Library of Botanicals to Boost Worldwide Sales of Scottish Gin

Description of impact

The gin industry is booming, with Scotland leading the way in terms of innovative products. In 2019, UK exports of gin accounted for GBP672,000,000 taking total gin sales (UK and overseas) to over GBP3,200,000,000. Underpinning over a third of the 90 Scottish gin distilleries, is fundamental research on botanicals and distillation processes carried out at Heriot-Watt University’s world-renowned International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD). Identification of commercially available botanicals that provide desired attributes in terms of flavour, mouthfeel and terroir has enabled distillers such as Edinburgh Gin and Highland Boundary to reduce product development time, find new marketing and export avenues and improve processes. This has led to significant reduction in costs in terms of staff time, raw materials sourcing and in process design, all of which has also helped reduce incidence of costly retro-fitting of equipment, product recall or reduction in sales potential.

Who is affected

Scottish gin distilleries

Narrative

There are over 110 Scottish gins and over 90 distilleries currently producing gin within Scotland. The rise of gin has been rapid, with UK sales in 2010 around half those of Scotch Whisky. By 2018 both were worth about GBP1,200,000,000. In 2019, UK exports of gin accounted for GBP672,000,000 taking total gin sales (UK and overseas) to over GBP3,200,000,000.

Within Heriot-Watt’s International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD), distilling research has been ongoing for over 30 years, with gin-specific projects increasing in number and scale. Since 2010 we have worked with over 20 Scottish distilleries on specific gin/botanical spirit product development. This includes Edinburgh Gin (formerly Spencerfield Spirits), The Three Stills Distillery, Isle of Harris Distillery, Lindores Abbey Distillery, Raasay Distillery, Pickering’s Gin and Highland Boundary. Projects have also been completed with distilleries further afield including Durham Gin (England), Shortcross Gin (Northern Ireland) and Transylvanian Gin (Romania). The combined sales of the top seven companies we have worked with was over GBP120,000,000 in 2018-19.

ICBD research led to the creation of the Scottish Botanical Library (2014), a library of over 70 botanicals developed with funding through Interface and partner distilleries. The use of local or novel botanicals has become a popular method to create gins with a unique selling point and several members of the Scottish Distillers Association, (SDA - previously called the Scottish Craft Distillers Association), have worked with the ICBD on new product development, experimenting with botanicals that may be sourced close to their distilling operations.

The recipe development process can be very complex, particularly when working with novel or large numbers of botanicals. To simplify the process, it is useful to distil individual botanicals to determine their flavour and aroma attributes to predict their contribution in the final recipe. The Scottish Botanicals Library was created to address this challenge and reduce the time and cost of recipe development and widening the possible options for botanical choice. The library consists of plants that may be grown in Scotland and can be sourced in dried form in amounts suitable for large-scale commercial production of either gin or botanical spirits. Each botanical has been distilled individually, providing a collection of distillates for sensory analysis. The library has already been a valuable resource for projects with both new start companies and developing businesses, vastly reducing the time and cost of recipe development and widening the possible options for botanical choice and helping create new products.

A collaboration, supported by a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) in 2014, with Edinburgh Gin, initially enabled the company to produce the original premium Edinburgh Gin product in house in an artisanal distillery whilst transferring Heriot-Watt’s knowledge of gin-making to the company. In addition, it facilitated the creation of new products and techniques, exploring new botanical ingredients and distillation methods. The KTP led to investment in a third still to meet increasing demand and an increase in annual sales turnover of [text removed for publication], Edinburgh Gin’s Head Distiller, said;

“Seaside Gin was the first of our collaborations in partnership with Heriot-Watt University’s International Centre for Brewing and Distilling. Such has been the success and popularity of Seaside Gin, we have had to transfer production from the small 150 litre still to our larger 1000 litre still at our second site. We will now be producing 1300 bottles per distillation, with at least 4 distillations per month. Testament to the success of developing and using a fantastic botanicals library resource for the benefit of the industry in Scotland”.

ICBD also collaborated with Highland Boundary, a craft distillery who identified a gap in the market for Scandinavian-inspired spirits with the botanicals sourced from local woodlands. By combining botanicals from the Highlands with grain spirit from the South of Scotland the company crafted a new generation of Scottish spirits firmly rooted in the Scottish Landscape. The Director of Highland Boundary, said:

"By accessing the expertise at Heriot-Watt University we were able to try out different botanicals to produce new flavours of spirit with distinct Scottish flavours reflecting Perthshire’s ‘big tree country’. Now that we have launched our first product, Birch and Elderflower Wild Scottish Spirit, we want to build the company and create employment in an area where manufacturing jobs are few and far between".

Following on from the initial development of the Scottish Botanical Library ICBD researchers looked more closely at each botanical, firstly determining whether each is listed within the USA GRAS (Generally Recognised as Safe) list and also to identify any potentially toxic compounds that could be extracted by distillation with ethanol. The latter is necessary to ensure consumer safety and the former has been used to advise companies on botanical choice for products intended for export. The collaborative work with the Scottish botanical library led to the award for “Multiparty Collaboration” at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards (SKEA) 2019. Dr Annie Hill was also runner up in the 2018 SKEA for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Knowledge Exchange’ based on gin research.

Expertise from ICBD led to Dr Annie Hill co-founding the Scottish Distillers Association in 2014 in collaboration with industry (Strathearn Distillery) and Interface Food & Drink. The association currently has over 30 distillery members and serves to assist in business development and networking. The association has been involved in co-funding research within Heriot-Watt for the benefit of its members. Benefits include reduced R&D time through use of the botanicals library and access to expertise within Heriot-Watt. In addition, Dr Hill is a member of the Scottish Cross-Party Group on Scotch Whisky which covers all distilling activities within Scotland. Representation on behalf of the gin industry is made within this group and subsequent government publications including the Brewing and Distilling Scottish Government Report 2018.

Impact status	Achieved
Impact date	1 Jan 2014 → 31 Dec 2020
Category of impact	Economic
Impact level	Local