Resource for Scottish gin producers created by expert distillation team

● Library containing 72 botanicals has potential to boost levels of exporting

Scientists at an Edinburgh university have created a resource to help Scotland’s gin manufacturers create new products and increase their exports.

The experts from the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD) at Heriot-watt University have compiled the botanical library, having spent three years distilling and cataloguing 72 botanicals that can be grown in Scotland, are commercially available and from a sustainable source.

Each botanical – with the list including nettles, lavender, dandelion and the chagga fungus, which grows on birch trees – has been individually distilled, and its taste, aroma and mouth feel catalogued.

The library was initially developed to help Scotland’s gin producers create unique, new products with less trial and error, and is now being used to ensure their offering meets certain overseas import standards. It is currently available to members of the Scottish Craft Distillers Association (SCDA).

The library is billed as good news for producers eyeing the domestic and international markets, with The Wine and Spirit Trade Association saying last week that summer 2018 reached record highs for gin with sales, both home and abroad, peaking at £2.2 billion.

Matthew Pauley, assistant professor at the ICBD and a drinks industry consultant, led on the distillation of all the botanicals. He said: “Our botanical library will help gin-producers create Scottish gins with locally available botanicals that are available in dried form, from a sustainable source, to ensure consistency and availability.

“The library enables us to tell producers how a botanical will perform if it is added before or after distillation.

“Several members of the [SCDA] have already used the botanical library to create new gins.”

Annie Hill, associate professor at the ICBD, touched on the export angle. “We were approached by one ginproducer who had listed the botanicals in their ingredients, and their sample was held up by US customs.

“We learned that around half of the botanicals in our library are not listed on the USA’S Generally Recognised as Safe list. We are now testing the potentially toxic compounds that could be present to demonstrate they are safe for consumers and not above threshold limits. This will give gin producers the evidence they need to prove their gin is safe.”

The team is now examining how to make the library more widely available, and hopes to add to it more botanicals, plus nuts and flowers.