WYLAM (UK)
Our pals at Wylam have nearly two decades of brewing cred under their belts right now and are the undeniable dons of Newcastle when it comes to beers, tunes and parties. We’ve made two collabs with our pals so far and they won’t end there. From the whopper Do You Wanna Touch Me to the formidable joose that is Veer Towards Chaos we seem to have great luck when we step into the brewhouse together and it’s always an education from all things hoppy, brown, sour or cask for us when we get together. Wylam undoubtedly are one of the best producers of quality exciting beer in Europe at the moment and once you try their stuff it’s not hard to understand why. We look forward to welcoming them back to Ireland this July for the Session Olympics.
RASCALS (IE)
It seems like so long ago now with all the progress we’ve all made that Cathal, Emma and myself used to all frequent the same homebrew clubs and meets, showing off our beers and competing for medals and trophies with kitchen perfected, bottle conditioned masterpieces only 6 years ago. We’ve been friends since before we had or worked in breweries and have remained so for all that time. Rascals have been, since they began, a huge part of Dublin craft brewing culture and one of the first real homebrewers-taking-it-pro for the absolute love of it in the Irish beer industry. They took the step without big cash reserves, bought a well worn second hand kit and brought those beautiful brews we all believed in to the an Irish public who were still trying to figure out what this independent beer buzz was all about. They won those folks over and Irish beer is all the better for it.Many years and great beers on - Rascals has grown to a bigger family with a new beautiful brewery in Inchicore complete with taproom, whopper pizzas and some of the best hospitality in the Irish industry. They’ve also been a huge support to us providing us with their amazing piloting facility and knowledgable staff over the year too. Their beers have become go-to beers for Irish drinkers with good reason, focusing on great, clean hoppy pales and stouts along with some flair and panache for barrel aged saisons and big fruit bomb kettle sours. We’re proud to have our Irish comrades come help us open our brewery this year and pour at Fidelity and we’re looking forward to what the team are going to bring for beers this year.
BEERBLIOTEK (SWE)
Wizards. Absolute wizards.
We first met Adam from Beerbliotek on a scaldy weekend away in Cornwall and fell in love instantly. Soon after we got together in Dublin for one of our very first collaborations to brew What Else Is New?, a Belgian quad with Rye, Muscovado sugar and Figs. Brewing with Beerbliotek is always a pleasure because if you’re thinking of doing something, they’ve done it. If you need to know how much of something to use, they’ve used it. Since then we’ve brewed not one but two more collabs on trips to the amazing Gothenburg banging out I Can’t Undrink the Things I’ve Drunk – a spruce tip and potato Berliner dry hopped with Galaxy as well as Guerrillas in Our Midst– a whiskey barrel aged coffee Imperial Porter. We only make weird beer on collabs with these legends because they’re pretty much only up for it if it’s weird and we’re all learning something new. We adore that spirit and hope to bring it to our own brewhouse in waiting. Franky we don’t know what to expect from Beerbliotek at Fidelity this year. They do everything, and they do it well. The only thing you need to know is it’ll be boss.
NORTHERN MONK (UK)
It’s hard not to sit down lovingly with a big silly smile on your head and think about how much you love everyone at Northern Monk. Having begun life taking the gypsy route initially like ourselves The Monk have become a Northern powerhouse in Britain tearing up brewkits and fermenter as they expand, ensuring a steady and top quality supply of amazing beer in the UK and Europe. We’re had the honour of brewing not one but two collaborations with the crew in Leeds and everytime it’s an education. This crew can’t be pigeonholed either so expect anything on the day from insane stouts, hop bombs or top quality lagers. We are our graced with their magnificent presence.
MIKKELLER (DK/USA)
Mikkeller have always been a huge inspiration to us at Whiplash. In a time when many looked to the USA for inspiration in West Coast IPA’s and craft beer culture a European homebrewer came along and broke the wheel delivering luscious Stouts, Belgian inspired modern beers as well as delivering any amount of beautiful hop driven Pales and IPA’s you could have craved too. They showed us that labelling could be leftfield and personal, choosing to use bottles and cans as an art space and looking at beer as ephemeral living things that can be a one-off special and beautiful. We’ve always made it our beer holiday every year since it kicked off to attend the Copenhagen Beer Celebration (now MBCC) and it’s been the most formative experiences for us as brewers to try beers from the best curated list of brewers every year. It’s incredible to us that when we asked our pals at Mikkeller if they’d attend our own launch that they were back within a few minutes with a resounding yes. With their gipsy brewed beers along with their breweries in Copenhagen (Warpigs), Mikkeller San Diego and Mikkeller NYC we’re extremely excited to see what Mikkeller brings to Fidelity this year.
