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Beer in Northern Ireland has been influenced by immigration, especially from Scotland and the drinking habits in Ireland until the partition of Ireland. Whiskey drinking was always a tradition with Guinness from Dublin being a strong influence in the style of beer drunk in the 19th and 20th centuries. Brewing traditions almost ceased to exist as smaller breweries closed, or were taken over, and then the large breweries in turn closed down their facilities. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was founded in 1971 however it was 10 years before the first new brewery, Hilden Brewing, opened its doors. The industry has been saved by the recent boom in microbreweries.
History
The Celtic tradition of brewing beer almost certainly existed in Ireland from before 1,000BC using barley. The Roman emperor Julian, in a 1,600-year-old poem, correctly described Celtic beer as smelling “like a billy goat.” Historically Ireland produced ale without the use of hops, as the plant is not native to Ireland, which led in the 18th century to importing quantities of hops from England.
During the 18th century the Irish parliament used taxation to encourage brewing at the expense of distilling, reasoning that beer was less harmful than whiskey. In the 1760s about 600,000 barrels of beer were brewed annually in Ireland. In the 1760s the Royal Dublin Society offered prizes to brewers who used the most Irish hops and those that produced the most Porter.
During the interwar period in Northern Ireland, "many drinkers preferred whiskey to beer."
The Caffrey's Ulster Brewery, established in Belfast in 1897 and taken over by Bass in 1974, closed in 2004, so ending big company brewing in Northern Ireland. Stout is the most preferred beer in Northern Ireland, with lager second and bitter beer as a distant third preference. Guinness, brewed in Dublin is still a popular stout beer in Northern Ireland.
Hilden Brewing Company claims to be Ireland's oldest microbrewery, founded in 1981.
In 2007 an ale produced by Whitewater Brewing Company was judged one of the best 50 beers in the world.
The number of microbreweries in Northern Ireland has significantly increased in recent years, from 5 in 2012 to 30 in 2017.