Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival

This was the second Irish Craft Beer festival that I have gone to and it has improved since last the time!
Needless to say, there is an incredible selection of fantastic beers from around Ireland and some glorious beer from abroad too (looking at you Lagunitas!) Brilliant atmosphere and great music too!
Food selection is improving with a large area out the back dedicated to hot dogs, pizza, burgers, that kind of thing.
I have to mark it down due to the sheer amount of stands running out of what they were selling early on the Saturday night (the most expensive night to go). Otherwise it was brilliant and I am looking forward to next year’s.

Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival are just Amazing!!!

Bigger than ever, craft beer has definitely gone mainstream in Dublin — we actually had to queue just to get in the door! I remember 2 years ago where we could actually do cartwheels in the venue… Good times.
The crowds have quadrupled which means it can be difficult just navigating your way through, and some popular brews would have sold out by the last day :(Big shout out to the crew though — it was well organised and sufficient security for a boozy event like this.
This event no longer hosts only craft beer aficionados, but is so widely marketed that people who do not know the difference between a lager, pilsner or a pale ale are attending too. The whole venue feels like a heaving pub in daylight.
So the takeaway is to make sure to attend on the Thurs/​Fri if you want a proper craft beer event experience without the throngs of people!

Have to say I wasn’t impressed.
For an all day drinking event — there was f*** all seats /​table /​standing area spots for people. There was extremely little places for people to get comfortable with and have their beer. There was a great selection of beers and ciders all right but not a lot of the staff were in anyway helpful or informative on the beers or helping you choose nor were they very accommodating when you attended the stand. There was only a few selection of food stalls out the back. (ridiculous, of course people want to be pigging out when they are having a few beers). The band playing inside was poor. I wasn’t impressed and won’t be back… and no samples were offered before purchase of beer

Q… Q…Q really sums up my experience of the beer festival. Although really good fun day the constant q was really annoying it would be much easier if you could buy the tokens in the same q when you are getting in and even when you need to buy them a second time they should put more tills or have people walking around selling.
I really enjoyed the variety of beers and really nice food but not a lot of places to sit inside and unfortunately was a quite wet day.

Almost great ! We did have a really fun day at the festival but there are definitely some lessons for them to learn for next year. Firstly the Q’s — just after you have stood in line to get in the door and pay you immediately had to join a new Q to buy tokens. The line was so long it snaked half way around the RDS.
Secondly the lack of seat inside — there were seats outside but as the day was quite wet they were off limits a lot of the day. By the end of the day there were people sitting on the ground all over the venue.
On the plus side there was a huge amount of choice in both food and drinks. Only one stand doing cocktails which had a massive line all day. I loved the glasses and great to get something to take home ass memento.
I would like to go back next year especially if they improve on the small issues

Industries Hall looks a lot nicer when it’s not set up for exams (shudder!!)
So you collect your glass on the way in. Paid € 2 to upgrade to the goblet glass. Didn’t notice the route map so we basically «winged» it :-)
Great choice of beers and ciders with a couple of distillers thrown in!
Was good to see so many of the brewers there representing some very fine drinks indeed.
I did try some beers such as Vincent van Coff by Mountain Man and they Rascals /​250 square coffee beer but my favourites had to be the special ciders I tried from the likes of Toby’s and Macivors. The honey cider from Doyles was a lovely way to start the journey.
Food wise I chose sweet potato fries from Dave’s woodfire pizza co (with rosemary & sea salt), thai curry from Bitchin kitchen and then some cookies from the Dublin Cookie Co.
We were lucky that we went Saturday afternoon when it wasn’t that crowded but the heat in the hall can get unpleasant! We also managed to get a seat outside for to eat our food.
Only reasons this isn’t a five are due to the lack of seating inside and the greenhouse effect inside the hall.

At first I was skeptical about the idea of the festival indoors, but it actually worked out very well. There were two big outdoor areas where you could eat and just hang out. All the main fun was inside of course though. I must say Saturday night was extremely crowded, but not to the crazy point. I loved a lot of breweries and the positive energy of the stuff.
The white hag coffee rocket was definitely a success of the night:) also, MacIvor Cider is so hardcore traditional that I really enjoyed. I tried so many ciders recently and all of them were either too light or too heavy or with a lot of different flavours. It was quite a struggle to find a good old days traditional cider.
One more tip of the night i– MONT beer, they have just launched in Dublin on Thursday, so very new and very citrus refreshing.

