Four new beers from Northern Irish craft brewer

Craft brewer Hillstown Farm, based in Northern Ireland, has launched four new beers to join its existing Wayne's Wheat Beer that it introduced last year. The new products were developed by the brewery located on a family farm near Ballymena in county Antrim as part of a diversification project.

The new products are now available in pubs and off sales throughout Northern Ireland and have been named to reflect the farm heritage underpinning them. Hillstown Farm first began brewing beer to create Northern Ireland's first Wagyu beef, a product which won a UK Great Taste Award last year.

The new line-up features a wheat beer, a red ale, a stout and a lighter ale aimed at female drinkers. The products are:

Goat's Butt (ABV5.3%), a refreshing wheat-rye hybrid with fresh and fruity hints of apricot and banana, which is available in 330ml bottles;

Massey Red Ale (ABV5%), named in honour of Massey Ferguson tractors and available in 500ml bottles. The ale has a roasted caramel and malt flavour;

Horny Bull Stout (ABV7%), a full bodied stout from New World hops and roasted barley with chocolate and liquorice themes in 330ml bottles;

Dirty Ducker Ale (ABV4%) a lighter stout suitable for female drinkers with citrus themes and a dark, malty appearance.

The existing Wayne's Wheat (ABV 3.5%) has proved popular with craft beer enthusiasts and is a pale beer that's brewed from special yeast and rye blend.

The beers have all been created by brewers Jonathan Mitchell and Nigel Logan, owner of Hillstown Farm, over the past two years. Hillstown is a 100 acre family farm that raises a range of livestock particularly for meat including Angus and Irish Shorthorn, as well as pigs and poultry. Stout has been used to feed the cattle for beef over the past few years. The farm has been owned by the Logan family over five generations.

Jonathan Mitchell, an experienced craft brewer, commenting on the new beers, says: "It's long been our aim to develop a broad portfolio of craft beers and stouts. We've now created a range of beers to suit most tastes. Our aim will be to develop business outside Northern Ireland especially among real ale and beer enthusiasts."

The enterprising duo also run Get'er Brewed, a specialist in home brew kits, which they established in April 2013 to provide advice, support, equipment and supplies for those wishing to produce beer, ciders and wines. The company is now the largest home brew supplier in Northern Ireland.