The new owner of Kestrel lager says its revamp is the start of a plan to acquire and revive other neglected British beers.

Brookfield Drinks, which acquired Kestrel from brewer Wells & Young’s, is relaunching 9% abv Kestrel Super in new packaging that stresses responsible drinking, and plans to have two lower-strength Kestrel variants on retail shelves by next spring.

Former Wells & Young’s MD Nigel McNally, who bought Kestrel when he left the business in September and founded Brookfield, is pushing ahead with plans to acquire other British beer brands. “I’ve already got three signed up for spring and summer next year,” he said.

With Kestrel, the longer-term strategy was to emphasise the quality and Scottish provenance of the brand and reposition and premiumise the stronger variant “because it’s a fantastic beer”, he added.

The redesigned Kestrel Super can will display ‘sharing can’ prominently and carry five key Drinkaware messages.

Brookfield is working on recipes for two variants, one 4% to 5% abv and another around the 2.8% abv level, that triggers lower beer duty. “We believe we can bring out a new variant just after Christmas and a second between February and March,” said McNally.

Originally known as Younger’s Kestrel Lager, and also available as a standard 3.2% abv beer, the brand was sold to Wells & Young’s in 2005 and only the high-strength version retained. The beer is contract brewed by Tennent Caledonian in Edinburgh.

McNally said the brand appealed to younger drinkers as well as nostalgic older consumers and that feedback from retailers had been “absolutely amazing”.

Expanding a familiar brand had more appeal to the off-trade than launching a product from scratch, he added.

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