A LICENCE has been granted for an award-winning Borders brewery to operate and expand as it prepares a move to a new home.

Tempest Brewing Co. Ltd is currently based at three separate units on the Tweedbank Industrial Estate.

But the operation is to relocate to Unit 8A at Tweedside Park, where there will be a brewery, with a tap room and kitchen and associated external beer garden seating and a small on-site brewery shop.

Now Scottish Borders Council’s Licensing Board has granted the new outlet a premises licence to sell alcohol on site from 11am to midnight and for off-sales from 11am to 10pm.

A spokesperson for the applicant said: “We’d like to be able to welcome families in the premises and obviously a requirement of that is being able to serve the meals.

“Children would be able to be permitted with parents, although not late in the evening, we would like to be able to offer families the opportunity to have a meal and a drink together during the day.”

Councillor David Parker said: “I’m very happy to support this. It is a well-established local business that is an extremely responsible operator, with a very successful tap room at the moment at their current premises and with a range of events that are well-enjoyed by the Borders public.

“Their new business premises will allow this business to expand and grow, to cater better for the local market and further afield.”

Tempest Brewing Co. Ltd is an independently owned and operated micro-brewery launched in 2010 at a small premises in Kelso.

It outgrew the Kelso base by 2014 and moved to units at Tweedbank in early 2015.

The move to the new premises is said to create an additional six jobs.