Brewer sets sights on move into pubs

The Edinburgh-based firm, which makes beers aged in whisky casks, has launched a “pop-up” bar in the capital for the summer’s festivals, allowing it to test out drinks and events and receive feedback from customers.

The bar, on Edinburgh’s  Potterrow, is being run on behalf of the beer maker by pub operator 56 North and will  tonight host an industry event for landlords already selling Innis & Gunn.

“We’ve attracted new consumers to the brand, albeit in a small way, who have come in to sample the beers, and that’s been very valuable to us and shows what could be achieved in the future,” said Sharp.

“We’d love to go into retail at some stage. We don’t yet know exactly what form that will take but certainly our learning so far from our pop-up bar is that we have very loyal consumers who want to drink in an Innis & Gunn outlet.”

Sharp founded the company in 2003 as a joint venture with William Grant & Sons Distillers, which wanted a beer to flavour barrels for its Ale Cask Reserve whisky.

Distillery workers found the beer itself was good enough to drink, and so it was eventually sold to the public.

He led a management buyout in January 2008 and drew on the experience of his father, Russell Sharp, who rescued Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewery and launched its highly  acclaimed Deuchars IPA.

Russell helped to found Innis & Gunn alongside his sons, Dougal and Neil, before retiring as a director in 2010.

Dougal Sharp, himself a former head brewer at “the Caley”, has also hailed the success of Innis & Gunn’s push into the United States, which  has seen the company sign up 80 distributors in 20 states. “We’re on course this year to double turnover in the US to £2 million,” said Sharp. “That’s down to both expanding into new states – like Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia – but also extending the amount of work we’re doing in existing markets, like New York.”

The firm also expects to push into Maryland, Wisconsin and the US capital, Washington DC, before the end of the year. It now has seven staff in the US after setting up an American subsidiary and has doubled the firm’s overall headcount in the past year to about 40 staff.

In December, the firm received a £175,000 regional selective assistance grant from Scottish Enterprise to back up its own £1m investment in its growth.

Last year Sharp switched production from Greene King’s Belhaven brewery near Dunbar to Tennent’s Wellpark site in Glasgow to cope with his expansion plans, which included adding a beer aged in a rum cask to its permanent range.

Richard McLelland, sales  director at Williams Brothers Brewing in Alloa and a member of the “brotherhood”, an informal alliance of Scottish brewers, said several of the country’s newer beers were breaking into America.

“The United States is such an important market for the newer breweries if they want to break into exports,” said McLelland.

“I know that BrewDog up in Fraserburgh do a lot of business in America.

“There’s such a big market for craft beers in America because that’s where they make some of the best new beers.”

McLelland added: “But more traditional Scottish ales are also very popular in America. Bruce Williams, our founder, is about to leave on his annual three-month visit to the US to promote our products but also to help American breweries to make their own cask ales.”