Harviestoun Brewery was founded in October 1983 by Ken Brooker initially in a shed, and later in a 200-year-old stone barn on a farm, between Tillicoultry and Dollar in Clackmannanshire, producing craft beers in small batches. In 2004 the brewery moved to Alva Industrial Estate on the outskirts of nearby Alva.
Harviestoun was bought by Caledonian Brewery in 2006. Following the takeover of Caledonian by Scottish & Newcastle in 2008, Harviestoun became independent again - it was bought by a group of former Caledonian Brewery directors.
Harviestoun produce a range of cask ales, craft lagers and filtered bottled beers. Harviestoun brew a beer called Ola Dubh (Scottish Gaelic for ‘engine oil’) which is brewed in old Highland Park distillery casks and is 8% abv. Schiehallion was awarded the World's Best Pilsner in 2008 at the World Beer Awards, and the year previous in 2007, Bitter & Twisted was awarded World's Best Ale. Bitter & Twisted has won a number of awards in the Champion Beer of Scotland and in 2003 won the Champion Beer of Britain, as presented by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
The Harviestoun brews continue to win awards with Schiehallion winning Gold in the independent beer awards 2022.
Clackmannanshire, especially Alloa, is well known for its commercial brewing heritage which can be traced back to brewing ale for sale in the first half of the 17th century.
Scotland’s other great brewing centres were Edinburgh and Glasgow. Two widely famed Edinburgh brewers – Robert Younger and William McEwan – originally came from Alloa. In 1900 there were ten breweries in and around Alloa, however by the 1990's this had been reduced through mergers and acquisitions to just two.