exhibit at The Shanghai World Expo, dubbed the Economic Olympics. In January 2011, they opened their premises on Pearl Street in the Financial District of New York trading at Fraunces Tavern where George Washington bade farewell to his officers over two centuries ago. The original bar in Bray, was sold in February 2019.
Beers
With the exception of TSB, the draught beers are filtered, kegged and served under pressure. The regular beers are:
Wrasslers 4X Stout, a 5.7% abvstout claimed to be made to a recipe originally brewed by Deasy's of West Cork in the early 1900s;
Turner's Sticklebract Bitter, a 3.7% abv session bitter first brewed in July 2000 to celebrate the opening of The Porterhouse in Covent Garden, London;
In 2009, the brewery launched a range of bottle-conditioned versions of its beers, beginning with Hop Head and Plain Porter. These are packaged in 33cl bottles. Bottling now Plain Porter, Wrasslers 4X, Oyster Stout, Porterhouse Red, Brain Blasta, Hersbrucker, Celebration Stout and Down 'n' Outz. In March 2020 during the Covid-19 Lockdown in Ireland they released a IPA called Stay Home Isolation IPA
Festivals
The Porterhouse Brewing Company regularly hosts beer festivals. Every October sees an Oktoberfest, and there have been many Belgian beer festivals, as well as a Winter Beer Festival, an Australia Day Festival and a Beer and Whiskey Festival Festival.
The Port House Ibericos, 5–6 The Pembroke Cottages, Pembroke District, Dundrum, Dublin 14.
The group also owns a club, The Eclectic and hotel at their Bray location on the seafront. The Porterhouse also own Lillie's Bordello nightclub. The brewery is located in Ballycoolin in Rosemount Business Park.
In 2011, Porterhouse announced a desire to build a distillery in Dingle, County Kerry. The distillery opened in 2012 trading as Dingle Distillery, part of the Porterhouse Group.
