The Dublin Liberties Distillery

About the distillery

The Dublin Liberties Distillery is located in Dublin 8 in the middle of the city’s historic distilling district. Here, a working distillery meets a neighborhood with centuries of industry, unrest, and stories. The 18th-century building itself has also served as both a mill and a tannery, and today the site brings together guided tours, tastings, and a whisky program built directly on The Liberties’ local identity.

History

The Dublin Liberties Distillery was established in 2019 with a clear goal: to keep the spirit and fire of The Liberties alive. The home itself is much older. The building the distillery has settled in dates back to the 18th century and previously served as both a mill and a tannery, where rabbit skins were processed. This gives the site a physical connection to the neighborhood’s working past.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, The Liberties was a magnetic area for distillers, brewers, creatives, rebels, and others seeking a place with room for both commerce and rebellion. The neighborhood lay outside the city walls and beyond strict regulations, but it was far from lawless in economic terms: distilleries, weaving mills, tanneries, blacksmith shops, printing works, and unauthorized pubs created a close, noisy, and productive environment. The distillery works today from that legacy as its starting point, and its whiskies are named and told through the neighborhood’s stories and legends.

Raw materials and production

The distillery works with 100% Irish malt, sourced from local farmers around Ireland, and uses water from its own well in the mashing. The facility is built to handle a 2-ton mash tun and fermentation vessels with capacity for 100,000 liters of wash. The spirit created here is distilled triple in a setup with a 10,000-liter wash still as well as intermediate and spirit stills of 6,000 liters each. This gives an annual capacity of over 500,000 liters of new make spirit.

Production thus combines classic Irish distilling tradition with a clear local foundation in raw materials, water, and place. Selected yeast strains are also mentioned as part of the process, and the distillery uses heat recovery to utilize energy more efficiently. At the same time, used spent grain and pot ale are sent back to local farms as animal feed, showing that production is designed as part of a local cycle rather than as an isolated factory.

Maturation and cask types

The whisky matures in specially selected casks, and the premium expressions are aged longer than the legally required minimum age for Irish whiskey. They are finished in various cask types to build a more complex character. It is not detailed which previous contents or specific cask types each individual whisky uses, but it is clear that maturation is actively used as a tool to shape depth and distinctiveness in the more exclusive expressions.

Whiskies

The range is divided between the Dubliner name and the Liberties series. The Dubliner line includes, among other things, Bourbon Cask, Old Fashioned Beer Cask, Smoked Stout Beer Cask, as well as liqueur editions Fiery and Honeycomb. The Liberties series is the more age-focused and exclusive part of the program, with single malts such as Copper Alley 10 Year Old, Murder Lane 13 Year Old, Keeper’s Coin 16 Year Old, and King of Hell 27 Year Old Batch 2. In addition, there is Liberties Oak Devil. Together, this creates a range that spans from more accessible expressions to markedly older single malts with a distinct Dublin identity.

General tasting profile

Visit the distillery

The distillery can be visited as a working distillery in the heart of Dublin. The guided tour with whisky tasting lasts one hour and costs from €20. Visitors also get access to the café/bar and shop, and there is an opportunity for event and venue hire in the three-story building. Opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 8:30 to 17:00, while Sunday and Monday are closed. Booking is done via the distillery’s own website.

The stated opening hours are Tuesday–Saturday 8:30–17:00; Sunday and Monday closed.
See times and book a visit.

Philosophy and craftsmanship

The distillery will keep The Liberties’ spirit and fire alive by connecting whisky, place, and storytelling. It emphasizes local culture and works with artists, musicians, and other creatives in the neighborhood. The craft is closely tied to a tangible responsibility: by-products are returned to local agriculture, and production is set up with heat recovery and energy-saving lighting. It’s a philosophy where distilling, the neighborhood, and community go together.

Sustainability

Spent grains and pot ale are returned to local farms as animal feed.
Heat recovery systems are used to maximize energy efficiency.
The distillery has energy-saving LED lighting and motion sensors.

Latest news

Dublin Book Festival at the distillery – 2024-11-26

The distillery hosted four events during the Dublin Book Festival, where authors, musicians, and guests gathered around readings, conversation, poetry, and music in November 2024.

ProWein 2025 – 2025-02-27

The distillery showcased its premium collection in Düsseldorf and described both Dubliner Irish Whiskey and Dublin Liberties single malts as part of its international offering.

Whiskey Live Dublin 2026 – 2026-06-11

The distillery highlighted Whiskey Live 2026 with Dubliner and Dublin Liberties whiskies, described as full of personality.