Burnside Alcohol-Free Beers
Two Burnside beers in our directory, both 0.5% and both medal winners at the World Alcohol-Free Awards 2025. We haven’t scored them yet.
Burnside is an independent craft brewery in Aberdeenshire, founded in Laurencekirk in 2010. It makes two alcohol-free beers, both 0.5%: Right to Roam, an IPA that won Gold at the World Alcohol-Free Awards 2025, and Wayfinder, a lager that won Silver. Burnside says they’re its bestsellers.
- Founded: 2010, in Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire, by Gary and Dave Metcalfe
- Owners: Since 2018, Steve Lewis, the majority shareholder, and Gary Gibb, Companies House shows; Lewis and Margo Macnab are the directors
- Company: Metcalfe & Metcalfe Company Ltd
- Brewery: Woodburnden Steading, Fordoun, near Laurencekirk, since the end of 2025
- Alcohol-free beers: Right to Roam (IPA) and Wayfinder (lager), both 0.5%, in 330ml bottles
- Method: Brewed in small batches with a special yeast strain, Burnside says
- Dietary: Vegan; not gluten-free
- Where to buy: Scotmid listed both from December 2024; Dry Drinker had both sold out when we checked
Who are Burnside?
Burnside was set up in 2010 as Laurencekirk’s local craft brewery, founded by Gary and Dave Metcalfe on a 2.5-barrel plant, according to Burnside and CAMRA. Its current owners took over in 2018: Companies House lists Steve Lewis as the majority shareholder and Gary Gibb as the other main one, and Lewis and Margo Macnab run it as directors. Its owners are individuals, not a brewing group, and it calls itself independent. Burnside says CAMRA named it Brewery of the Year for Grampian and Northern Isles in 2022 and 2023.
In January 2025 it was crowdfunding towards a bigger brewery at Woodburnden Steading in Fordoun, just outside Laurencekirk, which Scotland Food & Drink reported would brew up to 500,000 litres a year, against 100,000 before. The first brew there was at the end of 2025, CAMRA says, and the original Laurencekirk site is still open as a shop.
Burnside’s alcohol-free beers
Right to Roam came first, in 2022: an alcohol-free IPA that Burnside brews in small batches “using a special yeast strain to be naturally alcohol free”. It won Gold at the World Alcohol-Free Awards 2025 and at SIBA’s 2022 Scotland bottle and can awards, and Burnside also lists a Great Taste award for it. When Scotmid began stocking it, Aberdeen Business News described “notes of caramel, orange marmalade, and earthy pine”.
Wayfinder is the lager, made the same way. It won Silver at the World Alcohol-Free Awards 2025 and one star at the Great Taste Awards 2026. Dry Drinker describes “notes of citrus peel, passion fruit and soft pine”.
Both are 0.5%, in 330ml bottles. Burnside says it clears its beers with only time and temperature, not additives that often include animal products, so they’re vegan; neither is gluten-free. Burnside doesn’t publish calories or name the hops, and we haven’t scored either beer yet.
The Burnside beers in our directory
Both 0.5% ABV. Checked October 2026. Scores are Unhopped ratings out of 10.
Where to buy Burnside alcohol-free beer
Burnside’s own online shop has an alcohol-free section, but it showed no products or prices when we checked. Scotmid began stocking both in all its stores in December 2024, Aberdeen Business News reported; we didn’t check its current stock. Dry Drinker lists both, but every case size was sold out on 27 October 2026 (that link is an affiliate link), and Wise Bartender doesn’t sell them. For IPAs you can buy now, see our ranking of the best alcohol-free IPAs.
Facts checked against Burnside’s website, Companies House, CAMRA, the World Alcohol-Free Awards’ 2025 results, SIBA, the Great Taste directory, Scotland Food & Drink, Aberdeen Business News, Opportunity North East, Cotswold Fayre, Dry Drinker and Wise Bartender, October 2026.
Burnside Beers in Our Directory
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