It was founded in 1996 by cousins Oliver Hughes and Liam Lahart who opened Ireland's first craft brew pub in Dublin.

The company's brewery is now in Glasnevin, providing beers to its outlets in Dublin, London and New York.

It was in this environment that, in 1989, Liam Lahart and Oliver Hughes bought a run-down building in Bray, County Wicklow, which became the company's first pub.

[4] In January 2011, they opened a premises on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York, trading at Fraunces Tavern.

[8] In April 2023, a report in the Irish Independent indicated that Conor McGregor had "agreed to buy the Porterhouse Brewery in Dublin".