Bellfield Brewery in Edinburgh plans to open a visitor centre and tap room aimed at beer tourists.
The microbrewery in Abbeyhill, which makes only gluten-free and vegan beers, has applied for a licence to open the attraction this summer.
Its expansion plan has been funded by an injection of £600,000 from Equity Gap, the angel investment syndicate.
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Bellfield will offer tours to show visitors how gluten free and vegan beer is produced at its recently installed 2000-litre plant.
The tap room will have i ndoor and outdoor seating and serve food, with a shop selling beer and merchandise
It will also be marketed as a venue for meetings, events and performances.
Bellfield also announced it has hired Elliott Lamb as its UK sales manager, Graeme McKinnon as brewer and Derek Brown has on a six month consultancy to secure more pub and restaurant listings for its products across central Scotland. McKinnon, who will manage all on-site brewing, recently completed an MSc at the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD) at Heriot-Watt University. They will support head of brewing and business development Kieran Middleton.
Managing director Alistair Brown said the company is experiencing strong demand thanks to growth in the craft beer and ‘free-from’ sectors.
He said, “Many microbreweries like ourselves - such as Campervan in Edinburgh – now have tap rooms where visitors can enjoy a beer that’s super fresh, brewed on site. We know from experience that having our own Tap Room is a critical next step for us, to help us to sustain and indeed, increase, the number of jobs we have created.”
The tap room plan is subject to licensing approval by the City of Edinburgh Council’s Licensing Board on 29 April.
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The raise of funding via Equity Gap - with support from the Scottish Investment Bank - was completed with advice from Jo Nisbet, partner at Harper Macleod, and the corporate finance team at Henderson Loggie, overseen by Rod Mathers.
In the last 12 months, Bellfield has exported beer to the Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malta, UAE and Switzerland and the company has active tenders for sales in Sweden and Finland.
