Drams & Ribs Showcase | Belfast Whiskey Week 2021

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 25 Jul 2021
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/21/492

Some evenings at Belfast Whiskey Week linger long in the memory, and Session 45 — Drams & Ribs — was precisely that kind of night. Held on 25th July 2021, this Showcase brought together six carefully chosen 50ml pours and a full-on feast of smoked meats, proving that the marriage of good whiskey and good food is as natural as any in the Irish duchas. Whether you pulled up a chair at The Garrick or reheated your delivery box at home, this was one of the most joyfully indulgent sessions of the entire BWW2021 programme.

About This Event

This tasting includes 6 x 50ml Samples and will take place on the 25th @ 19:30.

Please note that this session includes food which we can only deliver locally so this pack is only available for home delivery within Northern Ireland.

The Garrick will provide a feast of pork ribs, beef burnt ends, chicken 2 ways, sliders, and wedges with a whiskey sauce. If you're enjoying from home, the food will be delivered to you on the day of the tasting for you to quickly reheat in your oven.

This tasting comprises of:

Tin Cup
Mitchers Sour Mash
Dead Rabbit
Plantation Rum - Stiggin's Fancy Pineapple
EH Taylor Small Batch
Boann - the Good, Bad and the Smokey

Tasting packs will be posted out to you, but may not arrive in time for the tastings. If you wish to collect the pack in Belfast to ensure you have it in time, please contact grace@belfastwhiskeyweek.com after you order.

Looking Back

The lineup for Session 45 was nothing short of eclectic — a deliberate spread across styles and continents that rewarded open-minded drinkers. Tin Cup brought its approachable Colorado character; Michter's Sour Mash offered that distinctive American sweetness with a backbone of grain complexity; and the Dead Rabbit expression — named for the legendary New York cocktail bar with deep Irish roots — carried its own storytelling weight. This was seanchas in a glass, whiskey with something to say about where it came from.

Then came the curveballs. Plantation Rum's Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple was an eyebrow-raiser on a whiskey bill, but it worked — its tropical richness acting as a palate cleanser and a provocation in equal measure, reminding attendees that the world of distilled spirits is wider than any single tradition. EH Taylor Small Batch brought things back to stately American craft, all corn sweetness and lingering oak. And anchoring the evening with unmistakable local pride was Boann Distillery's Good, Bad and the Smokey — a tasting-within-a-tasting that walked through the Drogheda distillery's range with characteristic flair. Boann continues to be one of the most exciting presences on the island of Ireland, and their contribution here gave the evening a real sense of tir — of place and belonging.

The food, provided by The Garrick, was nothing short of a feast. Pork ribs with that low-and-slow smoke, beef burnt ends with their caramelised intensity, chicken two ways, sliders, wedges, and — the detail that tied everything together — a whiskey sauce that felt less like a condiment and more like a thesis statement. The Garrick is one of Belfast's most beloved whiskey bars, and their understanding of how smoke and spirit speak to each other was fully on display. For those joining from home across Northern Ireland, the delivery format meant the craic could be had from the kitchen table as easily as from a barstool, ribs in hand, dram poured, screen propped up.

At £75 for six drams, a full BBQ spread, and a guided tasting experience, Session 45 represented real value — but more than that, it represented a certain spirit of Belfast Whiskey Week itself: irreverent, generous, and unwilling to be boxed in. If you found yourself drawn to the broader BWW2021 whiskey passport, sessions like the Sexton Deconstruction Showcase and the Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass offered their own distinctive pleasures — but Drams & Ribs had something the others didn't: gravy on your chin and a smile you couldn't shift. For those who want to explore more of what the festival has brought to Belfast over the years, our Whiskey Map traces the full geography of distilleries and drams that have graced the programme. Sláinte mhór to everyone who raised a glass on the 25th — you earned every bite.