On the map: Derry

If the place was once most associated with the Troubles, a remarkable renaissance over the last 20 years has meant it is now perhaps better known for its culture (it was UK City of Culture in 2013) and its festivals (it hosts one of the world’s biggest Halloween celebrations). Now, quality ale – craft and keg – is joining that list.

Breweries such as Northbound, Rough Brothers, Walled City and Heaney in nearby Bellaghy, as well as a small but growing number of independent bars such as Blackbird and the Guildhall Taphouse, have all created a thriving scene here. Safe to say, nowhere in England are there so many lip-smacking Irish reds available.

“I think the city is evolving in so many ways, and food and drink is right at the forefront of that,” says Martina, whose brewery’s own 70 Magnum IPA is arguably worth the flight over alone. “There’s a young population who want to try new things and a big tourist and hospitality base so, if you can make something of quality, there is that home market already there.”

Northern Ireland is not, it should be said, an easy place for craft brewers.

Strict licencing laws mean it is both logistically difficult and eye-wateringly expensive to set up either an onsite taproom or an online sales operation. The iron-like grip of Guinness and Tennent’s on the pub industry, meanwhile, can make it difficult for newcomers to get tap space.

Yet this has only meant new breweries here have come up with ever more innovative ways to work.

When Walled City Brewery opened in 2015, for instance, owners James Huey (a former Guinness brewer) and wife Louise were not permitted to have a taproom. So, they built one of the UK’s first so-called ‘brew restaurants’ instead. That is to say: they set up a full-on dining experience to front their three-hectolitre brewing operation.

With more than 20 different awards for their food in seven years since, it’s clearly been a success.

And the beer? Just as good as the grub. And, as James himself admits, occasionally bonkers.

One drink – an 11 per cent imperial stout – is named 1689 after the year of the city’s famed siege and is based on a recipe from the period. “We found it online,” the 45-year-old laughs. “It’s pretty bonkers: they put in stuff like pinecones, eggs, cardamom. We’ve tried to stick pretty close to the original – although, obviously, we don’t put pinecones or eggs in.”

Perhaps because of how tough it is here, it’s a close scene, too.

Walled City and Northbound – which both opened around the same time – speak of each other like comrades-in-arms; while small-batch specialists Rough Brothers is the brainchild of Andy Rough, a relative of James.

“We’re cousin-in-laws – if that’s a thing?” says Andy, who is originally from Huddersfield but has lived here for 20 years. “I worked for him for a while and I just thought there was an opportunity to go alone because there is such a thirst for good beer here right now. In England, the market is getting saturated, but it still feels like the beginning of something in Northern Ireland.”

This sense of a start of a journey, certainly, seems true of the craft pub scene here. While Guinness and Tennent’s taps do indeed still dominate, a heartening number of bars are beginning to redress that.

A decent crawl here would take in Blackbird (a freehouse with a focus on Derry and Northern Irish brews), Sandino’s (an arts bar named after the famed Nicaraguan rebel), and the Guildhall Taphouse, which has its own (off-site) brewery called Dopey Dick.

“People don’t see beer just as a means to getting smashed anymore,” says David Rankin, bar manager at the Guildhall, which opened on the city’s historic main square in 2016. “They want to drink something they can enjoy while socialising. They want something that tastes nice.”

Like Martina at Northbound, he, too, reckons Derry’s younger population are driving this change. “You get students coming back here after living in Liverpool, Manchester or Glasgow,” he says. “They want the same standard of beer here they got there, and quite right too.”

The conclusion? This is a small city with a bright – and beer-y – future.