Irish Pot Still Tasting at John Hewitt | Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

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

Filed: 21 Jul 2024
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/24/596

On a bright July evening in the heart of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter, the John Hewitt Bar on Donegall Street threw open its doors for one of Belfast Whiskey Week 2024's most grounded and genuinely illuminating sessions: a straight-up exploration of Irish pot still whiskey, that most duchasach of distilling traditions. Priced at just £15, Session 23 — Original Pot Still — offered something rarer than its modest ticket price suggested: a chance to properly understand where Irish whiskey came from, and where it might be going.

About This Event

Step inside this historic building and take part in one of Belfast Whiskey Week's straight-up whiskey tastings. Let's look at Irish Potstills as a whiskey category. The importance of Potstill through the ages and what brands and distilleries are doing their bit to keep the distilling tradition alive and ensure it is a whiskey of choice in the future. The John Hewitt has opened its doors to BWW 2024, just as it starts to introduce new whiskies to its loyal customers and to the tourists and visitors who frequent the busy Cathedral Quarter. We are delighted to have them on board, and hope you can support the John Hewitt on its quest to be known as one of the greatest Whiskey Pubs in Ireland.

Looking Back

Pot still whiskey is the beating heart of Irish distilling history — the uisce beatha that once flowed from the great city distilleries of Dublin and Cork, made in copper pot stills from a mash of both malted and unmalted barley, giving it that distinctive creamy weight, that spiced, oily grip on the palate that sets it apart from any other whiskey style in the world. This session didn't just pour drams; it told a story. A story rooted in seanchas — the living tradition of knowing where things come from and why they matter.

The format was refreshingly unfussy. A straight whiskey tasting, no theatre or gimmickry, just good pours and honest conversation in a pub that feels built for exactly this kind of evening. Attendees worked through expressions that mapped the pot still category across its modern landscape — from the heritage-driven to the boldly contemporary — exploring what distilleries both old and new are doing to keep this style not merely alive but genuinely exciting. The discussion ranged across the category's near-extinction in the late twentieth century, its slow and determined revival, and the question that hangs pleasingly over every glass: what does pot still whiskey look like in the decades ahead?

The John Hewitt was a particularly fitting setting for all of this. Named after the great Ulster poet and humanist, the bar has long been a cornerstone of Belfast's arts and cultural life — a place where ideas are taken seriously and conversation flows as freely as the drinks. It is the kind of pub that earns its reputation quietly, through consistency and character rather than noise. BWW 2024 marked something of a new chapter for the Hewitt too, as the bar had begun introducing a more considered whiskey selection for its loyal regulars, as well as for the visitors and tourists who have made the Cathedral Quarter a destination worth staying in. Seeing it join the Belfast Whiskey Week family felt natural — and, frankly, overdue. If you're curious about the full spread of what the week had to offer across the city, our Whiskey Map gives a fine sense of the geography of it all.

For anyone who attended this session and found themselves wanting to dig deeper into Irish distilling tradition, the festival's broader programme offered plenty of companion events. The Bushmills History MasterClass from a previous year remains a landmark session in understanding the northern Irish whiskey lineage, while the Sexton Deconstruction Showcase offered a fascinating counterpoint — a single malt from the Old Bushmills Distillery reimagined for a new generation. Taken together, these sessions sketch out the rich and sometimes complicated family tree of Ulster whiskey.

Sláinte to the John Hewitt for welcoming Belfast Whiskey Week with such warmth, and to everyone who pulled up a stool and spent an evening in serious, joyful company with some of the most characterful whiskey Ireland has ever produced. The pot still deserves its moment — and in that room, on that evening, it got one.