Hilden Brewery

During the summer we headed up to the Hilden Brewery as a late birthday celebration for one of our friends, Stephanie. She's really into their brew "Headless Dog" and always wanted to go, so off we went on the jaunt. In terms of getting there, it really couldn't be any easier, the Brewery itself is located in Hilden town which is well signposted from the motorway and isn't far from Belfast. If you don't feel like driving or don't have access to a car, you can do what we did and get the train from Belfast Europa train station and walk the 5 minute journey to the brewery.

The tour itself was great and as we were novices our guide, Seamus, was kind enough to go over all the basics of brewing. The main thing that struck me was the ethos of the brewery itself in that they stick to traditional brewing methods rather than using artificial flavourings to produce their beers which gives an altogether more complex taste. We were taken around and then had a tasting of the different ales afterwards in their restaurant. Unfortunately we didn't have time to try the food on this particular trip but we'll definitely be back to check it out and revisit our new found brewery cat mate.

If you're looking for something a bit different to do, I'd wholeheartedly recommend getting a few of your mates together and heading up! At £6.50 a head it's not gonna cost a fortune either!

Check them out on their Website, Twitter or Facebook.