Belhaven Brewery

Belhaven is the oldest operating brewery in Scotland as well as that of Britain as a whole. Brewing has taken place here in the coastal town of Dunbar, about 30 miles southeast of Edinburgh, since the time of Benedictine Monks as far back as 800 years ago. The brewhouse's lintel is engraved with the date 1719, recognized as the founding of the present brewery when it was taken over by John Johnstone. The brewery still maintains a staunch dedication to historical Scottish style brewing. At one time, like many of Scotland's long gone breweries, Belhaven had its own maltings that supplied not only the brewery by nearby distilleries. Before being sold to a hotel group in 1972, ownership was maintained by the same family for 250 years trading as Dudgeon & Company. Sandy Hunter acted as the final family chairman and head brewer but is now retired. One of the present company's ales is named in his honor. Tumultuous times hit the brewery in the years after leaving family hands but management bought the company outright in 1993 and it remains one of the few independent breweries to have survived in Britain.

Significant refurbishing and expansion has taken the brewery from a capacity of roughly 30,000 barrels per year in 1992 to around 100,000 barrels per year today with current production running at nearly 75,000 barrels. While cask ale is presently only about 5% of the total brewery output, the company's commitment to real ale is undiminished. A five-barrel experimental brewing setup was installed in 1999 by George Howell, Production Manager and Head Brewer, who worked formerly at Tennent-Caledonian's Heriot Brewery in Edinburgh prior to its being 'rationalised'. One of Belhaven's strongest assets is its state-of-the-art bottling line which heavily used for contract bottling of beers from other brewers spanning from small Scottish micros to major lager products like Tennent's Lager and Stella Artois. Contract bottling has been part of Belhaven's business for many years dating back to the time of Dudgeon &Company.

Belhaven supplies over 1000 pubs and bars as well as the tied houses of its pub division. In addition, cask, keg and bottled products are exported to 14 countries and its Scottish Ale is brewed exclusively for export. Many other Belhaven beers in addition to those listed here are available throughout Scotland including Sandy Hunter's Traditional Ale and Robert Burns Ale to name but two. The rare but incredible 60/-, at about 2.8% ABV in cask format, is perhaps the most complex and flavorful beer with such a low ABV anywhere in the world. Additionally, Belhaven picked up brewing duties for Maclay products.

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