STF celebrated their 5th birthday with a re-brew of Smoked Rye Porter, the first beer to have been created on their 6hl kit, and other recent releases include a Peated Brown Ale, Red IPA and Scottish Light, AKA 60 Shilling.
The early years of the brewery’s life coincided with lockdowns and the related variations and departures from established routes to market, which of course helped to shape the business.
A focus on small pack – bottles at first before a move into cans – meant the original vision to explore some of the less well represented styles quickly found a wide audience. Among the early favourites were Scottish Export, Foreign Extra Stout, Table Saison and Wheat Wine and support came from local institutions such as Wee Beer Shop and Valhalla’s Goat as well as independent beer specialists further afield including Beermoth, House of Trembling Madness, Stirchley Wines and Ghost Whale.
As business grew and the world began to return to something approaching normal, STF evolved to include the more mainstream lagers and hoppy pales in their range, maintaining natural carbonation across the board as a key point of difference, and with keg and cask sales to the on-trade playing an increasingly important role.
“It hasn’t been an easy few years for anyone” comments Phil, “but keeping things small and tight, with a clear focus on quality and doing things a bit differently has worked well for us. We keep on steadily growing and have just installed three new tanks. Last year we added Rufus, a hazy, hoppy 4% Extra Pale, and Tenements, a 3.8% gluten-free Lager to the keg range, and Toledo, which is a modern pale ale that we’re doing just for cask. The new tanks will help us keep up with demand for those, and do a bit more of everything else too. ”
Besides the regular releases there’s a modest mixed ferm and barrel ageing side project, which over the past 12 months has produced the highly rated Vatted Stout and Old Red, an Old Ale collab with Sunken Knave. There’s also a fledgling hot sauce operation, currently to be found only at festivals but – along with the rest of the STF enterprise – with ample scope for scaling up.
The brewery is housed in a Victorian-era workshop unit originally built as a bakery, in a residential area, which means there will be no STF taproom until such time as the steady growth allows a move to a bigger premises. Until then, the beers are popping up and being enjoyed in Glasgow, Edinburgh and beyond with increasing regularity and Phil and Ewan will keep quietly marching on, fighting the good fight.
phil@simplethingsfermentations.com
0141 237 2202