Hilden Brewing Co
Hilden Brewing Company, Hilden House, Lisburn, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland BT27 4TY
Ireland's oldest independent brewery.
Established October 1981 by Seamus Scullion.
From Brewery history Number 91
After seeing the revival of real ale in England, Anne and Seamus Scullion returned to Northern Ireland and set up a brewery in stables next to their Georgian House in October 1981. The first new small brewery in N Ireland was designed by Brendan Dobbin who later formed West Coast in Manchester. The plant was purpose built in Ulster but set up with the assistance of brewing Guru Peter Austin of Ringwood Brewery.
Most Northern Irish pubs are not equipped to sell real ale so in summer Hilden Ales were often sold in less than peak condition. This led Hilden to install their own cask cooling system in stockists. At the end of 1995 only one Northern Ireland pub took the beer although there were sales to some pubs in England.
In 1996 a visitor centre was opened including a bar giving another much needed outlet for Hilden beers in it's local area.