INNIS & Gunn has linked up with Heriot-Watt University in the biggest collaboration of its kind in the UK in a move that will also see it set up its brewery on campus.
The research park to the west of Edinburgh, already home to the world-renowned International Centre for Brewing and Distilling, will be the location for the new £20 million brewery.
Subject to planning permission and further corporate and regulatory approvals, it will be the first major brewery to be built in Edinburgh for 150 years.
READ MORE: Craft brewer Innis & Gunn unveils location of 'largest brewery in Edinburgh for 150 years'
The tie-up is the UK’s first major collaboration of this type between a full-scale brewery and a university and will create a centre for brewing studies and applied learning on the world stage.
It is claimed the collaboration will be on a par with other famed brewery universities like Weinstephan in Germany, and Heriot-Watt and Innis & Gunn anticipate a wealth of benefits to arise as a result.
Innis & Gunn’s £3m crowdfunding campaign through the Seedrs platform will help fund the new brewery which the brewer plans to build on a two hectare site at Riccarton which is planned to be operational in 2021.
Now that the site has been revealed, the brand has chosen to extend the crowd fund period until January 31, 2020 to give as many people as possible the chance to invest.
READ MORE: £20m Edinburgh brewery plan unveiled
The brewery will also be part financed via a £15m loan which is currently being progressed, subject to due diligence. It will also house a visitor centre and offer tours, and a Tap Room will be added at a later date.
Dougal Gunn Sharp, founder and master brewer, said: “Building this brewery is a big step for Innis & Gunn in delivering our ambitious growth plan, from which we can capitalise on the existing strong performance of our craft lager and portfolio of IPAs and barrel-aged beers.”
Professor Stephen McLaughlin, of Heriot-Watt, said the move “is an affirmation of our role in this vitally important Scottish industry”.
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