Young brewer's ambitious plans

Ross O’Hara is heading up Caledonian’s new state-of-the-art pilot brewery in Edinburgh, which has a 400l capacity and produces two or three brews a week.

"It’s not so much a commercial venture. We have complete flexibility, it’s a drive for innovation," O’Hara says.

"We have freedom. We’re just told we need to make this style of beer, and the general alcohol strength. We look at all the malt varieties, hop varieties."

O’Hara, who achieved a First in Brewing and Distilling at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, has already created a beer, which Caledonian will sell at its pubs later this year.

He first worked with Caledonian on work experience in its brew house, learning about the trade to help with his degree.

Driven to succeed​

After completing the degree, he undertook a two-year placement with Heineken.

There he learnt management skills. He followed the placement up with a role at Tadcaster Brewery with John Smith, often working through the night.

"At 4am, the easiest choices can be hard," he says.

"When you’re told one million cans might be bad, you think ‘what do I do?’ You need a coffee before you make a decision. I was a different person after that."

But O’Hara is still ambitious to build his skill set.

Keep developing 

"As much fun as this job is — and I may never get such freedom and creativity again — if you don’t keep moving you don’t keep developing," O’Hara explains.

He said, in years to come, he wants to move to keep developing, and head up a larger brewery.

The small tank he uses in his current position, known as Wee George, aims to allow Caledonian to grow its presence in modern craft.

The smaller brew runs enable O’Hara to test and develop new and existing recipes without the usual constraints of minimum brew length, with the most successful experimental brews being scaled up for wider production in the main Caledonian brewery.

Caledonian Brewery’s managing director, Andy Maddock, says: "We’re thrilled that our new pilot brewery, affectionately known as Wee George in a nod to our founding father George Lorimer, is up and running after 12 months of careful planning and a total investment of more than £100,000.

"This innovation allows us to remain fleet-of-foot in the market and help Caledonian enter the world of modern craft on the back of our continued success of Three Hop Lager.

"Our team is certainly excited about being able to indulge in their passion for crafting top-quality and original brews.

"We’ve invested heavily in our core range during the past year so now that we’re confident our premium traditional ales are at their very best, it’s time to get a little bit creative with our beer innovation."