The success of BBC drama Shetland has resulted in the beer sales from a small island brewery going through the roof.
Lerwick Brewery is a small operation nestled amidst the rugged beauty of the Shetland Islands, and their sales have been flying since viewers of the popular crime series spotted what they believed to be its beer on screen.
Depleys was a beer branded created solely for the show and doesn’t exist in real life, but it has launched Lerwick Brewery into the national spotlight.
The confusion started during series four of the show, when a character is shown drinking bottles of the fictional beer before several bottles appear in another episode with a label for one of Lerwick Brewery’s beers.
Viewers then put two and two together and believed Depleys was one of its drinks.
The confusion led to a surge in online searches for the beer and the brewery’s website traffic spikes, with the search term now ranking as its third most popular search query.
It’s not the first time fictional brands have left viewers confused about real products, with stuff such as Duff Beer from The Simpsons, Alamo Beer from King of the Hill and the fast-food chicken chain in Breaking Bad, Los Pollos Hermanos.
Graham Mercer, who owns the brewery, said: "We were completely taken aback. We hadn't even realised our beer was in the background of Shetland until a viewer pointed it out.
“The labels were obviously different, but people saw a similarity and the excitement started building."
The brewery has now enjoy a huge boost having previously had minimal brand awareness on the UK mainland despite a loyal following on the Shetland Islands.
But they are now inundated with orders from across the UK and are struggling to keep up with demand, although they have now relaunched its brand onto the mainland market.
READ MORE:
-
Scots brewery to close taproom amid 'significant headwinds' for hospitality sector
-
Neil Mackay: The death of the great Scottish pint? Aye, ok then, barkeep
-
Glasgow microbrewery saves 'iconic' piece of Scottish history
"We're a small team and suddenly we’re fielding orders from across the country,” Graham admits. “We never expected this kind of attention."
Founded in 2012 by three brothers, Lerwick Brewery's initial product, 60° north Shetland Lager is named after the islands’ northerly latitude, which they share with Finland and Alaska.
The brewery's range has since expanded to include a variety of award-winning craft beers, including Lerwick IPA, Tushkar oatmeal stout, Skipper’s Ticket Shetland Bitter, Hamefarin pale ale, and Lerwick Haze session pale ale.
Further boosting its profile, Lerwick Brewery was recognised recently in several awards, including winning a bronze medal at the Scottish Beer Awards, and being shortlisted in the Scottish Food and Drink Awards.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here