Dublin-based Whiplash Beer is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the first official brew in its own brewery.

Whiplash Beer was founded in 2016, as a side project for Alan Wolfe and Alex Lawes, who were both already working in the brewing industry,

The duo went full time in 2017, initially gypsy brewing around Ireland and later across wider-Europe, taking slots where available to produce both the core beer favourites as well as special editions.

It quickly became apparent as the interest and demand for more Whiplash beer grew across Ireland and internationally that they would need a space of their own. 

Breaking ground in Ballyfermot in 2019, the team began to build their own brewery, designing and commissioning everything in-house.

The facility handles handling small runs of new pilot brews as well as big tanks of popular year-round numbers such as Rollover, Body Riddle and Northern Lights.

In the last year, Whiplash have produced everything from hazy IPAs, Belgian style Tripels and Grisettes, massive Stouts and even a few exciting pilots that remain in the pipeline for now, all while maintaining their position as the #1 top rated microbrewery in Ireland.

Last year, Whiplash had hoped to bring guest brewers from all over the world to work on collaborationsas part of the launch but as delays in brewery commissioning set in it wasn’t seeming possible.

Instead, they joined forces with The Big Romance, called some of their brewing friends and set up a beer festival in Dublin and invited everyone to visit. Fidelity took place in July 2019 in Dublin’s Mansion House and for many of the guest breweries it was their first time to ever pour in Ireland.

Attending breweries flew in from all over the world and included the likes of Other Half, J. Wakefield Brewing, Jackie O’s, Barrier, Northern Monk, Finback, North Brewing Co and many other friends closer to home too such as Yellowbelly, Rascals and Boundary.

This festival was just a taster of the type of global craft beer community Whiplash want to forge from Dublin, and those collaborations are still on the books, as soon as it is possible.

In the last few months Whiplash have launched their online store, which has allowed them to deliver direct to consumers during lockdown and the team has expanded, with nine staff now employed across multiple departments, from brewing and canning to lab analysis and marketing.

Whiplash have also continued working with collage artist Sophie Devere to create the unique artwork for each new beer released and have established new relationships with other Irish artists for upcoming projects. 

Commenting on the anniversary, Alan and Alex said: “It’s now quite the pain in our neck. We’ve ruined our lives.”

The rest of the year is jam-packed with new releases coming for winter including the much-awaited seasonal return of Fatal Deviation Imperial Stout and the first taste of the brewery’s barrel-aging programme which has been quietly maturing for the last few months.