A master brewer from Aberdeenshire is at the forefront of an Estonian "craft beer revolution", which is seeing Scots brewing technology know-how powering a Baltic beer boom.
Christopher Pilkington, 26, who honed his production skills while working for the high-growth Scots beer producer BrewDog, has helped transform Tallinn-based craft brewer Põhjala into the toast of northern Europe's beer cognoscenti.
Põhjala has completed a €475,000 (£379,000) investment programme in its Tallinn brewhouse and bottling line, doubling capacity in anticipation of a major export drive in 2015.
Founded in 2011, Põhjala [pronounced peugh-a-la, meaning northern realm] is the collaboration of four Estonian entrepreneurs and beer enthusiasts along with the young Scots brewer. The firm opened its 12-hectolitre [12x100 litre] brewhouse in Nömme, Tallinn in May 2014.
Põhjala produces five beers: an IPA called Virmalised (Estonian for Aurora Borealis); rye ale Rukkirääk (corncrake); a wheat ale called Uus Maailm (new world); and Pesakond (cub), a black IPA. Its latest brew, released in July, is a new porter called Must Kuld (Black Gold).
Pilkington, from Mintlaw in Aberdeenshire, met the Põhjala brewers while working at BrewDog's facility in Ellon, when they were visiting on a fact-finding tour. The Edinburgh Napier University marketing graduate had become an expert home brewer as "the beers I wanted to drink weren't available in the UK, and I couldn't afford to drink flavourful and extreme imported American craft beers on a student budget".
Headhunted to Tallinn in 2011, Pilkington is the brewing brains behind Põhjala's explosive growth in its home market, where thirst for its products means excess capacity intended for export to Latvia and Finland has been absorbed by local drinkers.
Pilkington said that he was settled for "the long haul" in the former Soviet country of 1.3 million people.
He said "I don't feel the urge to move any time soon. It's a great time to be here, there is a revolution in the way people are drinking beer and it's an exciting time to be at the forefront of that. Instead of being one of 100 craft brewers as we would be in the UK, we can really make an impact here."
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