Fruitful beer deal for Ella Drinks

A SMALL Angus drinks firm is expecting to double its turnover after Innis & Gunn, one of Scotland's rising corporate stars, selected its juices for a fruit beer range.

Brechin-based Ella Drinks expects to see revenues grow to 60,000 as a result of its juice being used in Innis & Gunn's raspberry and strawberry beers, which will be sold under the new Melville's brand. The Edinburgh-based beer company has already landed a permanent listing for the new lines with Tesco.

Innis & Gunn aims to grab a slice of the 2 million fruit beer market in the UK, but is also exploring export options.

A shipment is due to arrive in Canada in the next few weeks and distributors in Ireland and Sweden are also showing interest in stocking the latest product.

Anne Thomson, managing director of Ella Drinks, which employs five staff, cold-presses the fruits to retain more flavour, rather than heat-treating or pureeing them.

She said: "We use a gentle cold-pressing technique to release the juice without damaging the seeds, which can add bitter off-flavours.

"Other techniques have side-effects. Using heat creates a cooked flavour, while pureeing and high pressures release bitter off-flavours."