The first six microbreweries established during this pioneering period were, bar one, all short-lived ventures. Most failed within two to three years. Hilden was the exception – this was a farm-based microbrewery with essentially no cost access to space and ready or reduced cost access to inputs such as barley sourced on the farm or from close community partners. Porterhouse can be seen as a successor brewery to Dempsey’s and Harty’s benefiting from experience gained by the brewers from the unsuccessful earlier start-ups. The resulting Porterhouse was a brewpub (as opposed to a dedicated brewery) combining small scale brewing with direct access to consumers. Through this arrangement Liam LaHart and Oliver Hughes avoided having to convince pubs to put their beer on tap and situated the commercial enterprise in the bustling tourist area of Temple Bar in Dublin.
(Sources: The Revenue Commissioners, Hennessey & Jensen, 2014, corporate websites, Beoir, 2020)