Accidental beer set to take off as brewer plans to expand

A FAMILY-BREWED beer invented "by accident" in the Capital is celebrating a huge expansion as it prepares to go on draught.

Innis & Gunn, which was created unintentionally by local businessman Dougal Sharp, today announced a national roll-out at several pubs and bars following an "unprecedented" demand.

Mr Sharp, who lives on Slateford Road, discovered the beer when he was working as head brewer at Edinburgh's Caledonian Brewery. He had been flavouring a whisky with beer by leaving it in barrels for 30 days.

The beer used to flavour the malt, developed by whisky producers William Grant & Sons, was then thrown out as a by-product.

But one cheeky barrel worker decided to give it a taste and realised it produced a decent pint.

From making a few bottles in 2003, Mr Sharp is now looking to get the product on tap across Scotland before branching out to the rest of the UK.

He said: "It's gone mad since we first made it. It was meant to flavour a mature whisky, so we'd leave it in the barrels for 30 days, then throw it away. We hadn't really thought about what the barrel would do to the beer's taste, but one worker tasted it, perhaps a few times, and he said it was delicious. So we decided it was too good to throw away.

"The Caledonian Brewery weren't too interested, so I left my job and I can't say I've looked back. We've now investigated a significant five-figure sum of money into launching draught and have taken on two more staff."

He added: "We learn more and more about it as we go along, and experiment with the time we leave it in the barrel and using different barrels."

The 38-year-old independent brewer has reported an average of 60 per cent growth year on year since he began making it, going from 40,000 case sales in 2004 to 460,000 in 2009. It has a turnover of around 4.39 million.

So far Mr Sharp has secured 20 listings across the capital for the draught of Innis & Gunn.

All the beer used is brewed by Belhaven, in Dunbar, before being handed over to the warehouseman to oversee the maturation processes pioneered by the company.

Each variant in the range undergoes specific periods of maturation to impart a particular oak character on to the beer.

Producing the beer was originally a joint venture with William Grant & Sons, but he bought their half of the business in 2008 when they decided to focus on spirits.

Innis & Gunn is Scotland's largest independent beer company and the UK's largest specialty beer in the off-trade, trailing only renowned imports Leffe and Hoegaarden in volume sales. It is the leading British bottled beer in Canada and number two bottled import ale in Sweden.

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