Stewart moves to quench thirst

CRAFT beer maker Stewart Brewing is moving to bigger premises in order to satisfy a growing thirst for its produce that saw customers drink it dry this summer.

The firm, launched in March 2004 by Steve Stewart and his wife Jo, has gone from strength to strength and is now producing about 500,000 litres a year.

But Stewart said he still ran out of beer in August, and is in danger of doing so again.

The firm has just shipped its first exports, to Italy, but needs to increase production before it can start selling in more countries.

Stewart said: “Exports are where a lot of our opportunities are. We get calls all the time from distributors in the US Europe and even Australia, and we just can’t supply them at the moment.”

The company has now secured funding to build an £850,000 brewery near its present site in Loanhead, near Edinburgh, that will triple its capacity and give it space to expand further in the following years.

The company has been retaining profits for the past four years to invest in the plant. It also has backing from banks, Scottish Enterprise and a £50,000 loan from the East of Scotland Investment Fund, a consortium of ten local authorities including Midlothian Council, which arranged the deal with Stewart Brewing.

Work is due to start in February and Stewart hopes to start working in the new facility in June or July. “The sooner we can move in the better,” he said. “It will enable us to really start exporting beer and earning money for the Scottish economy,” he said.

He added that he is confident the firm’s brewers will be able to replicate the taste of their award-winning beers in the new factory.

Stewart Brewing currently employs ten people and has plans for two additional full-time jobs in the current financial year and a further five posts by 2013. Its new brewery will be built to high environmental standards, with solar heating and a rainwater collection system aimed at making the brewing process as efficient as possible.