Brew Toon – A look back on 2018

2018 – our first full year in business, and what a fantastic year we had. It brought with it some huge highs and a lot of hard work. Here’s a review of how 2018 looked for Brew Toon.

Growth

• We invested in a new bottling line which has increased bottling from 100 to 1,500 bottles per hour (big Trevor the brewer is particularly happy with this one…)
• Our first contracts with major retailers were secured
• We secured some amazing new partnerships and supplied beer to over 100 different stockists
• Revenue grew 125%, beating our yearly target by 20%
• We began working with an online retailer to sell our beer throughout the UK
• The additions of a new fermenter and new plate filters meant we could increase our brewing capacity by 35%! The new equipment has also improved our quality control and efficiencies
• These improvements have opened doors to some exciting new markets, and we can’t wait to explore them in 2019!

Awards

• Northern Sinner made it to the finals in the Scottish Food & Drink awards for ‘Own label product of the year’
• We were shortlisted for ‘Best Food & Drink’ tourism attraction in the NE
• Northern Sinner, Weekend Hooker & Raspberry Carronade were shortlisted for ‘Best Brewed or Distilled Product’ in the Opportunity North East awards
• We were also shortlisted amongst 5 for ‘Best Scottish Brewer’ by the Scotsman
• We made it to 3 finals in the Scottish Beer Awards; ‘Best Craft Beer Bar’, ‘Best New Scottish Brewery’ & ‘Best Lager or Pilsner’. Our lager Weekend Hooker picked up the bronze in the latter category, making it the third best lager in Scotland – something we are particularly proud of!

Beers

• We have been doing some work with Peterhead Prison Museum to attract tourism to the area and are working together to develop a tour of both venues. As part of this, we brewed up a riot red ale in honour of the brave prison wardens who worked at what was once known as Scotland’s toughest jail. The beer has been a hit, already on batch No. 3 since its release in October
• M’ango Unchained – this beer was named by a customer who came in during our sampling session and suggested it to our bar staff (cheers!). Due to its popularity we have decided to make it part of the core range for 2019
• We brought our brew count up to 9 with some pretty cool seasonal and collaboration beers. These included, M’ango Unchained, Lemon Libertea, The Jail Ale & Ship Launch
• Lemon Libertea was next up, a collaboration with Eteaket Tea to come up with a sessionable Earl Grey beer. We liked this one so much, we just had to put on a new batch which will be back on the shelves in February 2019
• Our final beer of the year, Ship Launch Brut IPA was brewed as part of the Edinburgh Craft Beer experience (our first beer fest in Edinburgh – which was brilliant!). A brand-new style of beer, it was great to be able to add a new style to our growing range and one we have plans to make more of.

Festivals & Other Events

• Last year attended and supplied beer to some great local and further afield events. We averaged 2 external events every month covering Galas, Marquees, MtB, Beer Festivals, F&D Markets, Community Fayre’s and many more. Some to name only a few were; CAMRA Beer fest (Paisley & Nottingham), Taste of Grampian, Taste of Winter, Peterhead Scottish Week, BrewDog Community Fayre, Edinburgh Craft Beer Experience & North Hop.
• Whilst we had fun attending all of the above events, we also had a belter of a time with some of our own events held in the brewery/ tap room. A huge shout out must go to our team in the bar for organising all the food take-overs, live music, comedy nights, quiz nights, vinyl record fayres and brewery tours amongst so many other things - thank you!