Administrative/Biographical History
Traquair House Brewery is situated alongside the Maxwell Stuart family’s manor house near Innerleithen, Scottish Borders. A brewery was in operation at the time of Mary Queen of Scots’ visit to the house in 1566 and in 1739 a 200–gallon copper was installed in the brewhouse. The 18th–century brewery was purely a domestic brewery producing beer for the house and estate workers. It was disused some time after 1800 but the vessels and equipment remained untouched until it was rediscovered in 1965 by the 20th Laird of Traquair, Peter Maxwell Stuart. He restored the brewery to working order with the help of Belhaven brewer Sandy Hunter. When production began the ale was made to be sold exclusively through the Traquair House gift shop, but demand soon outstripped supply.
Since the death of Peter Maxwell Stuart in 1990 the brewery passed to Flora Maxwell Stuart his wife, and since then has been managed by her daughter Catherine Maxwell Stuart, who extended the original brewery into an adjoining stable block in 1993 to increase its capacity. The company was registered as a private limited company under the name Traquair House Brewery Ltd on 7 February 1997.
In the 1990s the brewery produced around 600 barrels per annum (200,000 bottles and the remainder draught). Brewing takes place all year round with the exception of August and the brewery claims to be the only British brewery to continue to ferment its total production in oak. The brewery produces three dark ales: ‘Traquair House Ale’, ‘Traquair Jacobite Ale’ and ‘Bear Ale’ and there are a number of seasonal ales. The ales are exported world wide, with the United States of America and Canada being particularly popular markets, along with Hong Kong, Japan and Italy.
Sources:
Traquair House Website.
Smith, Gavin D, The Scottish Beer Bible. The Essential Guide to over 150 Scottish Beers and Lagers, (Edinburgh: Mercat, 2001).
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