#75 Dave Mulligan - Is Poitín Ireland's Mezcal? History, Production, Brands, Tasting

Dave Mulligan is the owner of Dublin's Bar 1661 and The Sackville Lounge, founder of Bán Poitín, and one of the most committed advocates for Ireland's oldest spirit currently working the floor.

Poitín was banned by the British Crown in 1661 and remained illegal for 336 years, surviving in the hills of Connemara and Donegal as both an act of cultural defiance and a working farmer's economy. Now legal, GI-protected, and slowly finding its place on the world's best back bars, the category is at one of the most interesting moments in its history.

On the episode we trace the spirit's origins back through the 1500s and earlier, separating monkish folklore from the documentary record. We taste a remarkable bottle from the 1830s that may rewrite some of what we think we know about Irish distillation. And we work through a flight of contemporary expressions including Micil's malted barley poitín, the Micil x Kneecap collaboration finished in Buckfast casks, Killowen's peated Dead & Buried, Bán Poitín itself, a Bán expression finished in cocktail-seasoned casks, and an unlabelled brown-paper-bag illicit bottle from an unnamed distiller ;-)

We talk about what 1997 legalisation actually changed, why the 2008 PGI imposed a ten-week barrel limit, and why every poitín we taste sits as a fully resolved spirit in its own right rather than a stop on the way to something else. We also get into the early days of Sibín in Kentish Town, the founding of Bar 1661 and The Sackville Lounge, the Belfast Coffee origin story, and what it would take for poitín to become a serious global spirit category.

POITÍN TASTED IN THIS EPISODE

In rough order of tasting:

1. ​Bán Poitín (in the Belfast Coffee at the open, then neat later in the episode) — Dave's own brand. Blended from malted barley, Comber potatoes and Irish grain, distilled at Echlinville. https://www.ban-poitin.com
2. ​A forgotten ~1830s spirit from County Tyrone — discovered around 2019–2020. Not commercially available.
3. ​Micil Poitín — six-generation family recipe dating to 1848. https://micildistillery.com
4. ​Micil x Kneecap Poitín — limited collaboration, Buckfast-cask seasoned. Available via Micil. https://micildistillery.com
5. ​Killowen Dead & Buried — peated, 67.9% ABV, distilled by Brendan Carty in collaboration with historian Fionnán O'Connor. https://www.killowendistillery.com
6. ​Bán 1661 (cocktail-cask finish) — limited release finished in casks seasoned with Bar 1661's own cocktails. https://www.ban-poitin.com
7. ​A mystery stout based poitín — from a sizable distillery; not yet released.
8. ​An illicit, unlabelled bottle — currently being made off-grid; not commercially available.

Featured venues: Bar 1661 — https://www.bar1661.ie · The Sackville Lounge — https://thesackvillelounge.com

Fionnán O'Connor is the mentioned author of A Glass Apart