At this year’s festival there will be a great selection of beers and spirits. Over the weeks building up to the festival we’ll announce what brewers and gin bars we’ll have, first up is Crossbill Gin. Glassford Community Group will be running its own bar to help raise funds along with all of these fantastic companies below.
Local company The Jaunty Camper Gin was founded by Yva McKerlich, who moved from gin enthusiast to gin producer in a matter of weeks.
Having shipped out the first batch one bottles in August of 2021, it has been a whirlwind adventure for Yva, with the expert guidance of friend and distilling mentor Colin McLean of Jackton Distillery.
The Jaunty Camper brand focuses on the vehicle that Yva refers to as ‘the love of her life’ – Jasmine, the 1972 VW T2 campervan who is the ‘face’ of the brand with the design of the label placing a watercolour sketch of Jasmine front and centre. Yva wanted to embrace the talents of her local area when she took her gin recipe to a wider stage and having secured a gin mentor in Colin, she turned to the design talents of local artist Christine Allan who had first sketched Jasmine during lockdown as a colouring resource for local children. Christine brought another local talent, artist and designer Anne Anderson, into the team and the design for the bottle label and subsequent product branding came to life in their creative hands.
Crossbill Distilling is an established distiller with experience dating back to 2006. Gin production began in 2012 in Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands. In 2017 they relocated to the legendary Barras in Glasgow’s East End, where they distil their range of award-winning, Handcrafted Scottish Gins.
Their Gins are a celebration of Scottish nature, made with wild, fresh botanicals, harvested by hand then slowly macerated in Glasgow before being distilled. Each bottle is a testament to their passion for creating an exceptional gin and showcasing the beauty of Scotland’s natural resources.
The distillery is open to the public, and they invite you to join them for one of their Gin School Experiences. Their knowledgeable and passionate staff will guide you through the facility, where you can see first-hand how they create their award-winning spirits using traditional techniques combined with modern technology.
Crossbill Distillery attracts visitors from all over the world and has been featured on BBC, Channel 4’s Shed of The Year, as well as in National Geographic, New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Die Welt, Condé Nast Traveller, Haaretz and other global publication.
For more information go to https://www.crossbillgin.com/about-crossbill-gin
Another brewer attending this year is Two Towns Down .
Founded in 2019 by Sandy McKelvie, Two Towns Down is the symbol of family and triumph over adversity. Since childhood Sandy has fought the odds, and graduated from the prestigious Heriot Watt Brewing and Distilling courses, while as a child his parents Sandy and Liz were told he may never learn to read due to Dyslexia and Dyspraxia. However, with the support of his close-knit family Sandy has been able to build his own business here in Paisley where he brews the beers onsite and runs a very successful tap room, which has an offering of 10 beers, wine and spirits is open every Saturday!
This talented Brewer perfected his skills over the years starting at The Hanging Bat while still a student and then moving onto Fallen Brewing and Black Isle for a while as recipe development. Later moving on to brewing at 71. Then in November 2022 securing premises back in his home town of Paisley. Sandy has also been involved in several beer collaborations with breweries like Poppels in Sweden, Young Masters in Hong-Kong and Dog Falls in Inverness.
“Paisley Pattern is a very important part of my history as generations of my family worked in the mills. The creativity and innovation reflected in the Paisley Pattern is the innovation behind all my beers”.
Future plans – We have plans for a faster canning process, new Fermentation Vessels to keep up with demand and a bottle shop coming over the rest of this year. Watch our socials for our local beer festivals.
Next brewer up is Outlandish Brewing Company from North Lanarkshire.
Visit the website, https://outlandishbrewco.com/ for more information.
FANCY A SWALLY!
THIS IS AN OUTLANDISH TALE – BUT IT’S TRUE, AND WE ALL KNOW THE BEST STORIES ARE THE TRUE ONES, RIGHT!
We are a proudly Scottish brewery dedicated to providing our customers, lovers of craft beer, with our traditional and contemporary beers; with our vernacular humour at the heart of all we do…aye!
In summer 2018 two brothers from Lanarkshire found themselves hatching a plan to open a microbrewery. Drawn together due to changes in their lives, Ronnie and Kenny Lees had both been entertaining thoughts of having a brewery one day, but unbeknown to each other! At the end of one tumultuous night (we’ll spare you the details but let’s just say they watched the sun go down and then come back up again!) the plans were hatched and Outlandish Brewing Company was born. Ya beauty!