Rye River Brewing
• • • Best Pale Ale • • •
Robyn Gilmour
Saturday 18 October 2025
This article is from
Beer Awards 2025
issue 123
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When I ask Rye River’s head brewer, Bill Laukis, what makes a great pale, he says “is this a loaded question?” In many ways, it is. British and American versions of the style differ greatly, and since the onset of the haze craze, the style has become incredibly opaque, in line with consumer tastes. I’ve even visited a brewery where the owner told me he would lie in bed at night, agonising over whether or not a pale ale should be hazy. For Bill, there’s room for a little more nuance than that.
“I love a good pale ale, and in today’s modern market place there is room for a lot of variety in pale ales,” says Bill, very diplomatically. “They need to be sessionable, obviously, but after that there is some wiggle room. Our Upstream Pale Ale is what I consider a pretty traditional pub friendly pale ale; it has a clean malt backbone with a moderately hopped floral and fruit nose. On the other hand our Hop Drops Extra Pale, which is a super light pale, designed to drink crisp and easy and showcase Citra. Our new pale, Hazy Bangin’ Pale — launching this fall — will be joining our 'Bangin’' beers, which are some of our favorite hop-fueled beers to both brew and enjoy. Hazy Bangin’ will pack Citra, Galaxy and Simcoe into a class 5% hazy pale, and join our core range, so keep an eye out for this one. It’ll be in great company with our Big Bangin’, Double Bangin’ and Lil Bangin’ beers. It’s also gonna be rolling out in a 440ml can, along with Hop Drops moving to a 440ml can too, so that is fun.”
Three pale ales might sound like a lot to keep in regular rotation, but if there was ever a brewery that could, it’s Rye River; an expansive, workhorse of an operation on the outskirts of Dublin County. “We have been having an exciting time dialing in our new 100hl five vessel Braukon Brewhouse,” says Bill. “With more than 30 unique recipes brewed year round, plus some contract brewing, we are all go. We have 31 fermenters constantly turning out beer and waiting to be refilled. We have also dialed in our new CIP skids, a hop gun and new bottling line which can crank out up to 9,000 bottles an hour. Honestly, we are just enjoying the ride!”
As much as that might be the case, Bill isn’t blind to the challenges that still face the brewing world, and knows that rising costs, changing consumer habits, and a turbulent global market still require breweries to work smarter, and harder.
“I think the focus for breweries at the moment is to keep an eye on quality, consistency and efficiency,” he says. “With all the challenges facing independent brewers we need to be on our game. In Ireland, I’d love to see some government support for easing brewery tap room regulation. This would allow more breweries to open their doors and engage with their communities. We also desperately need government assistance with the alarmingly increasing water prices year on year, so that independent breweries can continue to survive.”
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