Q&A with Kerr's Brewery

Founder, James Kerr, Talks Beer

Tell us about Kerr’s Brewery and how you got into it

After studying for a Brewing & Distilling BSc. at Heriot-Watt University I moved to England to work for the family business, selling machinery to small breweries. Travelling and working with new start-up brewers across the UK was fun and challenging - a recent highlight was installing the brew system at the new Battersea Power Station development in central London. But, in the back of my mind was the thought that I'd eventually settle in one place and use the knowledge I'd gained in the industry to start my own brewery. I also missed Scotland - and if I'm honest, I missed the exceptional quality of the drinking (brewing!) water here - so in January 2019 I moved back to Edinburgh and start looking around for a place to start a small brewery.

Initially, industrial units in Leith were where I had in mind, but when a colleague mentioned the old farm buildings at Rosemains Steading were due to be renovated, I realised I couldn't pass up the opportunity to brew beer on a working arable farm. Since the Industrial Revolution, British brewers have been largely disconnected from the farms and rural communities that provide the ingredients for their beer, so to be able to look out the window the of the brewery and see fields of barley & wheat, and tractors driving by makes me feel much more connected to the landscape and also the supply chain that supports the beer industry.

What are the beers/story behind them

Pre-Industrial Revolution, almost every farm would have brewed their own rustic beer styles using their local ingredients. This tradition continues somewhat in Belgium, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, but was sadly lost in Britain when the city-based, industrial brewers took over production. There are pros & cons to both styles of brewing. My aim is to combine the consistency & scientific methods used in modern brewing with some of the slightly more unusual yeast varieties, heritage barley varieties, herbs, spices & flavourings that might have been found in beers 200 years ago, before production moved into the factories.

Lessons learned along the way

Brewing in rural areas comes with it’s own set of unique challenges. Top of the list is drainage and what to do with wastewater & spent cleaning chemicals when the brewery is not connected to a town sewer. Some of the cleaning products conventionally used in breweries are not great for the environment, so switching to gentler products and learning different techniques to minimise wastewater & environmental impact has been a good learning curve.

Advice for anyone else starting out

During my first internship, my brewing mentor said to me "You do realise there are pubs and shops down the road that sell beer... buying someone else's beer is much easier than making it yourself. If you're going to brew for a living it has to be because you love the process, not just because you like drinking the product." 

Everyone will try to give you advice on how to run your business. Good advice usually comes from people who’ve already done what you are trying to do and done it well; the rest is often just a distraction. If, like me, you’re indecisive and easily distracted, I’d say go back and re-read your business plan. If it was written honestly, it should remind you the reasons you started the business in the first place and therefore act as a good compass when making decisions.

Plans for 2023

I'm currently working through the licensing application for the brewery, which will allow me to open the doors as a taproom with capacity for 20 people, as well as host brewery tours & tastings in 2023. Crucially, the licence will also allow me to sell cases of beer direct to the public and via the Internet. I also plan to start producing cask ales for local pubs and maybe even a keg lager. Watch this space.

What’s your party trick?

I don't have one, but turning up at parties with beer I made myself has always been a good conversation starter!

Where to find Kerr's Beer?

The beers are currently available in all three Vino Wines shops in Edinburgh, as well as Beerhive (Bonnington) and Appellation Wines (Comely Bank Road). Superoni, a new butcher's shop in Stockbridge, has even some of our First Brew into their pies & sausages.

We also have a market stall coming up at the Restoration Yard in Dalkeith Country Park on the following dates: 19th, 20th, 26th & 27th of November; also the 17th & 18th of December.