Scottish craft brewer Innis & Gunn plans to build a £20 million brewery at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh to meet demand for its portfolio of beers.
The facility will feature high-speed canning, bottling and kegging capability, streamlining several outsourced brewing and packaging sites in one location. It will also house a visitor centre and offer tours.
Expected to be operational in 2021, the 2-hectare brewery will create up to 30 new jobs and be built at Heriot-Watt University’s International Centre for Brewing & Distilling.
University students will benefit from the brewery by gaining hands-on experience across all aspects of brewing operations.
“Building this brewery is a big step for Innis & Gunn in delivering our ambitious growth plan, from which we can capitalise on the existing strong performance of our craft lager and portfolio of IPAs and barrel-aged beers,” said Innis & Gunn founder and master brewer, Dougal Gunn Sharp.
“We are creating an epicentre for brewing, collaboration and applied learning on the world stage. Innis & Gunn and Heriot-Watt University are both highly respected international brands renowned for their quality and forward thinking. This collaboration brings these two brands together in the most exciting way we can imagine.
“Working with the International Centre of Brewing and Distilling opens up endless opportunities by combining our creative abilities and the talent pool at the university with our new world-class, modern brewery.
“We hope to be able to research new beers and brewing techniques, develop pioneering carbon and water-saving technologies and create new products that respond to changing demands from consumers, as well as facilitating in-work learning for students.”
Professor Stephen McLaughlin, head of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, added: “Heriot-Watt has a long and distinguished history of excellence in research in brewing and distilling built on a foundation of collaboration with the brewing and distilling industries.
“The choice of Innis & Gunn to locate their new brewery on our research park is an affirmation of our role in this vitally important Scottish industry. We look forward to welcoming them on to our research park and to successfully collaborating with them.”
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