Where can I try craft gin and beer in Dublin?

The Roe & Co Distillery bar is Dublin's best destination for Irish craft cocktails and gin. For craft beer, Against the Grain on Wexford St. and The Black Bird in Rathmines are the strongest independent options. The gin masterclass at Roe & Co or a standalone gin tasting session gives you the production context as well as the drink.

Gin and craft beer Dublin: best bars, distilleries, breweries and where to drink

Ireland’s gin and craft beer renaissance

The whiskey revival gets the headlines, but Ireland has simultaneously developed a significant craft gin and independent beer scene that has transformed what you can drink in Dublin beyond the standard Guinness-and-Jameson offering. Irish craft gin is now a serious international category — several Irish gins have won global competition awards — and the Dublin craft beer scene, while smaller than London’s or Copenhagen’s, has some genuinely excellent producers.

This guide covers where to understand, taste, and enjoy both categories in Dublin.

Irish craft gin: the category explained

Irish gin differs from London Dry Gin primarily in its use of locally foraged and Irish-grown botanicals alongside the standard juniper base. The Irish Atlantic climate produces botanicals — sea herbs, coastal plants, heather, bog myrtle, elderflower — that appear in flavour profiles you will not find in Continental or British gins.

Key Irish gin producers:

Dingle Distillery (County Kerry): the first craft distillery in Ireland to produce gin, and still one of the best. Dingle Original Gin uses local botanicals including rowan berry, bog myrtle, and hawthorn. Widely available in Dublin bars; the distillery is accessible as a day trip (see Dingle).

Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin (County Leitrim): one of Ireland’s most commercially successful craft gins internationally — the Gunpowder tea botanical creates a distinctive vegetal, slightly smoky character. Widely available.

Glendalough Wild Botanical Gin (County Wicklow): foragers gather seasonal botanicals from around Glendalough — the gin changes character with the season. The spring and summer releases are the most interesting.

Dublin Liberties Distillery has produced gin alongside their whiskey; their Copper Alley Gin uses Dublin city botanicals.

Gin experiences in Dublin

The most structured way to understand Irish craft gin is the Dublin gin masterclass with welcome drink and tasting flight (~€35). This 1-hour session covers the production process, the role of botanicals, and a guided tasting of multiple Irish gins alongside cocktail applications.

For afternoon tea with a gin component, the afternoon tea and gin masterclass (~€50) pairs the tasting session with the full tea service format.

The best standalone gin bar in Dublin is the Roe & Co Distillery bar on Thomas St. — see the Roe & Co guide for the full picture. The cocktail menu uses Roe & Co expressions in both classic and original formats, and the bar team is one of the most technically skilled in the city.

Dublin craft beer: where the independent scene lives

Dublin’s craft beer scene is concentrated in a handful of bars and a smaller number of brewery taprooms. Unlike the whiskey and gin sectors, most Dublin craft breweries are not city-centre operations — but their products are available at independent bars.

Rascals Brewing Company (Inchicore, west Dublin): one of Ireland’s most inventive craft breweries, with a rotating seasonal range that takes real risks with ingredients. The brewery taproom (Kilmainham Lane) is open on weekends. Their Lemon Sherbet sour and the various stout variants are particularly good.

Whiplash Beer (Dublin 11): a newer force in Irish craft beer, producing hazy IPAs and experimental fermentations that have attracted significant international attention. Available at specialist beer bars across the city.

Trouble Brewing (Kildare, but widely available in Dublin): solid, reliable craft beers with a focus on the core range. The Dark Arts porter is the standout.

Where to drink craft beer in Dublin

Against the Grain (Wexford St., Dublin 2): consistently the best-stocked independent craft beer bar in the city — 30+ taps covering Irish and international craft, with knowledgeable staff. A 10-minute walk from the city centre’s main tourist area.

The Black Bird (Rathmines): a well-regarded neighbourhood bar with a serious craft beer selection and a more local feel than the city-centre craft bars.

The Brew Dock (Amiens St.): near the airport bus stop, which makes it a convenient final or first stop; the craft beer selection is broader than the location suggests.

Beerhouse (Capel St.): good selection of Irish craft across multiple taps, bottle shop adjacent for taking home.

The Porterhouse (Parliament St., Temple Bar): the original Dublin craft brewery and pub, opened 1996. The brewing chain has expanded across Dublin and beyond, but the Parliament St. original is still the best location. Their Plain Porter and Oyster Stout are the standout house beers. This is the exception to the “avoid Temple Bar” rule — the Porterhouse was there before the tourist economy colonised the area.

Beer tours and tasting experiences

The J.R. Mahon’s beer tasting tour with Irish storytelling (~€35) covers multiple beer styles — including stout, lager, and craft options — with a narrative about Irish brewing culture. The format is pub-based rather than brewery-based, which means you taste the beer in its natural habitat. This is particularly good if you want to understand the Guinness vs other stout question in a guided setting.

The relationship between gin, craft beer, and whiskey

Dublin’s artisan drinks scene is unified by geography — many of the distilleries, independent bars, and craft breweries are concentrated in the Liberties and the adjacent south Dublin residential areas. A day that starts with a Dublin whiskey trail visit in the morning can move through the Roe & Co bar in the afternoon and end at Against the Grain or the Porterhouse in the evening without requiring a taxi.

For the pubs rather than the craft bars, read best pubs in Dublin. For the full picture on how Dublin drinks are changing, the traditional music pubs guide covers the overlap between live music culture and the pub landscape.