Sheffield 'born and bred' brewery owner looking to distribute more of their award-winning Scottish ale into Steel City pubs

Windswept Brewing is an award-winning Scottish craft beer brewery started in 2012 by Al Read and Nigel Tiddy, who was born and bred in Sheffield.

Nigel and Al began the brewery, which is based in Lossiemouth on the Moray coast, Scotland, through their shared love of the outdoors and the idea that it should always be balanced by the beer they enjoyed at the end of the day.

"The one thing we always hung on to,” said Nigel, “was that whenever you had done whatever you do, your climbing, your skiing, running, whatever it is you do, having a good beer at the end of it sort off finishes it off and makes it all perfect.”

"That’s why our catchline is ‘best when you’ve earned it’ – you’ve earned your beer at the end of your adventure up here (in Lossiemouth),” added Nigel.

Both Al and Nigel were former Royal Air Force pilots, with Nigel being a pilot for just under 17 years with lots of that being training, and spent 11 years of that time up in Lossiemouth, Scotland, leaving in 2007.

Having more time on their hands after leaving the RAF, business partners Al and Nigel began doing some brewing in their spare time, such as brewing beer and being creative in their garage.

They started Windswept Brewing in Lossiemouth in 2012 after receiving great reviews from people who tried their beer.

Now, with their 10th year anniversary since beginning Windswept Brewing and having plenty of success, Nigel is attempting to get as many Sheffield real ale and cask pubs to try their award-winning Scottish beer and distribute it amongst these pubs to sell.

They’re working with distributors and logistic partners, John Ragg and Co, to distribute their ale in the region. The company was formerly owned by Nigel’s father and grandfather, Noel and Clive Tiddy.

So far, Windswept Brewing have distributed their ales to a couple of Sheffield pubs. One of the first to take on Windswept Brewing ales was The Fat Cat at Kelham Island where Nigel had fond memories of from his time in Sheffield.

Windswept Brewing have a wide-range and variety of real Scottish ales which have been developed over the year’s from the creativity of Al and Nigel.

"We have our core, of beers, but we do like to experiment,” said Nigel.

"We like to play around with different styles and see what we can create just like a lot of craft breweries nowadays. We do normally just throw some stuff into a barrel and see what happens and see how they turn out.”

Among the several beers developed by Nigel and Al over the years is the Wolf ale, which has won numerous awards.

The dark and strong Scottish ale has won:

2022- SIBA National British Dark Beer in bottle - Silver

2021 – SIBA Scotland British Dark Beer in bottle - Gold

2021 – Scottish Beer Awards – Best British Style – Bronze

2020 – SIBA National British Dark Beer Cask – Gold

2020 – SIBA National Overall Cask – Silver.

More award-winning ales by Windswept brewing can be found on their website here.