Whiplash

Whiplash began as a weekend project in 2016, when Alex Lawes and Alan Wolfe — both working at Rye River Brewing Company at the time — started making one-off beers on the side. Demand outpaced their spare time quickly enough that by the end of 2017 they were running Whiplash full-time. A brewery of their own followed in 2019, in Cherry Orchard on the west side of Dublin, and in 2022 they opened Fidelity, a bar on Dublin's Queen Street run in collaboration with The Big Romance.

The brewery built its reputation on bold, technically precise craft beer: big IPAs, stouts, lagers, and mixed-fermentation projects, with a rotating roster of specials and collaborations alongside three core beers — Body Riddle, Rollover, and Northern Lights. For a relatively young Irish brewery, Whiplash punched well above its weight in terms of recognition, earning a Breakthrough Brewery award from HonestBrew and spending time at the top of Ireland's Untappd rankings.

Their sole alcohol-free entry is Never Drinking Again, a 0.5% unfiltered hazy IPA brewed with New Zealand hops. It's the kind of AF beer that doesn't feel like an afterthought: hazy and orange-juice-bright, with gooseberry, mango, and apricot coming through clearly, a full body for the strength, and a soft bitterness that keeps it from sliding into juice territory. Available direct from the brewery's webshop and through specialist retailers.

Whiplash's focus remains firmly on craft beer rather than the AF category, so the non-alcoholic range is likely to stay limited. But Never Drinking Again stands as a serious single release from a brewery that applies the same hop-forward thinking to its zero-point-five as it does to the rest of its range. Sadly, Alex Lawes died in March 2026, a significant loss for both the brewery and the wider Dublin craft beer community he helped build.

The Collection

Never Drinking Again