Mystery of 2014 plan for a local brewery

Investors in a South Queensferry brewery scheme which has never materialised have questioned whether it will ever open.
By The Newsroom
Published 21st Jan 2017, 10:08 BST
Updated 21st Jan 2017, 10:17 BST
Entrepreneur Dave Robertson, pictured, raised an unknown amount of cash from crowdfunding investors for his bid to open a local brewery, with sites mentioned including Port Edgar but also North Queensferry. Now, amid plans to open a gin distillery in Oban, nothing has so far come of the local venture.Entrepreneur Dave Robertson, pictured, raised an unknown amount of cash from crowdfunding investors for his bid to open a local brewery, with sites mentioned including Port Edgar but also North Queensferry. Now, amid plans to open a gin distillery in Oban, nothing has so far come of the local venture.
Entrepreneur Dave Robertson, pictured, raised an unknown amount of cash from crowdfunding investors for his bid to open a local brewery, with sites mentioned including Port Edgar but also North Queensferry. Now, amid plans to open a gin distillery in Oban, nothing has so far come of the local venture.

Entrepreneur Dave Robertson, the man behind a 2014 bid to launch an amibitous South Queensferry craft brewery and micro-distillery, has not so far produced any beer locally – and there’s no brewery.

Meanwhile his separate attempt to launch a gin distillery in Oban has yet to deliver any results.

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In Facebook entries he has said that this is because of the need to obtain a licence, and also to take delivery of gin stills.

Mr Robertson received backing from a number of local investors at a time when crowdfunding for north-east firm Brewdog (brewer and now also pubs firm) had proved hugely successful.

The website for the “Rail Bridge Brewery” and its Facebook page have disappeared.

A number of local investors have repeatedly questioned what has become of the project, while Mr Robertson has been trying to launch his gin distillery scheme in Oban.

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After suspending his social media over the festive holidays Mr Robertson went back online on January 10 to attack people in Oban he claimed were spreading “gossip” about his enterprise.

He said: “We’re just waiting on the property agent to send us the lease for McCaigs Distillery, and it will be signed on the provision that our license is approved.”

He ended by promising that crowdfunders (for the gin project) would in future receive a monthly email update on progress.

We have tried several times to contact Mr Robertson about his plans, and although in one brief phone conversation he asked us to email questions, promising to “issue a statement”, he has not replied.

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The website for the “Forth Bridge Brewery” and its Facebook page have disappeared.

A number of local investors have repeatedly questioned what has become of the project, while Mr Robertson has been trying to launch his gin distillery scheme in Oban.

The total amount of cash invested in his two alcohol ventures is unknown, although one man is said to have invested £2,500 in the Oban project.

There is no connection between Mr Robertson’s projects and South Queensferry’s “The Ferry Brewery”, an establiished local specialist craft brewery in South Queensferry whose ales are popular in some of the capital’s most prestigious beer pubs.

Related topics:InvestorsBrewdogFacebook