Going for gold: Burnside Brewery top winner in international low-alcohol awards

Burnside Brewery is on top of the world as the only UK brewery to lift gold in the 2025 World Alcohol-Free Awards.

The Aberdeenshire-based brewery’s Right to Roam IPA won a gold award, with their alcohol-free Wayfinder lager being awarded silver.

Hundreds of alcohol-free products - from wines, spirits and beers to teas, aperitivos and functional beverages - were put through their paces by panels of top tasters in the awards, which were announced earlier this month.

The judges called Right to Roam “a brilliantly-crafted IPA … that could work for all seasons and occasions”.

Burnside Brewery director and co-owner Margo Macnab said: “It is incredibly exciting to perform so well in what is a such a fast-moving category.

“As a small, rural Scottish producer, we’re really proud to have been the only brewery in the UK to win a gold award, especially as we were up against so many of the bigger well-established players, like Marks & Spencer, Adnams and St Austell Brewery.”

The World Alcohol-Free Awards is the only drinks competition dedicated solely to drinks of 0.5% ABV and below. Established by former Michelin-starred drinks buyer and non-alcoholic specialist, Chrissie Parkinson and respected drinks writer Chris Losh in 2022, the competition has become a benchmark for alcohol-free drinks all over the world.

New brewery

Husband and wife team Steve Lewis and Margo Macnab are also celebrating as they passed the £95,000 target in their public funding campaign to build a new brewery a few miles from their current base in Laurencekirk.

Building work has started on the new purpose-built brewery which will let them brew five times their current capacity, to up to half a million litres a year. The project is part of a joint development with construction firm FJB Scotland to build the brewery alongside a wedding venue in a renovated steading, located between Fordoun and Inverbervie.

As well as increased capacity, the brewery will incorporate new technologies, such as carbon recapture which would recover more than three tonnes of CO² a year and a new clarifying centrifuge that will increase yield while still letting them avoid the use of any additives or preservatives.

Margo said the couple has been overwhelmed by the level of public support.

“It means the world to us and makes our new sustainable brewery possible because without these funds we couldn't grow to our full potential. We can't wait to welcome everyone to the new brewery when it is open,” she said.

Scottish favourites

And this comes just weeks after the brewery won a national competition to get their alcohol-free beers stocked in Scotmid stores.

Their success in the Scotmid Scottish Favourites competition sees both their now medal-winning alcohol-free products - the Right to Roam IPA and Wayfinder lager - stocked in stores across Scotland.

Established in 2010, the couple took over the business five years ago and have blazed a successful trail in craft brewing.

Voted Brewery of the Year for Grampian and Northern Isles in 2023 by CAMRA, the Burnside range of beers includes blondes, pale ales, IPAs, red ales and dark beers.