Craft brewing, cider making and distilling

Support for craft breweries, cideries and distilleries

Guide

Several organisations provide support, advice and assistance to craft beer, cider and spirit producers in Northern Ireland.

Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) has a dedicated food and drink team(link is external) supporting businesses. They can help with exporting, intellectual property protection, product development and design. Their buynifood.com(link is external) website offers guidance on local suppliers. Invest NI can also help with market research and reports through their Business Information Centre(link is external).

Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association(link is external) (NIFDA) works to bring local food and drink industry stakeholders together.

Tourism NI offers food and drink tourism(link is external) advice and support.

Food NI works to promote Northern Ireland's food and drink offering through events, guides and the NI Good Food (link is external)website.

Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) - The Northern Ireland branch(link is external) of CAMRA promotes and supports local breweries producing 'real ale'. According to CAMRA, real ale(link is external) is defined as cask-conditioned beer made with traditional ingredients.

Craft beer, cider and spirit producers can get help to create a tourism offering by becoming an ÉCONOMUSÉE(link is external) - a 'working museum' where visitors can learn about your craft and buy your products.

The British Beer and Pub Association (link is external)is an industry body representing brewers and pubs in the UK.

For more information, read about food and drink support and funding or watch our case study below to see how Shortcross Gin got help to develop and export their craft gin.