Brehon Brewhouse Tour and Tasting

What to Expect

Brehon Brewhouse runs its brewery and farm tour on Saturdays at 12 noon from Dunelty, a working family dairy farm outside Carrickmacross that the McMahons turned into a craft brewery rather than sell up. The tour lasts one to one and a half hours and takes in the whole operation, starting with the milking parlour and the dairy herd. That order is deliberate: the farm came first and still runs, and the brewery sits alongside it rather than replacing it.

From the farmyard the tour moves into the brewery itself, where visitors watch the Master Brewer and apprentice at work and see brewing, bottling and canning done on site by hand rather than by an automated line. It finishes in the tasting room in the original family home, where you get a beer taster while the owner talks through the history of the farm and the area. This is a small, personal visit guided by the people who actually run the place, not a large visitor centre with a hired guide, and numbers are kept manageable as a result. Booking is by appointment only, by phone or email, with no online booking, and the brewery asks that you confirm in advance rather than turning up. Larger groups can arrange a tour on days other than Saturday. Inniskeen, Patrick Kavanagh’s home parish, is a few miles away and pairs well with the visit for anyone making a day of it.

Good to Know

• Saturdays at 12 noon, lasting 1 to 1.5 hours; other days for larger groups by arrangement
• Venue: Brehon Brewhouse, Dunelty, Inniskeen, near Carrickmacross
• Price on request; contact the brewery when booking
• Booking is essential and by appointment only: 086 823 0914 or info@brehonbrewhouse.ie
• Includes the milking parlour and herd, the brewery floor and a tasting in the family home
• Recurs weekly; the brewery also runs a bigger annual event, The Gathering, in early September

Getting There

Brehon Brewhouse is at Dunelty on minor rural roads between Carrickmacross and Inniskeen, so a car is needed and there is no bus to the gate. Carrickmacross is on the N2 Dublin to Derry road, about an hour and a quarter from Dublin and roughly 30 minutes from Dundalk on the R178. Because the tour ends with a tasting, bring a driver or arrange a taxi back into town.