Like many other Irish brewers, owners Emma Devlin and Cathal O’Donoghue’s love of good craft beer began abroad, when they were living in New Zealand. After returning to Ireland, not one but two home brewing competition awards in 2013 spurred them to make the leap into brewing professionally. They started off by contract brewing with Brú Brewery in County Meath before moving to their own premises in Rathcoole, and they haven’t looked back.
The Rascal’s self-styled mission is ‘to continually brew many different styles of beer and to bring something new and exciting to the Irish craft beer scene’.
They hit the ground running through the introduction of their ginger porter and a spin on it, a chocolate ginger porter, both of which won awards at the Alltech International Beer Convention in 2014. Other regulars include Big Hop Red and Wit Woo, a Belgian wheat beer that’s so good, even people who don’t usually go for wheat beers like it. They push the envelope with seasonal beers, including their World Hop Series, which so far has featured New Zealand, German, American, Czech and Australian hops.
For a while it was hard to find Rascal’s beer outside of Dublin, but that all changed once they started canning their beers inDecember 2015. Keep your eyes peeled for them in your off-licence and snap them up when you see them. They’re one to watch – and, increasingly, to enjoy.
