Williams Bros. Brewing Co. is located in Alloa, Clackmannanshire and is set in the old George Younger’s bottling hall in Kelliebank.
Although now producing an eclectic range of Craft Beers for the international market, our ’Brew House’ is steeped in Scottish tradition and remains the last bastion of brewing in a town, which was once regarded as ’Scotland’s Beer Capital’.
Now firmly established as one of Scotland’s largest independent breweries (often also acting as a central contract brewing & packing facility for many of the countries best brewers) our story has humble beginnings, borne out of proud home brewing traditions. The companies genesis can literally be traced back to one ‘home brew’ sized batch of Fraoch Heather Ale, recreated by Bruce from an ancient recipe.
Our first commercial brews of ’Scotland’s Original Craft Beer’ were at a 5-barrel brewery in Taynult near Oban on the West Coast. Here we were able to brew just enough to supply cask conditioned Fraoch to 5 premises, including the Clachaig in Glencoe, which to this day remains one of our most loyal and enduring customer.
With demand for this unique historical ale well out stripping our ability to supply, we took our recipe to the old Maclay’s brewery in Alloa. It was here that the first bottles of Fraoch were brewed, which allowed the legend to travel further afield. – The bottle shape and label may have change over the years but what you experience today is exactly the same as the original brew (and not too far removed from the original 4000 year old recipe we like to think).
In 1998 we built the Craigmill brewery in Strathaven, which became our base of operations for the next 6 years until we took over the ‘Forth Brewery’ in Alloa, where we have been happily brewing, bottling, kegging & canning beer ever since.
The Williams Bros. brew house has grown organically around us and had to develope to accommodate an ever growing and dynamic brew team and portfolio.... and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down any time soon!