Glen Affric Brewery

Glen Affric Brewery began brewing in November 2016, but its origins stretch back to co-founder Craig McCormick's time living and working in Shanghai. Craig and his father Trevor became immersed in China's growing craft beer scene, inspiring Craig to join Shanghai's Boxing Cat Brewery and learn the brewing trade. Further research trips to San Diego helped turn their growing enthusiasm into plans for a family brewery.

The brewery takes its name from Glen Affric in Scotland, where the McCormick family have a long-standing family home. The original plan was to establish the brewery in the village of Cannich, where premises were purchased and plans submitted for redevelopment. While that process was underway, the family secured new industrial premises in Birkenhead, close to their base on the Wirral, which became Glen Affric's brewing home.

Craig returned to the UK in 2016 and, joined by his father Trevor, brother Calum and mother Alison, established the brewery with a 500-litre pilot brewhouse. Early production balanced experimental releases with a core range of highly drinkable West Coast-inspired beers. Local demand was initially so strong that during the brewery's first nine months relatively little beer made it beyond its own taproom.

Glen Affric subsequently expanded significantly, investing in a purpose-built 30-hectolitre brewhouse and substantially increasing fermentation capacity. The larger brewery gives the team room to maintain its core range while producing an extensive programme of specials and barrel-aged beers, with Glen Affric now distributed to drinkers across the UK.

Packaging has also been brought firmly under the brewery's control, with Glen Affric investing in its own canning equipment capable of packaging around 2,000 cans per hour in formats ranging from 250ml slim cans to 500ml tall cans. Together with its onsite taproom and brewery tours, the Birkenhead brewery has developed into a destination where visitors can experience Glen Affric's broad and continually evolving range directly at the source.