McGill's Brewery
The first microbrewery on the Iveragh Peninsula, on the N70 just north of Waterville, where the beers are named for local people and places. Its An Coirean barrel-aged stout took gold at the 2026 World Beer Awards, and tours end in a tasting.
McGill's is the first microbrewery on the Iveragh Peninsula, and it sits right on the N70 a couple of kilometres north of Waterville, which means most people driving the Ring go past the door without knowing it is there. Joe McGill left a career in investment banking to open it, and the whole operation is small enough that the person pouring your beer is usually the person who brewed it.
What lifts it above a tasting room is that the beers are an argument about the place. An Coireán is the Irish name for Waterville, and it is the barrel-aged imperial stout that won gold at the 2026 World Beer Awards, named Ireland's best wood-aged beer; the whiskey barrels it matures in come from the great-great-grandnephew of Daniel O'Connell, whose home at Derrynane is half an hour down the coast. Puffin Island Imperial Stout took a silver the same year. Maude Delap is named for the self-taught naturalist from Valentia Island who was the first person anywhere to breed jellyfish through their full life cycle, working from a house on the island. There is a Skellig Monk and a Dark Sky Reserve too, for the monastery on Skellig Michael and the protected night sky over this corner of Kerry.
Tours run at three lengths and all of them include tasting. The short Irish Experience is fifty minutes and about 20 euro, delivered partly in Irish, which suits the Gaeltacht setting. The standard Brewery Tour is an hour at around 25 euro. The Barrel Aged Tour is two hours at around 40 euro and is the one that gets you into the barrel-aged beers, An Coireán included. All are over-18s only and all need booking, because the room is genuinely small and a couple of walk-ins can fill it.
It works best as an afternoon stop rather than a detour. Waterville is where most people stop for lunch on the western side of the loop anyway, and the brewery is five minutes further along the same road. If you are staying the night in the village, an evening tour is a better use of the time than another pub.
The practical caveat is the obvious one: this is a working brewery with a tasting at the end of it, so somebody has to drive. If you are two people in a car, it is worth deciding who is drinking before you book, or staying in Waterville and walking back.