Brew Toon Alcohol-Free Beers

Brew Toon is a family-owned microbrewery and café bar in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, opened in 2017 on the site of an old brewery. The shops sell two of its alcohol-free beers, Torr Lager AF and If Dreams Come True, both 0.5% lagers.

Who are Brew Toon?

The Scotsman reported that Shirley and Fred Bowden founded Brew Toon in May 2017. Energy Voice said “Cameron Bowden and his parents” opened it, the Evening Express calls Cammy Bowden a co-founder, and the Press and Journal described him as co-owner, running it with his mum, Shirley. The family found the old brewery site while looking for property, Energy Voice reported: “I suggested turning the space into a microbrewery, and the rest is history,” Cameron Bowden said. Its first commercial beers were launched at a Peterhead beer festival in May 2017, the Evening Express reported. None of these articles shows a date.

The brewery stands on “a historic site once home to Hunter & Sons’ Tanfield Brewery”, CAMRA says. The name is “a play on ‘Bloo Toon’ which is what Peterhead is known as locally”, from the blue overalls fishermen wore at the docks, Cammy Bowden told Marks & Clerk in 2022; for part of 2015 the company was called Bloo Brew Ltd., Companies House shows.

Companies House lists Shirley-Ann Bowden as the company’s only person with significant control, and Fred, Shirley-Ann and Cameron Bowden as its directors. We found no drinks group involved, so we list it as independent.

How big is Brew Toon?

About a year after it opened, the Scotsman reported, Brew Toon was filling, capping and labelling bottles by hand, with “just eight members of staff”, and a new bottling line would take it to “1,000 bottles an hour”. VisitAberdeenshire describes a “newly established 10-barrel microbrewery”, so that copy may be out of date.

In an undated article, the Press and Journal reported that Brew Toon had produced 170,000 litres of beer the year before, hoped to pass 200,000 litres and employed seven people, after a six-figure deal to put Juicy Belter, Loose Cannon and FreshMex Lime Lager in 42 Asda shops in Scotland, its “largest ever single order to date”. We can’t say which year those figures are for, or whether Asda still stocks the beers. It also has a bottle shop on Queen Street in Peterhead, the Evening Express reported.

Brew Toon’s awards

Its awards are for full-strength beers. At the third Scottish Beer Awards, in 2018, Weekend Hooker took bronze in Best Lager or Pilsner, Insider reported; in 2020 Sour to the People and Raspberry Carronade, a raspberry cream ale, both won gold, SLTN reported; and in 2021 its brewer, Trevor Sproule, was named Brewer of the Year, Dram Scotland reported. In 2022 it was nominated for 16 awards, a Scottish Parliament motion noted, and Cammy Bowden says it won three, including gold again for Raspberry Carronade; that’s the brewer’s claim, and we didn’t find it confirmed elsewhere. At the eighth awards, in 2023, Weekend Hooker won gold and the title of best lager, the P&J reported. We found no awards for its alcohol-free beers.

What Brew Toon brews

Untappd lists 146 Brew Toon beers. Its signature beers include a 10% blueberry muffin imperial stout, Caked in Stout, and a 5% rhubarb and strawberry sour, Cammy Bowden told Marks & Clerk in 2022, when it also brewed five “5th Birthday Beers”.

Torr, a 4% “Scottish mountain lager”, was launched in February 2019 by Beer Story of Insch, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen Business News reported. It’s now listed under Brew Toon: “From its origins nestled high in the Bennachie Mountains, Torr Lager has come to rest by Scotland’s North Sea coast,” its Eebria listing says. We couldn’t find out when or how Brew Toon took it over.

Brew Toon’s alcohol-free beers

Torr Lager AF is 0.5% and shares its name with the brewery’s Torr lager; it comes in 440ml cans. The Alcohol Free Co describes “gentle floral, herbal and lightly spicy notes” and a pale golden colour; The Alcohol Free Drinks Company says “The sea has now met the mountain. Worth the hike.” If Dreams Come True, also 0.5% in 440ml cans, is “A Limited Edition Alcohol Free Lager from Peterhead-based Brew Toon”, “brewed with classic German hop varieties”, The Alcohol Free Drinks Company says, and The Alcohol Free Co says it’s “Brewed in Peterhead”. One shop, Fountainhall Wines, calls it an IPA.

The shops list the same ingredients for both: lager, pale, Munich and dextrin malts, torrified wheat, Golden Naked Oats, Perle, Hersbrucker and Mittelfrüh hops and W-34/70 lager yeast. No source says they’re the same beer. Some shops call them gluten-free, but with wheat and oats in that list we don’t repeat the claim, and Brew Toon doesn’t say. We couldn’t read Brew Toon’s own website, so we couldn’t check its descriptions, how it makes the beers or when they launched; its SALSA certificate for St Peter Street does list “Low No Alcohol Beer” among its products. We found no draught versions.

How Brew Toon’s lagers compare

Alcohol-free lagers from UK breweries in our directory. Calories as published; checked 31 October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

The Brew Toon beers in our directory

Checked October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.

Where to buy Brew Toon

On 29 October 2026 The Alcohol Free Co had both at £23.01 for six, and Dry Drinker had Torr Lager AF at £23.47 and If Dreams Come True at £23.01 for six; those are affiliate links. The Alcohol Free Drinks Company had If Dreams Come True at £3.95 a can, with Torr Lager AF sold out. Wise Bartender lists neither. For more, see our guide to the best alcohol-free lager.

Facts checked against Companies House, CAMRA, The Scotsman, the Press and Journal, Energy Voice, the Evening Express, Marks & Clerk, VisitAberdeenshire, Insider, SLTN, Dram Scotland, the Scottish Parliament, Aberdeen Business News, Eebria, Untappd, SALSA, The Alcohol Free Co, The Alcohol Free Drinks Company and Dry Drinker, 31 October 2026.