We visit West Brewery in the East End to find out more about the German-style Glasgow-made lager ahead of Scotland vs Germany at the Euros

As Scotland prepare to take on Germany at next month’s Euros we visit West Brewery to bring the cultures together.

Transcript

00:00So the building was originally built as a carpet factory. It went through multiple

00:07planning applications because the local residents weren't happy with a factory being built in

00:12Glasgow's oldest park, so they employed an architect called William Leaper who eventually

00:19designed the building on the Doge's Palace in Venice, which is why we've got this unbelievable

00:24looking building as our home now. But it's a building that would have made carpets for

00:31I think the Titanic unfortunately, Buckingham Palace, Taj Mahal as well,

00:36so a real iconic piece of Glasgow architecture. You've established yourself as one of Glasgow's

00:42best-known beers. What is your relationship like with Glasgow's East End?

00:47It's our home. We've been here since we opened 18 years ago. I guess at the time you could argue

00:55probably it's not the most fashionable or trendiest part of the city when we opened,

00:59and a few people probably raised their eyes to think, why go there? I guess most breweries also,

01:05the easy option is just to be in an industrial state on the edge of a city, but actually,

01:11taking part of Glasgow's industrial heritage and then repurposing it for a modern business is

01:20absolute genius from our founder, Petra, at the time. I just can't imagine us being anywhere else.

01:24I think the East End is proper Glasgow. It's working-class Glasgow. I think people appreciate

01:32the fact of what we are and what we try and do, and I think when you have neighbours such as

01:37the Barra's, Barralands Ballroom, it's just home. I think we're here to stay.

01:46So as a brewery, our obvious connection to Germany is Petra, our founder, is German. She's from near

01:52Nuremberg in Bavaria, and she founded a brewery to make a lager that Glasgow would be proud of,

01:58and we have a German heritage in Germany. Breweries in Germany have to adhere to the

02:04German Beer Purity Law, the Rheinheitsgewalt, which is reputedly the oldest food law in the

02:09world, and it decrees that you can only use malt, water, hops and yeast, and that's it.

02:15So we as a business, there's never any option of us ever doing anything other than

02:22adhering to the German Beer Purity Law as a German brewery in Glasgow.