Isle of Skye Brewing Co. Ltd

One evening in 1992, some schoolteacher friends met in a local pub and conversation turned to the lack of good beer on Skye. Someone jokingly suggested that setting up a brewery would be the only way to remedy the situation. At the time there were just six small independent breweries in Scotland and none on Skye. Could it really work? It could, and it did. Three years later, they were finally ready to brew the first ale: Red Cuillin. It was such a success that they still brew it to the same recipe today. Only the name has changed, they now call it Skye Red. In 1997, they won the CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) Champion Beer of Scotland. And they were shortlisted for the UK championship too. This recognition helped the business to go full-time in 1998. To date, they’ve picked up over 60 awards. Not bad for what started as a joke over a few pints.