GLASGOW-based WEST Brewery has secured a listing for its flagship St Mungo beer in 83 Tesco stores around Scotland.

The listing follows a successful pilot in 20 Tesco stores north of the Border. It marks another coup for the brewer, which makes beer according to Germany's ancient purity rules. WEST already supplies St Mungo to Waitrose in Scotland, as well as venues such as Turnberry and Gleneagles.

The Tesco deal means Scottish drinkers who live as far north as Lerwick and as far south as Annan will have the chance to buy the beer made on Glasgow Green.

Petra Wetzel, founder of parent company Noah Beers, said: "Obviously in the central belt people are very much aware of the brand and really love it. [But] it does take a trek to come to Glasgow Green to buy a case of 12 or 24 bottles.

"Sometimes it is just nice to take two bottles in your trolley while you are out shopping and you are drinking them with your dinner that night."

WEST confirmed 330ml bottles of St Mungo began appearing on Tesco shelves yesterday. And Ms Wetzel, who praised the "professional" approach taken by Tesco in dealing with the brewer, hopes it will pave the way for further listings with the retail giant.

She said: "They did say that this is a test platform. I already know that when it was in the 20 test stores it sold out.

"People saw it and thought here's St Mungo, let's just buy the whole shelf, which I think is really testament to the product.

"It's also really nice to hear that people are so happy to see it in a very much more convenient way of purchasing it. Rather than going to a bottle shop or Glasgow Green, they can just buy it with their weekly shopping."

Asked which other brands might follow St Mungo into the off-trade, Ms Wetzel highlighted Hefeweizen as the next candidate. She said WEST has held talks with Tennent Caledonian Breweries (TCB) with a view to the brewing giant bottling the beers at its state of the art facility at nearby Wellpark. St Mungo is currently bottled in Germany.

Noting that TCB already distributes WEST beers through its Wallaces TCB arm, she said: "If I had a pound for every time somebody asks me to bottle Hefeweizen, I would be rich. So that's definitely our next project. WEST Hefeweizen, our wheat beer, is absolutely guaranteed to be the next beer we produce in bottles.

"We just have to find the right bottling partner and get the production to a level where by producing that many bottles we don't jeopardise our draught, because that is the one thing we don't ever want to do."

WEST is currently out-sourcing production to a brewer in Germany while plans to build a bigger production facility next to its Glasgow base come to fruition. It hopes the £4 million development, which will occupy a 15,000 square foot site next to the former Templeton Carpet Factory, will be ready to launch in April or May.

In spite of its progress in the off-trade, Ms Wetzel said that WEST's beers will remain a draught focused brand. Revealing that the company "did not court" Tesco over the listing, she said: "We haven't been in touch with any of the other supermarkets.

"I always say that WEST is very much a draught lager brand.

"We like to be in the on-trade. We like people talking about the product when they go to their local bar and drink it in one of the WEST tankards and get it served on a WEST beer mat and the guy tells them where it's brewed. But we appreciate that people don't only drink in bars, so it was kind of a natural progression from being an on-trade brand.

"That doesn't mean we want to take over the supermarkets in the UK - that is not our strategy."