Once Brewed lies just south of Hadrian's Wall, which runs along the top of the Whin Sill ridge above the village to the north.

[1] The village consists of the Twice Brewed Inn, a combined YHA youth hostel and Visitor Centre to the Northumberland National Park ('The Sill'), and also some farms.

Both the Twice Brewed Inn and the youth hostel are popular sleeping places for walkers on the Hadrian's Wall Path and the Pennine Way.

The most romantic story has it that on the eve of the Battle of Hexham in 1464, Yorkist foot soldiers demanded their beer be brewed again because it lacked its usual fighting strength.

[4] The antiquarian William Hutton walked the length of Hadrian's Wall in 1801 and stayed one night at the Twice Brewed inn.

For Local Government purposes it belongs to Northumberland County Council a unitary authority, with Once Brewed lying in the Tynedale Division.