Caffrey's Irish Ale is a beer that comes from Belfast, Northern Ireland where it is brewed by the Thomas Caffrey Brewing Company (formerly Thomas Caffrey & Son). Caffrey’s Irish Ale was launched in 1994 and marketed as a beer which combined features from other types of beer: it could be served as cold as lager, its texture would be as smooth as stout, while its taste was that of an ale. Though launched with little advertising, it was priced at the top end of the market and was made available in over 7500 pubs.

Sales of Caffrey's for the first year were higher than expected for a new product, at around 150 000 barrels in its first year. Caffrey's was later launched in 14.9 oz cans, featuring a nitrogen pocket that agitates the beer when you open it giving it a characteristic closer to a draft beer. Nitrogen is less soluble than carbon dioxide, which allows the beer to be put under high pressure without making it fizzy.

The high pressure of dissolved gas is required to enable very small bubbles to be formed by forcing the draught beer through fine holes in a plate in the tap, which causes the characteristic "surge" (the widget in cans and bottles achieves the same effect). The perceived smoothness of Caffrey's is due to its low level of carbon dioxide and the creaminess of the head caused by the very fine bubbles that arise from the use of nitrogen and the dispensing method described above. Thomas Caffrey first established the Ulster Brewery in Queen Street, Belfast in 1897.

The brewery was acquired by Charringtons (later Bass Charrington) in 1964 & then by Interbrew in 2000. On July 6 2004, the owners of the former Caffrey's brewery, Interbrew, announced their intention to dispose of the site of the brewery. Having no takers, they in turn closed the brewery in 2005.

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