THE founder of the popular Bradford Brewery has joined a team to promote a community run castle in Scotland.

Matt Halliday, the main figure behind the opening of the brewery, based on Westgate, in 2015, has been appointed part of the team to drive forward the renovation, restoration and development of Braemar Castle in Aberdeenshire.

Although he remains director of the Brewery, there is now a new team in place running the brewery on a day to day basis. They are made up of managing director Phillip Ogg, finance director Mark Lister and Colin Glass, who will be company secretary.

The team were all involved in setting up the brewery.

Mr Halliday’s new job will see him act as a project manager and fundraiser for the 17th Century castle, which is being developed as a major performance, cultural and heritage venue.

Built in 1628, the castle was opened as a tourist attraction from the 1960s to 2004, when it was closed. Since 2007 the castle has been operated by the community of Braemar on a 50 year lease from the Farquharsons of Invercauld.

Since Bradford Brewery opened in February 2015 it has become a popular part of Bradford’s nightlife, and a “pop up” Made of Bradford bar and brewery shop was opened in the Broadway Shopping Centre for the first few month’s of its launch in late 2015.

A pop up shop was also opened on Ivegate.

In 2015 the Brewery won the New Business of the Year Award at the Telegraph & Argus Business Awards.

The Brewery has recently been appointed as the bottle distributor for Bohemia Lager from Trebon in the Czech Republic, which was founded in 1379.

Later this week it will be inviting Yorkshire based Eyes Brewery to its plant to produce a wheat beer there.