Mitchelstown’s Eight Degrees Brewing has won a GOLD award at the 2026 Blas na hÉireann Irish Food Awards.
The brewery’s Full Irish Single Malt IPA, brewed using 100% Irish-grown malted barley, was given the top prize in the highly contested ale category at this year’s awards ceremony in Dingle last weekend.
“It’s a beer that we first brewed as a once-off for a festival in 2014,” said Eight Degrees co-founder Cameron Wallace, “but we quickly knew that it was something that we needed to bring into our core range.”
“We brewed the Full Irish to celebrate the glories of Irish malt,” explains his fellow founder Scott Baigent. “We’ve worked with the Malting Company of Ireland for many years and we really wanted to showcase how good the Irish-grown barley that they malt in Cork – only down the road from us – is. It’s our flagship single malt IPA and we’re proud to bring this Blas na hÉireann GOLD award back to Mitchelstown.”
The Full Irish IPA GOLD wasn’t the only medal to come back to Mitchelstown this year: Horgans Delicatessen Supplies, currently celebrating 50 years in business, won GOLD for their Irish silverside spiced beef and BRONZE for their 1921 reserve Irish cheddar.
Full Irish Single Malt IPA is available in 440ml cans, 500ms bottles and limited draught. Find more information, along with tasting notes, at eightdegrees.ie/beers/full-irish
ABOUT EIGHT DEGREES BREWING
Eight Degrees Brewing is an award-winning independent Irish craft brewery based in Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Renowned for its innovation and experimentation, it was established at the foot of the majestic Galtee mountains by Scott Baigent and Cameron Wallace in 2011. Eight Degrees Brewing is passionate about producing exciting and adventurous beers using only natural ingredients.
ABOUT BLAS NA HÉIREANN
The Blas na hÉireann awards weekend ran from Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 October in Dingle, with a programme of events shining a spotlight on the very best of Irish food and drink. Now in its 19th year, Blas na hÉireann had a record number of entries in 2026, with over 3,000 products from every county in Ireland competing across more than 200 food and drink categories.
