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United Kingdom: Scotland is home to more breweries now than at any other time in the past 45 years. According to the Campaign for Real Ale, there are now 36 breweries in Scotland. Iain Loe, a spokesman for the group, said: "Unlike a few years ago when new breweries struggled to survive, breweries that have set up since have started to thrive." The growth is being driven by real ale pubs, specialist beer shops and the tourist trade.

Tastes are changing, Scotland on Sunday commented on January 23. While most consumers want the big lager brands promoted by S&N, Interbrew and Coors, a growing minority are looking for something more individual. In the past year breweries have opened at Loanhead in Midlothian, in Perthshire, Islay and on Skye. Even Orkney - hardly a hotbed of the industry - is believed to be getting its second brewery.

Islay’s first brewery for 170 years opened in the village of Bridgend in March 2004. The previous brewery was built by a laird who tried, and failed, to wean the locals off whisky. Islay Ales started by selling its range of five beers to local pubs, but visitors and the real ale grapevine have generated interest elsewhere. Despite punitive transport costs, the company has just landed a deal to supply a chain of coffee bars in Belgium. Orders have also come in from Sweden and Japan. Paul Hathaway, Islay’s brewer, said: "We have the luxury as microbrewers that we are not necessarily driven by accountants. People are more aware of what they are drinking now and increasingly looking at quality rather than quantity."

The big brewers’ ales are in decline as their marketing budgets move towards lager, although S&N has seen sales of its heavily-advertised John Smith’s ale increase in Scotland, according to Scotland on Sunday. Cynics might say microbreweries are no substitute for the industrial scale brewing which takes place at Fountain Brewery and at Tennent’s Wellpark site in Glasgow.

Bridge of Allan, a typical microbrewery, produces 2,000 barrels a year, compared with 1.4 million at Fountain. Indeed, it looks like Scotland will become a net importer of beer once S&N’s plant closes in June. But the new type of brewery could be better for Scotland. Bridge of Allan can make a profit on an output of 400 barrels a year for each employee, whereas S&N pulled the plug when each of its workers was making 12,000 barrels.

The latest crop of breweries include the Cuillin Brewery, Skye’s second beer maker, which is based at the Sligachan Hotel and serves local pubs, and Stewart Brewing in Loanhead, Midlothian. Steve Stewart began brewing in Loanhead in December following a series of jobs with Bass, the brewing giant, and Six Continents, the bar operator. His Edinburgh Number 3 ale is on sale at 10 city pubs, and is being tried out by Sir John Fitzgerald, the Newcastle-based pub chain. Stewart said: "Number 3 is a traditional malty ale, and there was always a demand for that kind of beer in the north of England."

Stewart said: "S&N are a big company, they go for big brands. I am ready to exploit the difference. As the big brands get more ubiquitous, people want more choice. They do not all want to follow the crowd. "Real ale is not all about beardies with sandals. It is a premium product. It is up there with the premium foreign beers." Some of the more popular microbreweries have started to expand. Harviestoun, which produced the champion beer of Britain in 2003, moved from Dollar to a brewery five times as big in nearby Alva, and Bridge of Allan opened a satellite operation in Stirling.

Caught between the multinationals and the microbreweries are Belhaven in Dunbar and Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewing, which can produce around 100,000 barrels a year each. Stuart Ross’s Belhaven has thrived by building a network of pubs which allow it to sell products such as Belhaven Best.

Caledonian surrendered its independence a year ago when its site, buildings and 30% of its equity were acquired by S&N. But according to the two companies, the deal ensured the 150-year-old brewery’s long-term future. It will now make McEwan’s ales for S&N, stretching what was a part-time operation across a full working week.

The smaller breweries could take even more market share from the big boys by getting into more nearby pubs and becoming the ‘local ale’.

Caledonian has managed this to an extent in Edinburgh and Belhaven in East Lothian, but so far there is no beer closely associated with Aberdeen, Dundee or even Glasgow, except the ubiquitous Tennent’s lager. The market appears to be wide open.


26 January, 2005