AS the only distiller and brewer in St Andrews, the marketing opportunity for Eden Mill is unlikely to get any bigger than when The Open rolls into town in the coming days.

This is not lost on Paul Miller, the former drinks industry executive who set up the craft producer nearly three years ago.

Golf fans visiting for the 144th Open Championship will be able to slake their thirst at the craft beer and gin bar Eden is running at the Aquarium, a stone's throw from the R&A clubhouse.

Live music will be provided to accompany the drinks, which will include cocktails and Scottish cider, until the wee small hours.

Visitors will also be able to check out what Eden has to offer at the Rusacks Hotel located alongside the 18th fairway, where the producer will have a retail presence during the tournament.

Both offer priceless advertising for the company whose Guardbridge site, located on university grounds on the edge of town, embodies a rich brewing and distilling heritage.

"The Open is a great opportunity for us," said Mr Miller, whose CV included spells with Glenmorangie and International Distillers and Vintners before his long-tenure at Molson Coors.

"Over 200,000 people will descend on St Andrews; the eyes of the world will be on the town. The whole economy benefits for 18 months around The Open."

The script could scarcely have run better since Mr Miller, with the backing of a Glasgow-based private investor, became the master of his own destiny and established Eden in 2012.

Eden, which toasts its third anniversary in September, is on track to turn over £3 million this year, having turned over £1m in its previous accounts.

It is also on course to break even for the first time, in spite of the significant investment it has made this year in laying down whisky stocks and developing international markets.

Two sales managers have recently been taken on, one for international markets and one for the UK, the latter to build on listings recently secured for Eden's spirits with major wholesalers.

The latest hires take headcount to 24, including six (five fully qualified) brewers and distillers. Four are graduates of Heriot-Watt University's famed brewing and distilling course, and there are plans to take on two more.

The progress made at Eden represents a quick turn around on the heavy capital investment which had been required upfront to set up the single site brewery and distillery. The latest capital investment came with the addition of a large washback in November, which followed the establishment of its microdistillery earlier in

the year.

Mr Miller has enjoyed the ride but admits it has not been without its hair-raising moments.

"It's going well and it's been hugely exciting," he said. "Every day is a school day. I've made more mistakes in the last three years than at any other time in my life before. The other side is the opportunity to make decisions.

"We give great consumer experiences and focus on products. We're employing six distillers and brewers - as a percentage of output that has to be higher than any other distiller."

And there is no sign of the pace letting up. At the time of the interview, Eden was poised to dial up production to the distiller's full capacity so that it will be working "24-7", with plans in place to further expand its Guardbridge site. The mooted expansion is designed also to allow it to provide more facilities for visitors. It already attracts around 400 visitors to its tours per week, or 20,000 a year.

Eden leases the land from the University of St Andrews and is fully committed to the sustainability ethos being pursued by the institution on the grounds.

"The main purpose is to improve the visitor experience and to provide storage space for our casks," he said. "It will also allow us the potential to expand capacity a bit more."

He added: "We are on a site which fundamentally has a sustainable ethos.

"They are aiming to be a carbon neutral university and we will be looking to pool with them to improve the sustainability of the brewery."

Not everything has proceeded exactly to the original script at Eden, however.

Mr Miller originally viewed Eden as a brewery first and foremost, aiming to build a business around a series of wood-matured ales marketed to the bars, hotels, and specialist off-sales of Fife, Tayside and Edinburgh.

Beer remains important to the business, and is anticipated to account for around a third of Eden's turnover this year - and bottled and can versions of brands such as St Andrews Blonde, Seggie Porter and the 19th Brew Golden Ale are being rolled out to the drinks trade now.

But whisky and gin have emerged as just as significant prizes. Eden brought whisky production back to St Andrews when it opened the microdistillery a year ago.

The distilling tradition at Guardbridge goes back to the early 19th century, when the Haig family made grain whisky at what was then called the Seggie Distillery between 1810 and 1860. The distillery was later sold to Diageo.

As well as whisky, it produces five small-batch gins, each made with seasonal, local ingredients. The latest, Eden Golf Gin, has been launched in time for The Open.

While beer is what links Eden to the local economy, its horizons are significantly wider when it comes to whisky and gin.

Eden's core gin, to be relaunched in a new-look ceramic bottle this month, is leading an assault on export markets. Hong Kong, China, the US, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Portugal and the Benelux countries have been established as destinations, with strong interest also being shown in the rest of the UK.

"The opportunity is greater now than it was at the start," Mr Miller said. "Initially, we started looking at it as a brewery. What has become clear is that consumers have an appetite to buy premium products which are linked to St Andrews."

Eden is marketing the whisky it is currently maturing to collectors through two primary avenues - its Founders' Club and its Private Cask Owners' Club.

The Founders' Club is designed to offer collectors an alternative to the "transactional" way of investing in whisky. He envisages the club having a membership of about 50 "global whisky advocates", who in return for a £12,000 investment will have the right to own one of Eden's first 100 hogsheads (250 litres) and the opportunity to buy further hogsheads at reduced prices over the next six years.

Mr Miller is marketing the club to people who have a "passion for whisky, golf and St Andrews", who will have the opportunity to meet like-minded people at annual whisky dinner and golf events.

"We felt it was important to give people more than a cask," Mr Miller said.

"It gives them an emotional attachment."

Some 10,000 litres of whisky spirit a year will be allocated to the Private Cask Owners' Club, under which consumers can buy anything from octaves (containing just under 50 litres) to hogsheads of Eden whisky.

Mr Miller anticipates having up to 200 members of this club, invited to check on how their whisky is maturing every six months. "It gives people an opportunity to tailor their cask to their own liking," he explained.

"They can work with the distiller to something special and unique. It's one of the advantages of being a small batch distiller - they can choose their own barrel and recipe."

Looking ahead, Mr Miller is looking forward to continuing to collaborate with local businesses ("St Andrews has relied on golf for many years," he asserts) and sees real potential in linking up with local distilleries such as Kingsbarns and Daftmill to create Fife's very own whisky trail. "Someone described Islay as Disneyland for whisky," Mr Miller said: "For us in Fife there's a good opportunity to do the same."