Brewers 'most proud of our alcohol-free beer' as production ramps up
An independent Scottish brewery made the headlines last year when their non-alcoholic beer won a top industry award. Now the team is preparing to move to bigger premises. Rosalind Erskine chatted to the owners about their plans, the rise in non-alcoholic drinks and the importance of community.
“This started out as a young, married couple with no kids trying a new adventure,” explained Steve Lewis, head brewer and co-owner - alongside his wife Margo Macnab - of Burnside Brewery. This was back in 2017, when the couple took over from the original Burnside owners, who were retiring.
Now there are four members of staff and a new brewery to open not far from the original Laurencekirk location, meaning 2026 is a key year for the independent business. “ We've had the business for seven bit years now and it's grown arms and legs. There's now four of us working but that's set to grow quite a bit and in 2025 we were building our new brewery site. We're going to be moving over fully in the coming weeks,” Mr Lewis added.
While Burnside Brewery has had steady growth, the introduction of non-alcoholic beer in 2022 almost instantly became a best seller. Margo was pregnant with the couple’s first child and, dissatisfied with non-alcoholic beer options available, the couple set about making their own. They wanted to create an alcohol free beer with the quality of their alcoholic beers.
“ I wasn't drinking so we were trying lots of alcohol free beers,” explained Ms Macnab. “We kind of knew as well that having a kid would mean our life would be a bit different, probably a bit more alcohol-free, beer involved. We spent the time developing that and it really took off for us.”
Called Right to Roam, the beer is a 0.5% ABV IPA that launched in mid-August 2022. In 2025, the beer won Gold at The World Alcohol Free Awards, also taking home a Silver. Burnside beat out huge brands such as Heineken, M&S, Peroni, St Adnam’s, Athletic, Asahi and Jumpship to win the awards and was the only UK brewery to take home the top accolade.
Of the award win, which is one of many for this non-alcoholic beer, Mr Lewis said: “ This is the beer that I'm most proud because that's the one that we genuinely put the most time and care and research into. Just as it took Margo nine months to make a baby, that's about how long it took me to figure out how to make this alcohol free beer. It was a long process. That beer has won about eight awards now, and a lot of the feedback that we get about it is the mouthfeel of it. Essentially it just seems like a genuine beer. It does what it says on the tin. Tastes like beer. Feels like beer. Smells like beer.”
The popularity of Right to Roam and the newer Wayfinder alcohol-free beer means that brewing of non-alcoholic beer at the new brewery, which has space for 10 times the capacity, will take up “60 to 70%” of production.
Burnside Brewery and their non-alcoholic success also secured their first supermarket listing in Scotmid in 2025. “ We supply local pubs, restaurants and shops with an even split of alcoholic and non-alcoholic," explained Ms Macnab,.
“But most of the sales that we do outside of the northeast of Scotland are alcohol free,” she added.
These sales trends track with the overall popularity of non-alcoholic options as people cut down, stop or become more mindful of drinking, something which the couple has seen first hand.
Ms Macnab said: “Over the few years that we've been making it, the reactions have kind of gone from, ‘oh, I don't really drink alcohol, free beer to oh yeah, I'll try that and see what it's like.’ It's really growing and actually I think it's something like 72% of people who drink alcohol free beer still drink alcohol as well. A lot of people are really moderate with it and just cutting back a bit, so it has been really good for us.”
At the new brewery at Woodburnden steading, the brew kit is in and the couple are waiting on the final inspections. The recent heavy snowfall has caused some delays, but there’s a keen sense of anticipation about the new home.
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“ We've moved about four-and-a-half miles away (from the original site). We wanted to stay local for all of our staff,” said Mr Lewis.
“We have basically moved from a council business park to a lovely spot behind an old steading on a hillside that overlooks a small pond and windmills and that sort of thing. It's much more scenic and idyllic with a big glass window so you can see into all the tanks and reclaimed stone work at the front of the building, which is from an old cottage that used to be on the site of the steading,” he added.
With the steading set to become a wedding venue, the team are hoping to be able to supply events there and “ move a bit more into being able to have people coming into the brewery and do tours and that kind of thing,” said Ms Macnab.
As they move into this exciting time, the couple are thankful for their community (the couple successfully crowd funded and have no big outside investment). “ It was really amazing to see how much the community was behind us and helped us with this project” said Ms Macnab.
The staff are an important part of the business, and all own shares as well as enjoy perks not often seen elsewhere, such as six months fully -paid paternity leave, which Mr Lewis and Ms Macnab hope positively impacts the lives of their employees.
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