Scottish alcohol-free beer startup Days has secured £1m in a seed funding round to continue with expansion in 2022.
The brand was founded by childhood friends Mike Gammell and Duncan Keith. Gammell is a former employee of AB InBev, while Keith comes from a background as head of international at Propercorn.
The pair secured investment from investors including former Camden Town Brewery MD Adam Keary, who joined the business as a strategic advisor, Mindful Chef founder and CMO Giles Humphries, and Propercorn founder Ryan Kohn.
The brand, which launched in October 2020 as a primarily direct-to-consumer business, was now on track to be in 500 physical distribution points by the end of January 2022, according to The Grocer, where this story was first reported.
Days creates beer using a process which never produces alcohol, meaning no extraction needs to take place. The brand uses local Scottish ingredients, and water from the Lammermuir Hills to create the beer.
According to The Grocer, Gammell said of the expansion: “What excites us most about this is the opportunity to take everything great about beer – that ritual and social connection – to more consumers and new occasions.
“Having proven demand for our beers and brand over the past 12 months the priority is now building a fantastic team and culture.”
Over the past 12 months alone, there had been “a seismic shift in attitudes towards alcohol free beer” in the UK, said Keith.
This was “absolutely driven by consumers prioritising their mental and physical health and wellness”, he added.
With a growing awareness of what we put in our bodies, and health-consciousness on the rise, low- and no-ABV drinks are becoming more and more in vogue.
But when it comes to alcohol-free beer, how is it actually made, and what are the challenges to brewing a really good bev that won’t get you buzzed? To find out, we asked some of the biggest names in low- and no-alcohol brewing, to learn the perfect way to make a tee-total tipple.