Ireland loves beer and cider, that´s something well-​known. The best place to share this feeling is for sure a Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival. Good selection of craft beers from all the corners of the country. Beers for strong men, for ladies, for gourmets, for everyone interested in have a drink and a chat with some friends about this elixir of live.
Food available, until late in the evening: Hamburgers, Sausages, Pizzas and Fish and Chips.
You have to be patient, it is very busy and maybe will be some queues to buy the tokens (cash only allow for food, not for drinks). A tip: buy your tokens with your tickets, it will be faster.
For 2.5 EUR you can get a token that can be changed for a half pint of average % alcohol beer, for the strongest sorts may you have to spend 2 or more tokens.
It is a pity that you can only sit outside, in the smokers area, I would have liked to sit inside, enjoying the beer.
P.S: I have to say that only repeat the Killarney Stout, delighted with that.

Really so impressed with this festival and with how much of a success it turned out to be! For the entry fee and the cost of the tokens, it really is just a brilliant event to attend, and on a Friday night, it seemed like the most happening place in Dublin!
There was a brilliant turn out of brewers for the event, with an amazing amount of pilot brews and special event brews from all the different Irish breweries, both small and large.
I was attending with Unilocal the first day, and unfortunately on the second day when I got to walk around and check it out, I was feeling quite unwell, so didn’t get to try nearly as many of the beers as I would like! I did allow myself the Rhubarb and Strawberry Wheat beer from O’Hara’s, which made attending fully worthwhile for me! There were loads of great food options out the back also.
The friend I was with tried loads of different beers and was delighted with himself. The event was very well managed, with sound and friendly security and organising staff, quick moving queues despite the stampede of people and great value drink tokens. If you play it right, you could really get a fantastic deal from some of these breweries!
All the bartenders were really sound too, and even those who weren’t directly involved with the brewery were really informative and sound to tell you about all the beers and give tasters if you ask.
So impressed, and I’ll definitely be back next year!

Great selection of ciders on offer for those looking for an alternative to beer. Samples given freely at all stands and vendors who are passionate about their products make this festival a must for all those who fancy a tipple that stands out from the crowd. Awesome event, will be back next year!!!

Not long back from the Great British Beer Festival so I was looking forward to this
Easier to split this into what I liked and where there is room for improvement that would make this 5 stars.
What I liked
— meeting the brewers. I drink nothing but micro craft beers so nice to meet the brewers.
— Nice bunch of people. Really friendly enthusiastic
— Good selection of foods available outdoors
— Great showcase for Irish Craft beer and we are producing some fine stuff.
— nice to see craft distillers represented
Areas to improve
— I’d prefer not tokens and pay cash
— More seating and perhaps a larger venue as once busy it wasn’t so easy to manaveor
— the room is like a greenhouse so it got very warm.
— Make the goblet the standard glass. Looks better and more functional
— pricing is higher compared to other festivals. This is why tokens are a bad idea
Well woth a visit. The beers are great and if you drop by get the seaweed saison.

Printed off our tickets thanks to Unilocal and headed along on a miserable Saturday evening weatherwise! Really enjoyed the whole event, great varied selection of beers and ciders with a few whiskies and find thrown in for good measure.
It’s hard not to be like a kid in a candy shop running around with all this choice but I can highly recommend and say that Lagunitas, Kinnegar Brewing, The White Hag and Stationworks are top calls with great options.
I think where it falls down a bit is the absolute sauna like heat of the RDS and the lack of further seating which was a bit of a pain after a few hours of fine drinking!

Ireland’s best craft beers and ciders all in one place. Lots of great food too. Do not miss this!

5 euro gets you entry, 2.5 euro gets you a token (good for a half pint). Then, you wander and enjoy drafts by trading said tokens. Food is also available for purchase, while the music will keep you company.
Personally, I like the pay as you go idea versus the pay a lot upfront and try to make up for it. I also liked being offered samples in case you hadn’t tried and can’t commit to a pint (or half). Finally, being able to come and go as I please was nice.