About The Brewery

Who We Are

The Kelburn Brewing Company is a family run business based in Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is run by Derek Moore, his son Ross and daughter Karen. The company was formed in October 2001 and commenced brewing in April 2002.

How We Came To Be

In the mid seventies, Derek realised that the quality of ale in the U.K. left something to be desired and determined to do something about it.

As a science graduate from Paisley University he had some knowledge of the brewing process and decided to develop this through his experiments in home brewing. He was greatly assisted by the brewers at the now sadly defunct Strathalbyn Brewery.

His love of good quality ale caused him to join the Campaign for Real Ale in 1978 and later to form the Renfrewshire Branch of CAMRA in 1981. In 1997 Derek helped form the Houston Brewery where he and his son Ross brewed award-winning ales.

Our Pledge To You

Kelburn exists solely to produce quality ales. It is a directors pledge that this will not be compromised for any reason whatsoever.

Beer availability

All our beers are available in “take home containers” – either in the form of 5 litre mini casks or 10/20 litre polypins.  We also sell 24 x 330ml cans. You can buy these direct from the brewery or from our online shop. Please email or phone for more info. Please note that due to ongoing covid restrictions we are not open the full-time hours we used to be. Please contact us to confirm.

Kelburn Brewery promotes responsible drinking at all times.

Our Staff

Derek Moore – Director

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Born in Paisley, Derek has been a Buddie since his birth in 1951. In 1974 Derek began a career as a maths teacher. In the early 1980’s, during the keg revolution, Renfrewshire had only two real ale outlets.  Due to the lack of decent ale in the local pubs, Derek decided to turn his hand to home brewing. As a science graduate Derek had a basic knowledge of the brewing process. Experiments at home and voluntary work at the now defunct Strathalbyn Brewery helped Derek develop his brewing skills.

In 1996/7 Derek was involved in founding Houston Brewery and became head brewer for four years. In October 2001 Derek realised his dream when he formed Kelburn Brewing Company where brewing commenced in April 2002.

As the business has grown, Derek has become less involved in the day to day brewing regime and nowadays concentrates his efforts in promoting the Brewery. Derek still enjoys creating different recipes and gets a real kick whilst in a pub he  overhears a drinker saying “Oh good, they have a Kelburn beer on tap”.

In his leisure time Derek enjoys dining out with his partner, Margaret and looking after his granddaughters. Having reluctantly given up playing football a few years ago Derek know enjoys cycling as a means of keeping fit.  Derek is a well travelled Scotland supporter and a regular follower of St. Mirren Football Club. Since his teenage years Derek has been an avid fan of The Who and has a complete collection of all their original recordings. Some years ago, whilst at the Celtic Connections, Derek became infatuated with the fiddle music of Alasdair Fraser and is extremely proud to be the recipient of a tune composed for him, by Alasdair. Aptly called “The Kelburn Brewer”, the track is available on the Abundance album.

Ross Moore – Brewery Manager

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Ross started up the company alongside Derek. Before that he worked at Houston Brewery for over 3 years, the last year of that as the head brewer. He left there in January 2002 and went on to help his father, Derek start up Kelburn Brewery. They were up and running in just a few months and were delighted when their first brew, Red Smiddy, won the Best Beer of the Paisley Beer Festival.

After doing the majority of the brewing for the first 8 years or so Ross is now in charge of the day to day running of the brewery which includes everything  from overseeing the production, quality control testing,  monitoring stock levels, creating the brewing schedule, ordering the ingredients, creating new recipe’s – and deciding when to introduce them. He mostly enjoys being part of producing quality ales and sampling the results!

He is a huge football and cricket fan and also enjoys travelling, reading and watching movies.

He really likes all of the Kelburn beers (naturally) but pushed for a favourite he’d go for Cart Noir.

Karen Moore – Office Manager

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Karen is Derek’s daughter and has been part of the team (on and off) from the beginning.  After university she took a year out to travel round the world before coming back to join the family business. Now part-time, as she is a mother of 2, she keeps busy in the office alongside Graeme.  She is responsible for the general admin and liaising with customers, suppliers and the rest of the team. Karen has a real passion for beer – she’s been a CAMRA member since 1997 and helps out with the Paisley Beer Festival every year.  She even met her partner there! She also enjoys travelling, cooking and spending time with her partner and daughters. Her favourite Kelburn beer is Dark Moor.

Mark Allan – Brewer

Mark started with us in April 2012 after leaving a job in a hairdresser’s that wasn’t for him.

He started off  washing and filling casks but was keen to learn more about the brewing process and is now one of the brewing team. He really enjoys being part of making the beer and seeing it selling well in so many different pubs.

His interests include playing football, fishing and video games and his favourite Kelburn beer is Cart Blanche.

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