WESTERN ALES PULL IN POUNDS
£80k raised already for Eigg green brewery
SCOTLAND is set to drink responsibly thanks to a beer entirely made with renewable energy on the island of Eigg.
Stuart McCarthy, 42, is part of a team who have launched a crowdfunding campaign to establish the Isle of Eigg Brewery.
Just three weeks into the campaign, they have raised £80,000 for a cooperative brewery on the island, which will be run off the island’s entirely wind, solar and hydro-powered grid.
Already, hundreds of people have contributed.
Last week, the brewery plan received a boost when BBC6 Music presenter Lauren Laverne featured the Isle of Eigg Brewery on her This Is Business slot. Former schoolteacher Stuart, who wrote the business plan during lockdown, said: “It’ll be the first cooperative brewery company in Scotland.
“Everyone who invests gets one vote in how they want the brewery to move forward.”
He added: “It’s great tasting beer for social and environmental good. The Isle of Eigg built the first renewable energy grid which uses wind, solar and hydro power to provide energy, so it will be a 100 per cent renewablepowered brewery.
“We created the business plan during lockdown. Now we have over 60 per cent of investment raised already which is humbling and phenomenal.”
The not- for- prof it brewery hopes to create three new full-time jobs on the island, which has a population of 100.
Stuart said: “We’ll give employment to three people within three years and the waste from the malt we use will go crofters on the island for use on their crops.”