Inside Dundalk Bay Brewery’s bet on innovation
Tony Healy and his daughter Faye proudly unveiling their new zero-zero stout
On a weekday morning in Dundalk, the owner of Dundalk Bay Brewery is doing what he always does: everything. “We work lean because we have to,” he says, rattling off the morning’s to-do list with the matter-of-fact cadence of someone who lives on the shop floor. Purchasing malt for the next year. Chasing cardboard. Signing off on engineering works. Double-checking the effluent discharge because Irish Water has hiked charges and compliance is non-negotiable. “They are increasing the cost of water dramatically, so we have to know exactly what we’re taking in and exactly what we’re sending out. It’s very challenging.”
That word challenging comes up often. This is due to tight margins caused by massive energy, transport, wages and waste costs. And yet, against that background, Dundalk Bay Brewery has just soft-launched what the founder calls a category first for Irish craft: a nitrogenated zero-zero stout designed to pour like the big names and taste like a stout, not “coloured water.”
It is the paradox of small Irish manufacturing in 2025: the harder it gets to run a brewery, the more the survivors are doubling down on craft, science and export discipline.
From tanks to taps
Dundalk Bay Brewery recently marked a decade in operation
Tony began his career in Limerick with an engineering firm and later moved to Dundalk to work as a contractor in the old Harp Brewery. In 1986, he set up Spectac International, a fabrication business that builds pressure vessels for food and dairy. Over four decades, Spectac’s teams worked in breweries, dairies and pharmaceutical plants, accumulating a deep, pragmatic understanding of stainless steel, hygienic design and process control.
When Ireland’s craft beer boom kicked off, the knowledge transfer was obvious. “We knew how to build small breweries,” he says. His daughter Faye, now part of the business, currently on maternity leave, asked the question that became a turning point: why aren’t we doing this for ourselves? The result was Dundalk Bay Brewery, founded a decade ago, built by its sister company, and run with a mix of engineering expertise and hard work. Today, the brewery employs 17 people, brewers, chemists and operations staff, with the founder himself minding the engineering to keep the plant humming.
The site runs five days a week for now, with capacity to go 24/7. “We don’t have the sales for that yet,” he says. But the ambition is there in a five-year plan that he describes as “mid-stream and on track.”
Zero-Zero bet
The new stout is ‘better than Guinness’ according to some customers
The headliner of that plan is a technical challenge most brewers would prefer to avoid: alcohol-free stout that actually drinks like stout. “You can brew to 0.5% ABV,” he says. “You can’t brew to zero.” Getting all the way to 0.0% requires de-alcoholisation, with the flavour consequences that word implies.
Dundalk Bay Brewery’s solution combines process change, yeast innovation (co-developed with a major yeast company under NDA) and thatdealcoholiser “the game changer,” he says. The team reformulated the brewing technique to suit the product and protect the taste profile, then nitrogenated the final beer to deliver the familiar cascading pour. “A lot of 0.5% beers can be a little bit insipid,” he says carefully. “If you go to 0.0% you have to have a taste profile because you don’t want it to taste like you’re drinking coloured water.”
After months of R&D, Dundalk Bay soft-launched the zero-zero stout in recent weeks and will roll out nationally in December 2025, including a listing with Aldi for the Christmas window. Early feedback from export customers has been bracingly positive. “Denmark told us this stuff is better than Guinness,” he says, half-proud, half-wary of the comparison. The brewery’s zero-zero nitro stout also took home silver at this year’s awards season, one of several medals earned across the portfolio, seven golds and counting. The validation isn’t just for marketing; it reassures overseas buyers evaluating Irish craft on paper before they taste a sample.
On-trade versus off-trade
In December, the brewery will undertake a nationwide roll-out of the zero-zero nitro stout
One of the most stubborn routes is the Irish on-trade, where he explains the global giants dominate the cold rooms and tap banks, citing an example of a local hotel that can’t take on their beer because of a lack of taps in their cold room, which was installed by one of the bigger brands. On the continent, the dynamics are different. “They’re not pint-orientated at all,” he says. Dundalk Bay ships 20-litre kegs to Italy, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Canada. In Italy, small restaurants pour the IPA by the glass. “Without export, Dundalk Bay Brewery wouldn’t be alive,” he says simply.
This year the brewery secured ISO 9000 and remains an Origin Green member, badges that matter to international buyers. The medal count from the World Beer Awards 2025, including golds for Lotus and Suki, two Japanese-style beers developed for Aldi has already moved needles in conversations from Rome to Prague. “These awards help when you’re going to customers for export,” he says. “They take that on board way more than the Irish audience.”
Momentum is building further afield. The brewery has booked its first order for Australia, with product departing over the last few weeks. “When you’re sending product out of Ireland, there’s no duty or VAT on it, so you can be reasonably competitive,” he notes.
If you had to add Irish duty and VAT on top, “you can forget about it.”
The looming December launch of the zero-zero stout concentrates minds back home. The Aldi listing will begin as a three-month Special Buy; if it performs, they’ll repeat it. The team is also “wide open” to parallel listings elsewhere and has a meeting with Dunnes Stores early this month.
The labelling whiplash
Tony Healy is also the owner of Spectac International
If the zero-zero project shows Dundalk Bay at its most scientific, labelling laws show the business at its most exposed. The founder recounts a scramble to incorporate forthcoming health warnings into packaging after buyers began pressing suppliers to comply. “We were told it had to be done for next year, so I’ve changed all my labels,” he says. Then the policy was paused. The brewery is now sitting on stock with the warnings printed, uncertain whether those labels will be welcomed or frowned upon in export markets. “It will be very unusual to have this information on the bottles abroad. They don’t want to see that.”
He isn’t arguing against public health communication; he’s arguing against volatility. Each design change triggers a chain reaction: artwork revisions, compliance checks, plate charges and write-offs. For a lean team, there’s no room for zig-zagging. “I’ll have to run with it until someone starts giving out to us about it,” he says.
Changing tastes
Ask him about styles and he shrugs off fashion. IPA has been Dundalk Bay’s best seller in Ireland, with stout close behind, but he thinks the IPA craze will cool over the next few years. “It was the younger cohort,” he says. “That’s slowly changing.” The brewery has thrived by co-developing brands with retailers after a strong run with Sailor Sam for Aldi, they now have Lotus and Suki in the Japanese style, both medal winners. When it comes to domestic channel strategy, he is pragmatic. Does this mean that you concentrate more on off-trade than on-trade? “It does to a certain extent,” he says. But even supermarket aisles are a battleground at Christmas, when the big brands stack high and discount deeper. “It’s very hard to get noticed with all the noise”.
What comes next?
The company is focusing keenly on the zero-zero market even for their ciders and IPAs
Despite business always throwing curveballs, he really enjoys what he does and says he doesn’t regret a thing over the last 40 years. “Innovation is what I really enjoy,” he says. The zero-zero stout was “really challenging,” the kind of problem that rewards tinkering and patience.
The plan is that Faye will take on the mantle after Tony retires. “She’s keen and more than capable,” he says.
In December they will undertake a nationwide roll-out of the zero-zero nitro stout. “We are looking for partners,” he says. That could mean capital, capacity sharing or distribution alliances. Dundalk Bay Brewery already contract brews and has learned to flex to client needs and he is willing to talk to anyone who is interested in joining him and Faye on the next part of the journey
