Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Brewers hit sour note – on purpose
A YOUNG Dundee brewery specialising in the production of mixedfermentation and woodaged beers has its eye on substantially increasing sales to markets abroad.
Holy Goat Brewing was started in the last quarter of 2020 by Johnny Horn and James Scanlan.
Johnny had previously been a brewer at Hanging Bat Brew Co and 71 Brewing and was co-founder/ brewer at Vault City Brewing.
James had worked in the games industry and also in sound production for TV and movies.
The brewery is based in the city’s Mid Wynd, where the third member of the team is Gary Stewart.
Johnny spoke about the opportunity seen in the market for starting up the venture.
He said: “I had experience with brewing mixed-fermentation style beers and had discovered unique and flavourful ways of working with wild yeast and bacteria.
“These had been tested in various prior breweries and there was clearly a demand for these mixed-fermentation sour beers in the market.
“Mixed fermentation refers to the use of unconventional yeasts and bacteria in brewing, which allows production of beers with unique character.
“Most other breweries were unable to produce such beer styles as they could risk infecting the clean/regular beers with moredifficult-to-work-with wild yeasts.”
So how did Holy Goat Brewing’s unusual name come about?
Johnny explained: “The flavours these wild yeast produce can sometimes be described as goaty/ funky/wild.
“It also has heavy-metal connotations and that is an important part of the identity of the brewery.”
Johnny said that initial pre-sale packs, which included six beers and a T-shirt, had been very good.
“Those batches of beers sold out quickly. Since then, we have gradually increased our production capacity to fill an ever-growing demand for our beer, though keeping some limits so that the market does not get saturated.”
Two of the bestsellers among the mixed-fermentation beers are Holy Mountain, a sour cherry beer, and Astral Destiny, a raspberry sour beer.
The firm also produces stouts regularly, and imperial stouts like Emperors Hand, a 14% whiskybarrel-aged stout with smoked plums sold out instantly on release.
Markets for Holy Goat Brewing are individuals and smaller shops and bars.
The company already has customers all over the UK, while about a third of sales are export.
Asked about expectations for the business in 2024, Johnny said: “An increased portfolio of products will give the brewery wider appeal and should increase sales across the board.
“We also wish to open our own taproom at some point in the next year or two if possible.
“We are also seeing exports as a key area for growth at the moment too, and are focusing our efforts on this.”