Belfast man David Gibson is a guy who loves to look up. Whether that be to the skies or to his peers in the local brew scene, he has a vision – a vision that could take a small pico-brewery near the Cregagh Road in East Belfast into local off licences, bars and festivals.

The latter of these is already a reality as his new venture, Moon Brew, will debut at this weekend’s Belfast Beer and Cider Festival, being held at Banana Block on the Newtownards Road (it’s beside Boundary Brewing).

It’s a move he’s still pinching himself about as we met up recently to discuss this, and the future of Belfast’s newest brewery. Just as a few of Northern Ireland’s most loved beer brands did at the beginning of their time, David’s starting his commercial brewing life with a modestly sized set up after training in home brewing for three years.

But the love of beer started well before that. It didn’t even start in Northern Ireland as many of us seasoned craft beer lovers will find familiar. Australia is where a beer penny dropped while working in IT and software development for almost ten years in Melbourne.

I can see fiery enthusiasm in his eyes when he talks about the Melbourne beer scene but that fire dampens when the topic diverts to the local licensing laws in Northern Ireland and the difference between here and Oz – they’re literally a world apart but right here, right now this isn’t the place for that exhausting topic!

Instead, let’s focus on Moon Brew. David says the Belfast Beer Festival will be pouring a keykeg of Solar Flare, a 3.9% ABV extra pale ale on Thursday and a keykeg of 6.2% hazy IPA Neutron Haze will be waiting in the wings to be hooked up to the taps on Friday or Saturday.

If all goes well with that and public feedback is positive, then there could be additions of a pale ale and Belgian blonde ale going into cans in the forthcoming months, maybe even before Christmas.

You can tell David is a man who loves brewing. He loves thinking about brewing, he even loves canning, labelling and everything that’s involved in the creation of a new pico-brewery. He’s a man who seems to take great joy in perfecting the fine detail and if his beers match his enthusiasm, they’ll be worth buying.

Moon Brew debuts at the Belfast Beer and Cider Festival this weekend (Thursday 5th – Saturday 7th Nov 2026)