Jump Ship Brewing, which says it’s Scotland’s first non-alcoholic brewing company, has opened a new purpose-built 20 hectolitre brewery in Midlothian.
The business has already won awards for its small-batch releases and the new site – powered entirely by renewable energy – will allow it to quadruple production in the face of growing demand.
A measure of this demand was seen last year when a crowdfunding campaign launched by Jump Ship founder and managing director Sonja Mitchell exceeded its £300,000 target in a matter of days.
Sonja, a keen sailor, decided to ‘jump ship’ from her marketing job in 2019 to launch the brewery “out of a love of beer but a horror of hangovers”.
She commented: “As an independent brewery, I dreamed that we might be able to dock ship and open our brewery someday and this feels like such a huge achievement for our team.
“The funding bid has allowed us to expand and explore new contracts in new territories and get our cans to customers on new shores and close to home with on- and off-trade sales. We start brewing this week in our new home, with our first cans from the new brewery available from next month.”
The move also means that Jump Ship can offer brewery tours for the first time, priced from £20 per person and available to book on its website. Each tour lasts between 60-90 minutes and includes a tour of the brewery space, plenty of samples during a guided tasting and a branded tote bag with a can or two to take home.
Sonja added: “Many people might have tried non-alcoholic beer, but few people know how we make our beers naturally without alcohol, so we’re looking forward to rolling up the shutters and welcoming people in.”
The business donates at least 10% of its profits to a variety of charities, nominated by its customers, or ‘ship mates’ as they are described.
All of its beers are gluten free, suitable for vegans and contain the same amount of alcohol per can as a ripe banana.
