Non-alcoholic brewing company, Jump Ship Brewing, has celebrated Dry January by opening its new purpose-built 20 hectolitre brewery in Midlothian.
Founded by Sonja Mitchell, who ‘jumped ship’ from her marketing job to brew non-alcoholic beers, the brand has already gained awards for its small-batch releases, and needed to secure a site where it could quadruple production to meet the growing demand.
Sonja launched a crowdfunding campaign last year which exceeded its target of £300,000 in days, driven by investors from across the UK demonstrating the rising popularity of the no and low movement.
Mitchell said: “As an independent brewery, I dreamed that we might be able to dock ship and open our brewery someday and this feels like such a huge achievement for our team.
“Many people might have tried non-alcoholic beer, but few people know how we make our beers naturally without alcohol, so we’re looking forward to rolling up the shutters and welcoming people in.
“The funding bid has allowed us to expand and explore new contracts in new territories and get our cans to customers on new shores and close to home with on and off trade sales. We start brewing this week in our new home, with our first cans from the new brewery available from next month.”
The move into larger premises also means that Jump Ship can begin offering brewery tours to educate the public about its methods and motivations.
Jump Ship Brewing has a stated ‘strong charitable focus’, with a commitment from the outset to donate at least 10% of its profits to a variety of charities, which are nominated by Jump Ship’s customers, or ‘ship mates’ as they are described.
All its beers are also gluten free, suitable for vegans and contain the same amount of alcohol per can as a ripe banana.
