Cairngorm Brewery
Member Spotlight
Located in the village of Aviemore within the heart of the Cairngorms National Park, Cairngorm Brewery is the very definition of small but mighty.
Established in 2001, the brewery offers a range of craft keg and bottle products, as well as real ale casks, and utilises the finest malted and roast barley, hops, and crystal-clear mountain water for exceptional flavour and quality.
As well as keeping traditional recipes alive for its Scottish brews, the Cairngorm team also utilises more unusual ingredients for innovative beers – something which has led the dedicated team of brewers to take home a range of awards and accolades.
Not only was the brewery’s signature Black Gold stout named the Overall UK Supreme Champion by the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) in 2009 – and won a further eight Gold medals in cask, kegged and bottled form – its most popular beer, Trade Winds, made with elderflower, has cemented its reputation as a standout golden ale.
“We won Champion Beer of Britain with CAMRA for Trade Winds in 2004, 2005 and 2006,” explained managing director Sam Faircliff. “And Black Gold has won Champion Beer of Scotland in 2005, 2015, 2023 and 2024. These are the awards we are most proud of, as they are national – and we have won them multiple times. We also won Beer and Cider Product of the Year at the Excellence Awards 2025 with Black Gold!
“For a small brewery in the Highlands of Scotland to consistently win so many awards is very special.
“I’m very proud of the brewers here. We’re based in Aviemore because the owner is from Nethy Bridge, and he wanted to build a business that would create careers for local people, not just jobs – and that’s what we have done.”
Trade Winds is what Sam describes as one of the brewery’s “contemporary brews”, and sits alongside White Lady, a Bavarian-style wheat beer made with orange peel and coriander, and Cairngorm IPA, which has lots of different hops, resulting in a strong, bitter flavour. Whether traditional or contemporary, Cairngorm’s brews offer something for everyone – not to mention instantly recognisable flavour.
“The lactose sugar adds to the characteristics of our Black Gold Scottish milk stout, and makes it stand out,” said Sam. “It’s not like Guinness, which is bitter – our stout is sweet, which appeals more to the taste profiles of people’s palettes. It’s a very recognisable product.
“The same can be said for Trade Winds. We used elderflower long before other breweries started making speciality beers. It’s a delicious pale ale that goes great with curries, and is equally refreshing in the summer. It’s 4.3% so not too strong either. We also developed a new beer in 2025 called Bothy – it’s a 5.6% dark beer, but due to the residual sugars, which make it quite sweet, it’s easy drinking.
“Our beers have consistently gone from strength to strength over the last 25 years, and we’re very proud.”
As well as focusing on flavour, according to Sam, the brewery’s small size also contributes to the quality of the finished product.
She added: “Our brew plant produces 3,200 litres per batch – we brew twice a day from Monday to Friday – so it’s small enough that we don’t need to add anything to the beer to get the best yield. Some of the bigger breweries, as part of the process to get the liquid to temperature, have to push it through steam boilers, for example.
“We don’t have to do that, and that gives our beer a real craft quality and makes us stand out from the crowd.”
Cairngorm Brewery beers are now stocked in more than 400 outlets across Scotland, including pubs and restaurants, as well as being available in supermarkets like Morrisons, Co-op, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and exported to five countries; Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Italy, and Australia.
For Sam, the close-knit nature of the food and drink industry in Scotland has been a vital part of Cairngorm Brewery’s success – and being part of a membership organisation like Scotland Food & Drink helps them to meet more likeminded producers.
“The meet the buyer events that Scotland Food & Drink facilitate, including Showcasing Scotland, are fantastic for us, and we also make good use of the insights and networking opportunities. It’s great to be able to meet other producers from across the sector through the events.
“For example, I was sitting next to a honey producer at a membership event, and learned lots from him about how the location of the apiary changes the flavour of the honey, which got me thinking about how we could use different nectars in our beer. Just being able to meet other producers and share knowledge is so useful.”
