Burnside

The brewery was started by Gary and Dave Metcalfe and passed to its current owners, Steve Lewis and Margo Macnab, in 2018. The move into alcohol-free production came from personal experience: Steve and Margo began exploring it in 2022 when they wanted an authentic beer drinking experience while cutting back after the arrival of their son. The alcohol-free range has since been made available for Dry January.

Burnside's alcohol-free beers are naturally brewed rather than dealcoholised, a process where alcohol is removed after brewing. The brewery draws on Scottish mountain water from its position between the Cairngorm mountains and the North Sea, and brews with a blend of pale malts and locally malted barley. Beers are produced in small batches, cold-conditioned for balance, and clarified using only time and temperature with no added filtering substances.

Brewing, bottling, and packaging all take place onsite at Laurencekirk. A newer facility at Woodburnden steading provides ten times the capacity of the previous site. The brewery raised its expansion funds through crowdfunding with no large outside investment and operates with a team of four.

The full range includes IPAs, pale ales, red ales, and dark beers alongside alcohol-free lagers. The brewery secured a supermarket listing in Scotland in 2025, and its beers are distributed as far as Canada.