DEYA (UK)
The best thing to come out of Cheltenham since the last bus of Irish punters leaves the races, Deya are the new masters of clean, balanced and nuanced New England hop delivery and sessionability. We’ve had the pleasure of joining Theo and crew at their brewery digs this year to make the wonderful Exit Planets and push ourselves to bring new flavours and dimensions to the IPA game. When you get some time with this crew you realise the level of precision and detail they work to always improving and pushing themselves and the game at whatever they do. These are the first pours of Deya beer in Ireland and if you’re in the know, that’s a big deal. We’re honoured to have the guys join us in the Mansion House.
JONATHAN WAKEFIELD BREWING (US)
Easily one of the biggest names and best personalities in modern beer, Jonathan like many of us, came from beer geeking and trading bottles to homebrewing and then commercial – immediately sending Florida into a frenzy for his Florida Weisse dragonfruit sour before bringing the batter becoming a modern master of malt in imperial stouts and all things fun and pastry. Fun is the word you bring to tasting JWB beers. They’re always on point. They always do what they said they’d do but there’s a spirit of humour and exploration that makes drinking them a joy and reminds you you’re here to have a good time with some great beer. When we asked Jonathan if he’d like to bring some beers to Ireland he was all over that party and it’s incredible we get to bring them to these shores for the first time for an almighty party to give Miami a run for its money.
BOUNDARY (NI)
Our longtime buddies and Northern Ireland’s finest beer merchants are coming down to bring the joose and fun but beware, these brewers can’t be pigeonholed. Matt Dick’s love for all things beer from intricate barrel aged sours through to luscious stouts and hop bombs have rightly made Boundary Brewing’s tiny brewhouse of love a key player in Ireland and Europe showing the wonderful potential of what nano brewing, brewery co-operatives and being absolutely sound can do. We’re proud to welcome our pals Boundary to Dublin for the sesh.
STIGBERGETS
Gothenburg is an amazing beer city, not least from the contribution of the wonderful Stigbergets over the years. The team there have gone from strength to strength and are now operating not one but two brewhouses out of Gothenburg these days banging out all things hoppy, malty and sour. We’re always blown away by the clean hoppy bangers from these legends along with our shared love for great lager and are frankly delighted to be welcoming our friends to Ireland for their first ever outing.
SALOPIAN (UK)
We first met Wilf from Salopian on hop farms in Washington State on a near week-long excursion to select American hop varieties for Europe. We immediately fell in love with the guy having quickly uncovered his formidable brewing chops along with his talent for the session and have remained friends ever since. Every time we’re in the UK we jump at the opportunity to try Salopian’s beers and if you ask any beer geek in the UK about their beers – you’ll get wide eyes, a handshake and an outpouring of love for the cask masters wholly uninterested in the world of hype beer and forever dedicated to quality and sessionability of their creations. Cask beer is an aspect of brewing culture that’s for sometime unfortunately been lost in Ireland since the brief absence of independent breweries at the back end of the 20thCentury, so we’ve asked our friends at Salopian to come and fly the cask flag in the Mansion House this July and open the Irish consumer back up to beer in 3D.
GARAGE (ES)
Back last year our pal Joe at Garage asked if we’d be willing to come visit them in Spain and brew some beers together. We were only delighted to come brew some beer with Joe and meet some new friends, a weekend in Barca is always a plus too. We arrived the night before and asked what time we were kicking off in the morning, Joe then let us know it was the same date, but the following month. A friendship was born that would last the ages. Pulling strings and jumping into action the team at Garage done a tap takeover at a day’s notice. We had a roaring night of bonding over the mistake, hugged and kissed the whole team and as we say these days, we’re basically married now. It’s hard to understate how much we love these people. They consistently bang out some of the best beer in Europe and have a team of our favourite and craziest people on earth. We’ve managed two collabs on their end with many more to come so expect their line of New England hop bangers, beautiful fruited sours poured from an incredible height and some of the best crafted Stouts we’ve had in many a year.
These people are dangerous however and should be avoided at all costs.
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Look out for more info the remaining breweries coming soon!