Jump Ship Brewing has broken its crowdfunding target within 48 hours, solidifying plans for a summer opening of a purpose-built 20 hectolitre brewery in Midlothian.
Scotland’s only woman-owned, non-alcoholic brewing company has also brought in Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, chair of Scotland Food and Drink, to its advisory board.
The new brewery will be based at Rosemain Steadings, just outside Pathhead, and should allow Jump Ship to produce up to 800,000 litres of beer a year.
The new development will create an additional three full time equivalent jobs this year alone, with recruitment for a new head of sales starting this week, as well as allowing for innovation and expansion of the existing product range.
Managing director Sonja Mitchell said: “Within two days of our Seedrs campaign launching publicly we hit our target of £280,000 and I have watched in awe as this figure continued to grow.
“We’re currently sitting at £329,000 from over 266 investors, which shows that there’s a growing demand for drinks in the no and low category and we’ve always focused on the quality and flavour of our range of beers.
“This capital will be used to bring our production totally in-house, allowing us to stabilise prices, optimise our use of renewable energy - with access to a state of the art biomass generator and solar power - and most importantly, it will allow us to reach more people with our fantastic range of beers.“
She added: “That Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne has joined our advisory board at such an exciting time for Jump Ship Brewing is hugely exciting and we hugely welcome her strategic direction, expertise and energy.”
Bruce-Gardyne commented: “It’s an exciting time in the low and no alcohol category as we continue to see the rise in the sober curious.
“I’m looking forward to working with Sonja and her team as part of this hugely innovative and flavour-focused business as they start this journey towards expansion..”
Jump Ship Brewing has a core range of four beers, from lager to IPA.
Mitchell, a keen sailor, beer-lover and mother of three, decided to ‘jump ship’ from her marketing job to launch the brewery in 2019, out of a love of beer, but a horror of hangovers.
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