BARRHEAD’S own brewery has started exporting its famous beers abroad – and has been presented with an international award for its efforts.

Kelburn Brewery, a family business based in Muriel Lane, has just won the title of “Best Ale” for their beer, Ca’Canny at the Nolia Beer Festival held in Umea, Sweden.

The honour brings their total list of awards up to 56, including last year’s win for Silver Champion Beer of Britain for their Jaguar brew.

The brewery is run by Derek Moore and his son Ross with daughter Karen serving as the office manager.

She said: “We are absolutely over the moon to win this award.

“This is the first time we have exported our beer and for it to win the overall “Best Ale” in this competition is a fantastic achievement of which we are very proud.

“Our main aim is to produce beer of the highest quality and we source the best ingredients to use in our recipes.

“It is great when this is recognised, especially outside the UK where the competition becomes even more fierce.

“We hope this means we will be exporting more to Sweden in the near future.”

Their distributors, Tjaerdalen Beer and Whisky, put the beer forward and reported that “the judges were very impressed with it and recommended it to compliment game dishes”.

They also described it as a “cosy dark ale with a clear note of coffee and a beautiful finish”.

The business was first started in 2001 after Derek Moore left his job with Houston Brewery to follow his dream of opening his own brewery.

Since then Kelburn has went from strength to strength and is available in local pubs not only on tap but even on draught.

Derek says he gets his biggest kick from hearing people say “oh good, they have Kelburn on tap” at the pub.