our origin story
1990 - present day
2000
1990
Gary & Jonny meet, aged 9, at the Kinross after-school gulag and bond over custard creams and table football. Gary wins the football. Jonny eats most of the biscuits. And the table. And the football.
In the days before Facebook, the old friends become reacquainted after bumping into each other on a bus. Jonny ignored Gary. Gary definitely did not go home and cry himself to sleep. Jonny finally finds his way off the bus in late Spring.
2001
They shack up in a student flat in Edinburgh. They brew their first beer together following Mojo’s fabled recipe, first conceived in 1976 as a direct protest against the 1972 Geneva Protocol on Weaponised Biological Agents. Coincidentally, Jonny’s bowels were added to the Protocol shortly after syphoning.
2002
Inspired by the success of Popstars: The Rivals’ One True Voice, Jonny and Gary form a band. Together with their bandmates, they write the song, ‘Cross Borders’: a haunting (if poorly spelled) ballad about angry lodgers.
2008
It’s become apparent to the boys that this rock ‘n’ roll gig is increasingly unlikely to make them the fortunes they’d hoped for (the audience realised this in 2003…) The drawing board beckons for our dynamic duo…
2010
The boys decide to start a brewery. Jonny goes back to school, is told he can’t repeat Primary Six a third time, so instead enrols at Heriot Watt to study Brewing and Distilling. Gary makes him his packed lunch in a Power Rangers lunch box.
2026
2025
Would you believe it. The IPA has been voted the best can/bottle IPA in the SIBA Scotland 2025 beer awards!
2010 - 2015
Jonny supports his studies by working at some of the UK’s best independent breweries. Gary supports Jonny by making him his packed lunch in a Power Rangers lunch box.
Gary and Jonny officially launch Cross Borders Brewing Company. Gary works hard on the business paperwork; Jonny makes him his packed lunch in a carrier bag. He’d left the Power Rangers lunch box at work.
2016
2018
Our two ‘nuggets in a shed’ win multiple business awards! Turns out they are decent at this brewing thing. Jonny asks Gary to dig out the mash tun – Gary decides that sounds far too much like hard work and decides to open a pub instead.
Long term friend of the dynamic duo Scott joins forces with wee Gaz and Portobello Tap is born! They enjoy a fantastic first 9 months until the evening of 20th March 2020 when Gaz licks Scotty’s face and lockdown from the pubs is immediately announced (and you all thought it was some bat thingy in China…)
2019
Portobello Tap was crowned Scottish Craft Beer Bar of the Year – you’ve clocked it haven’t you? They were awarded best pub of the year in the year when no one was allowed to go to the pub! – well done boyz.
2020
2021
Undaunted and unbowed, Gaz and Scott decide to take on a second pub. Jonny is delighted as he’d heard a rumour Gaz was contemplating coming out of retirement on the mash tun… They take on the former ‘4 in Hand’ pub on Edinburgh’s Easter Road. Scott starts knocking down walls with a sledge hammer, Gary dusts off the old power rangers lunch box, packs it up, and heads off on holiday.
Best Cask IPA in the UK – our wee nuggets continue to knock it out the park with a national Gold award for IPA on cask from the 2024 SIBA beer awards
2024
Same nuggets, different shed…
As they approach 10 years since they first brewed in anger, the boys have taken a bold decision to change the way they work to best set themselves up for success over the next decade. So they’ve said goodbye to the brewery in Eskbank and have moved to a contract and collaborative brewing model.
They’re at it again! No sooner had they sold the brewery and equipment, that familiar itch started again. Another boozer? Och, go on then! So the lads took on the former Oceana bar on Ferry Road and set about transforming it into Coal Yard Tap. Well, we say the lads took it on, but Gaz obviously booked not one, but two holidays to coincide with the renovation timetable. Some things never change eh?
2026 cont’d
