Weddings at Hilden Brewery

Hilden Brewery was the perfect venue for our wedding. The setting was beautiful, the staff attentive, and everything ran so smoothly. Our guests loved the food, the atmosphere, and the unique character of the venue. It truly made our day unforgettable.

Absolutely incredible wedding venue. We were so pleased with everything. Staff were super accomodating and so friendly! Food was great, beer was great and we had a magical time. Thanks for everything ❣️

This is the most up to date review on the Hilden Brewery Tour as is was yesterday, Friday 17 Feb. This tour should be cancelled until they literally clean up their act; the building was stinking, strewn with rubbish and broken glass. The tour guide was stinking too; trousers splattered with muck and finger nails to match! They really did themselves no favours yesterday in terms of PR, and the tour was half an hour late starting. We went from there to Hinch Distillery; sparkling clean, staff in branded clothing, glorious experience in comparison. I like and drink Hilden products but that tour was shameful, no pride in the business or themselves. Also, they don't brew every day so on our visit it was just a big, untidy barn.

Really informative tour with one of the owners and lots of jugs of beer for tasting afterwards. We had a meal in the restaurant/tap room bar afterwards which was fantastic! They have a 5-10-5 menu so £5 for starter £10 for Main and £5 for dessert. I had pork belly with mash and broccoli and then sticky toffee pudding ... Amazing !!

I absolutely love this place, and if you like locally crafted ale and good good locally sourced you will too. The staff here are very friendly and know there beer. In the summer this is a great venue to get the train to or if you're feeling adventurous you can take the cycle path from Belfast and stop off for a dredging beverage at the end. The grounds of the brewery is gorgeous and it's an ideal place for an intimate wedding reception. I had my own wedding reception here and the staff, venue, food etc could not have been more perfect. If you want to find out a bit more about the brewing process you can also take a short tour of the brewery and sample some of the fantastic beers that are brewed here.

Very small brewery in comparison to what I was expecting, I imagined Bushmills distillery kind of size but this was a fairly small outbuilding. Whilst it wasnt the biggest brewery it was brilliant. The tour was really good and the tour guide was very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful answering everyone's questions. Really easy to get to from Hilden train station.

No trip for us is complete without a visit to a brewery. We stopped at Belfast's oldest independent brewery, Hilden, just outside the city. Unlike Americans like us who think nothing of a 45 minute commute or a 2 hour weekend drive, Belfastians consider this 15 minute drive a day trip. We arrived a little late and thought we might miss the tour, but knowing everyone in town, our friend of course found that her cousin was working there and he let us in late. The brewery is fairly small still, truly a microbrewery, so they can only ferment a few types of ale at a time. I think I can get there with my brewing soon. After the tour was finished, we sampled a few ales in the tasting room. I found them to be very drinkable, but a bit lacking in flavor depth compared to American craft ales. Still, the experience was great in the small tasting room with friends. The tour wasn't super long for the price of admission, but including the samples made it worthwhile. Both the lager and light ale were a little under flavored to me but didn't have any unpleasant notes or off flavors.

Hilden is a few minutes from the city centre, and the brewery's not far from the Hilden railway stop- in fact, one of the beers is named after the stop, "Hilden Halt." Our tour started at 6pm and about 20 of us were welcomed by the owner, Seamus Scullion, who gave us a brief history of beer and also the history of the site itself (Hilden Brewery is the former home of Helen Barbour who married Thomas Andrews, Chief Designer of the Titanic!) We then made our way into the production rooms where Seamus talked about the three key ingredients- malted barley (or "malt"), hops and water. He then told us about the work that goes into producing the drinks and how every single one gets its different flavours. He was really engaging and you could tell the distinctive taste of each craft beer is really important to them. It was then back into the restaurant, the Tap Room, to sample a few of the beers for ourselves. We had the 'Belfast Blonde' (a light, crisp beer), the 'Headless Hop' (a 'hoppy' ale) and the aforementioned, 'Hilden Halt' (the strongest ale at 6.1%, with a 'malty' flavour). Seamus came over to talk to us some more, including to tell us about where the 'Headless Dog' gets its name - a graffiti picture on an old brewhouse wall! It was a great tour and it was fab to get talking to Seamus who is extremely passionate about the brewery- which definitely comes across in the beers!

I brought a stag group here recently for a brewery tour, beer tasting and meal. It was absolutely fantastic and I'd highly recommend it. They make terrific beers (Belfast Blonde, Titanic Quarter, etc) and the food is spectacular. I'd say this is a must for any long weekend visit to Belfast.

Great lunch. Sharing board to start and braised beef cheek for main. Absolutely delicious . Cheese board to finish. Beers are very tasty and very friendly staff

As far as I'm aware this is Northern Ireland's oldest independent brewery which produces a dense range of classic ales. I've always been slightly hesitant of the brewery's output to be perfectly honest. Their beers do not seem to travel well and therefore by the time they even reach Belfast's city bars they have an awful sulphurous character, often down to bad cask management. I thought however that I would give the brewery a go at the source and try their little Taproom restaurant, just to see what all the fuss was about. The brewery has taken shape over the years and the restaurant has certainly seen a serious makeover. A very cosy atmosphere, white linen on the tables and warm lighting. I thought, two courses seems fitting so opted for a duck leg confit with puy lentils. Perfectly cooked crispy duck served on well seasoned al dente lentils, served with a pint of their strong ale, Hilden Halt. It's a biscuity sweet amber ale which complimented the fatty duck. I'm a sucker for slow cooked pork belly so opted for the dish, served with red cabbage and caramelised apples. Superb with a unmistakably moist and tender texture, rich and almost gamey. The prices are up there with the majority of half decent restaurants in the greater Belfast area so pretty reasonable considering the quality of the fair of offer. The beer I'm still not completely sold on. Their pale ale's such as Silver and Hilden Ale are severed under hopped, have a very limited malt bill and are often slightly over carbonated. I've been reviewing beer for eight years but I couldn't differentiate between half of their pale ale cask range. That said, the Halt was tasty as is Molly's Chocolate Stout which is produced under their sibling, College Green Brewery.

Great food, great beer and great service! The twisted hop and headless dog are my favourite of the beers. I have also been to a few corporate organised event in Hilden which have been well organised and setup.