BOSSES at Peeblesshire's oldest brewery hope that a boost from a German supermarket chain will lead to further expansion.

Aldi have included bottled ale from Traquair House Brewery in their 2016 beer festival.

All of their 67 branches across the country will stock the award-winning Bear Ale for the duration of the in-store promotion of Scottish beers.

And Catherine Maxwell Stuart from Traquair believes the new outlet is a timely boost. She said: "This is the second successive year that Aldi has featured our beers and we are grateful.

"It is a great opportunity for us to to reach beer drinkers that we hadn't been able to previously with our supply chains.

"The brewery has been doing well for some time but 65 per cent of all sales remain exports and we are looking at expansion to satisfy the home market even more.

"We hope that shoppers at Aldi will enjoy Bear Ale and come back for more."

Traquair House Brewery dates back to the early 1700s and was originally a domestic brewery serving the house and the estate.

It was disused in the early 1800s but never dismantled.

Catherine's father, Peter Maxwell Stuart, rediscovered the brewery in the early 1960s and began brewing in 1965 using all the original equipment.

In 1990, following Peter’s death, Catherine, took over the running of the brewery and it was expanded in 1994.

Traquair employs two full time brewers and its rich dark ales are now exported all over the world.

The Aldi he Beer Festival is expected to be worth in excess of £100,000 to the breweries involved, with the retailer stocking 88,000 bottles of craft ales from 35 of Scotland’s best breweries.

As well as 500ml bottles of Bear Ale featuring in the festival, Heavy Nettle from Born in the Borders, near Jedburgh, has also been selected.

Since the first Aldi Beer Festival took place in 2012, the Scottish breweries involved have received over £1 million from sales.

Michael Whiteford, buying director at Aldi in Scotland, told us: “Since 2012, we’ve held in-store Scottish Beer Festivals twice a year.

"This year, for the first time, we’re holding three festivals in our stores across Scotland to reflect the incredible range of Scottish craft beer on offer as well as the growing demand from Scottish shoppers.

"It is very important to us at Aldi to give small breweries their first big break, allowing them a platform to showcase their fantastic craft beer.

"This summer, three out of four beers featured in the Festival have never been sold before at Aldi and we’re looking forward to giving our customers a taste of some delicious new drinks.

“Scotland continues to produce some of the best craft beer on the market and the Beer Festival allows our customers the opportunity to try a wide array of beers that are not all readily available. We are sure this Beer Festival will be a great success for Aldi and the brewers involved.”