Deer's Head Boilermaker Pairing – Belfast Whiskey Week 2023

If you wanted an authentic taste of Belfast on a Friday afternoon in 2023, the Deer's Head on Lower Garfield Street was precisely where you needed to be. For Belfast Whiskey Week's Olde Hauf n' Hauf session, this storied Victorian pub opened its glass-fronted brewery doors and laid on one of the festival's most grounded, most characterful afternoons — three drams, three specially brewed beers and ales, and a plate of pies that more than a few attendees are still talking about.

About This Event

Looking Back

The hauf n' hauf — a half-measure of whiskey chased with a half-pint of beer — is one of the oldest pub traditions in these islands, woven into the duchas of both Ulster and Scotland. It was a fitting frame for an event that never tried to be anything other than what it was: a proper, unpretentious celebration of the uisce beatha and the brewer's craft, side by side in a room that smells faintly of malt and history. The Deer's Head, a Belfast institution that has been pouring drinks since the 1880s, carries that atmosphere without effort. Its exposed brickwork, dark wood, and the gleaming copper vessels of the on-site brewery visible through the glass wall give the place a dual identity — rooted in the past, alive in the present.

The afternoon began with a short guided tour of the brewery, where the team behind the three specially curated beers walked attendees through their process and thinking. This wasn't a polished corporate presentation — it was a conversation, the kind of seanchas that happens when people who genuinely care about what they make get a chance to explain why. The three speciality brews had been chosen and crafted specifically to sit alongside the whiskey lineup, and that intentionality showed in every pairing. Roasted malts found their mirror in deeper, sherried drams; lighter, hoppier ales cut through richer, oilier whiskies in the way a good squeeze of lemon can lift a whole plate. The balance was considered without being overthought.

The whiskey selection — three highly prized drams that we'll leave festival-goers to recall with their own fond clarity — was presented with enough context to inform without overwhelming. This is the spirit of Belfast Whiskey Week at its best: knowledgeable hosts who know when to talk and when to let the glass do the work. If you're curious about the broader range of expressions featured across the festival, the Belfast Whiskey Week Whiskey Map offers a fine sense of the scope and geography of what was poured throughout the week.

And then there were the pies. Award-winning, according to the billing — and the billing was honest. Served warm, they were exactly the kind of food a boilermaker session calls for: substantial, unfussy, deeply satisfying. The disclaimer in the event notes that individual dietary requirements couldn't be accommodated may have given some pause beforehand, but in the room, surrounded by good company and good drink, it was hard to imagine anyone nursing a grievance. The session ran from half three to half five and felt — in the best possible way — like time that passed both quickly and fully.

The Olde Hauf n' Hauf stood out in the 2023 programme as a reminder that whiskey doesn't always need ceremony. Sometimes it needs a bar stool, a pint beside it, a pie on the table, and a building that has been doing this since before anyone in the room was born. If you'd like to explore more of what Belfast Whiskey Week 2023 had to offer, you can find the full event listing at the original event page, or browse the wider Belfast Whiskey Week collection to see what else the festival brings to the city each year. Sláinte mhath.

Explore the full programme on the Belfast Whiskey Week Whiskey Map.

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