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Killowen Poitín & Poutine at Belfast Whiskey Week 2023
On a Wednesday evening in October 2023, TradeMarket buzzed with something a little different — a little older, and a little wilder. Event 70 of Belfast Whiskey Week 2023 brought Killowen Distillery down from the Mournes to lead one of the festival's most distinctly Irish sessions: a guided poitín tasting paired with proper Canadian-style poutine, hosted by the distillery's own founder and distiller, Brendan Carty. It was, in every sense, the uisce beatha experience before the uisce beatha had grown up — raw, rooted, and utterly compelling.
About This Event
TradeMarket is a hive of great street food, skilled mixologists and an eclectic mix of people who want to try new things; eat new things, drink new things. It’s an ideal place in Belfast to start new trends, introduce new ideas and to meet new friends.
Looking Back
TradeMarket is exactly the kind of place a session like this deserves. A hive of street food vendors, sharp mixologists and an eclectic crowd who show up precisely because they want to be surprised — it carries that same spirit of duchas-informed curiosity that makes Belfast's food and drink scene so alive right now. When Killowen arrived with their poitín, they weren't walking into a room that needed convincing. They were walking into a room that was ready.
Brendan Carty led four guided poitín tasting samples with the authority of someone who has spent years thinking seriously about what this spirit is, where it comes from, and why the drinks industry has been so slow to reckon with it. Poitín — spelled the old way, earned the old way — carries centuries of seanchas in every pour: a spirit of necessity and ingenuity, distilled in the margins, now finding its rightful place at the centre. Brendan made that story feel immediate and personal, and the room listened. Between pours, plates of poutine from TradeMarket's Rebel & Ruse Kitchen arrived — rich, generous, unapologetically good — grounding the whole evening in something comforting and fun. It was the right call. Poitín can be a spirit that makes you think too hard; the food kept things rooted and sociable.
As a nod to the wider festival context — because this was, after all, Belfast Whiskey Week — the evening included a sample of Killowen's Barántúil Peated Port Cask, a whiskey that showed just how far this small Mourne distillery has come. Killowen's range is one of the most closely watched in Irish whiskey right now: craft single pot still distilling with genuine character and no shortage of ambition. The Barántúil, with its peat and port complexity, felt like a reward for the evening's work — a reminder that the wild spirit in the earlier pours was only one expression of what this place is capable of.
For those who caught the festival's other cocktail-focused sessions — including the excellent Echlinville Cocktail Takeover and the Dublin Liberties Cocktail Masterclass — this event offered something a little more elemental. There were no shakers or garnishes here; just honest liquid, honest food, and a conversation about Irish drinks heritage that felt genuinely overdue. Killowen has been quietly building a following in the wider whiskey community, but evenings like this one in Belfast are where that following becomes something louder and more loyal.
Sláinte to Brendan and the Killowen team for bringing the mountains to the market. This was one of 2023's most memorable sessions — intimate, educational, and deeply, irreverently fun. We hope the sheugh between the Mournes and Belfast stays well-worn.
The Brand: Killowen Distillery
Craft Irish single pot still whiskey from the Mournes that the whole whiskey Ireland community has been quietly tracking.
More from Belfast Whiskey Week
- 47: Echlinville: Cocktail Takeover
- 61: Dublin Liberties: Cocktail Masterclass
- 100: W.D. O’Connell x Rattlebag Collaboration
Explore the full programme on the Belfast Whiskey Week Whiskey Map.
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