Work is coming along nicely at Rascals' new home in Dublin 8, where their brewhouse with taproom and pizza kitchen is due to open next week (November 1st). The bright, mint green building in Inchicore is hard to miss – and it certainly adds a bit of colour to the neighbourhood.
"We broke concrete in February," says Emma Devlin, who co-founded Rascals with Cathal O'Donoghue in 2014. "You can see the holes in the ceiling there where we brought the tanks in," she says, adding that they're hoping the rain will stay off before they seal it all up again.
A large red wall mural was being worked on by artist Kevin Brennan when I visited recently, just one of the many nice touches you'll find in the taproom-pizzeria area, the whole place echoing the upbeat, lively design of Rascals art director Triona O'Donoghue. There's also a gleaming wall of cans – filled with water, just so you know – and a special curved table for guided beer tastings.
Brewery tours
“We wanted to have a beer hall style,” says Devlin, explaining that there will be 14 taps, with some guest beers, a pilot kit for on-site only speciality beers, and brewery tours. Making it child-friendly was important too, says Devlin, so they created a clever fold-away area for children’s play that can be transformed into a stage for music and comedy nights. The nearest Luas stop, Blackhorse, is a short stroll away.
In the meantime, a few of their special beers will be hitting the shelves including their new Raspberry hibiscus saison, a coffee stout made with Dubliner whiskey and a lemon thyme saison in collaboration with the Subset artist group. And there’ll be plenty of freshly-kegged beer to look forward to at their exciting new venue, including their popular Happy Days session pale ale and their best-seller Yankee white IPA.
“We haven’t nailed what beers we’ll have on the pilot kit yet,” says Devlin, “but there’ll definitely be something milkshake-style with fruit.”
