the fountain brewery was rebuilt in 1973 and pioneered the use of computer control for the entire brewing process. the site had a 2 million barrel capacity, and occupied 22 acres on a new site which had formerly been occupied by a british rubber mill. "mcewan's export" became a nationally distributed beer by the 1970s, and was the highest selling canned beer in the united kingdom by 1975. mcewan's lager was introduced in 1976 as the demand for lager increased, but it struggled to gain credibility until the "alive and kicking" campaign was launched in 1986. mcewan's export was launched in the united states in 1989. two bottled ales were launched, mcewan's champion ale (7.3%) in 1997 and mcewan's parliament ale (5%) in 1999. in 2000, mcewan's had 13 percent of the scottish lager market and around 40 percent of the scottish ale market. in 2003 "mcewan's 70/-" was overtaken by belhaven best as scotland's best-selling ale, and mcewan's lager was discontinued.