Porterhouse Brewery

While there were over two hundred breweries in Ireland during the 19th century, by the twentieth century the market was largely served by a few large 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 Dublin's Temple Bar area. The opened 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 January 2011, they opened a premises on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York, trading at Fraunces Tavern. The original bar in Bray, was sold in February 2019.

The Porterhouse Brewery's draught beers are, with the exception of TSB, filtered, kegged and served under pressure. The regular beers are:

• Wrasslers 4X Stout, a 5.7% abv stout claimed to be made to a recipe originally brewed by Deasy's of West Cork in the early 1900s;
• Oyster Stout, 5.2% abv;
• Plain Porter, 5% abv; Winner of the gold medal at the Brewing Industry International Awards for the best stout in the world in 1998 and again in 2011;
• Turner's Sticklebract Bitter (TSB), a 3.7% abv session bitter first brewed in July 2000 to celebrate the opening of The Porterhouse in Covent Garden, London;
• Porterhouse Red, a 4.4% abv Irish red ale;
• An Brain Blasta, a 7% abv strong ale;
• Hersbrucker, a 5% abv pale lager;
• Temple Bräu, a 4.3% abv pale lager;
• Chiller, a 4.2% abv pale lager;
• Hop Head, a 5% abv pale ale.

In addition, there are a range of seasonal draught beers including:

• Chocolate Truffle Stout (Spring)
• Hemp Beer (Summer)
• Kölsch (Autumn)
• Vienna Dark Lager (Winter)
• Bohemia Black Lager (Winter)
• Alt (Winter)

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. The group now bottles 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".

In order of opening date, the group's outlets have included:

• The Porterhouse Inn, Strand Road, Bray, County Wicklow (1989); The original Porterhouse opened 1989 and incorporates a 16-room inn. This pub was sold by the Porterhouse Group in February 2019 to Shane O'Farrell.[1]
• The Porterhouse, Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin (opened 1996)
• The Porterhouse, Covent Garden, London (opened 2000)
• The Porterhouse North, Cross Guns Bridge, Glasnevin (2004; rebranded in 2016 as "The Whitworth",[2] and subsequently sold[3])
• The Porterhouse Central, Nassau Street, Dublin (2004)
• The Porterhouse at Fraunces Tavern, Pearl Street, New York [4] (2011)

The Porterhouse also owns a chain of tapas bars:

• The Port House, South William Street, Dublin (opened in 2006)
• Bar Pintxo, Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin (opened in 2007)
• The Port House Ibericos, The Pembroke Cottages, Dundrum, Dublin

The Porterhouse group also owns a club, The Eclectic, and hotel, at their Bray location, on the seafront. It also owned the Lillie's Bordello nightclub and operates its successor, Lost Lane.

The group's brewery is located in Rosemount Business Park, Ballycoolin, north of Blanchardstown.

In 2011, Porterhouse announced a desire to build a distillery in Dingle, County Kerry.[5] The distillery opened in 2012[6][7] trading as Dingle Distillery, part of the Porterhouse Group.

• Official Porterhouse site
• Analysis of Porterhouse business strategy
• Importers of Porterhouse beer to the UK