Scottish craft brewer Innis & Gunn has hit its crowdfunding target of £1m in just three days.
The Edinburgh-based company launched its equity crowdfunding campaign, AdventureCapital, to the public on 1 November, offering a 2% equity stake in return for investment to back its future plans for expansion.
So far, 763 investors have pledged £1,151,110 and it is now “overfunding” with 25 days remaining, meaning Innis & Gunn will accept further investment in exchange for releasing additional equity.
Dougal Gunn Sharp, Founder and Master Brewer at Innis & Gunn (pictured above), said response has been “overwhelming”.
He said, “We did not expect to reach the target in such a short time, we are absolutely thrilled, and grateful to all of our investors so far – we can’t wait to get started on this next chapter together.
“Making great craft beer has been at the heart of this crowdfunding campaign, so it’s been excellent sharing our passions with so many investors.
“Every penny we raise is going to grow our potential to make even more great beer.”
Innis & Gunn intends to double its turnover to £25 million over the next three years.
The money raised through AdventureCapital will fund the brewer’s plans to roll-out its bar and restaurant brand, The Beer Kitchen. Last month, the company announced plans to open a third Beer Kitchen in St Andrews in November, following successful opening in Dundee and Edinburgh.
A future four sites are planned for 2017, including one in Glasgow, which will house the company’s first micro-brewery, and its first international venue in Toronto, Canada.
The investment will also support continued experimentation with beers, and increase capacity at its newly acquired Inveralmond Brewery in Perth, which has been renamed Innis & Gunn Brewery. Read more here.
Scottish independent brewer, Innis & Gunn, has announced plans to open its third Beer Kitchen in St Andrews in mid-November at 80 North Street.
The company will also open its biggest bar to date in Glasgow in spring 2017, which will include an on-site brewing facility. A venue has been agreed on, with work scheduled to begin in January next year.
The Beer Kitchen St Andrews will offer 14 different beer taps and a selection of bottled and canned beers. Work on the new bar, located near St Andrews University campus, is now underway with Guy Morgan from Morgan McDonnell Architects providing the design.
It follows an ‘exceptional’ year in business for the brewer’s current Beer Kitchens in Edinburgh, opened in 2015, and Dundee, which launched earlier this year.
Dougal Sharp, Founder and Master Brewer at Innis & Gunn, said, “Each new Beer Kitchen gives us a chance to introduce great craft beer to a new audience. We want our Beer Kitchens to be known as spaces where amazing beer and food can be enjoyed. It’s always rewarding to bring this to another town and I’m looking forward to giving St Andrews a new place to enjoy craft beer.”
Innis & Gunn’s Beer Kitchen concept won the New Casual Dining Concept of the Year Award at the Casual Dining Awards earlier in this year.
David Hall, MD of Innis & Gunn Retail, added, “Edinburgh and Dundee have proved to be a successful start for our retail business. We seized on the opportunity to make St Andrews our third opening and are excited to showcase our beers in the town. We’ll be making plenty of Innis & Gunn beers available at the new bar, will continue to host tap takeovers with other breweries and test new and exclusive beer recipes on-site.
“Opening up a new venue in St Andrews will be an integral step in developing the retail business further. The Beer Kitchen concept has proven successful and next year we’ll be building our biggest venue in Glasgow and taking the format overseas, with a Beer Kitchen in Toronto, Canada, our largest international market.”
The brewer’s future opening in Glasgow will lead the next wave of Beer Kitchens, with another three locations planned for 2017, including Innis & Gunn’s first international Beer Kitchen in Toronto, Canada.
Innis & Gunn has unveiled its most innovative product yet – Immersive & Gunn – two Virtual Reality (VR) experiences that will change the way drinkers taste and enjoy the beer.
At participating bars, customers who order the brewer’s Original or Lager will be served a VR headset to accompany their drink.
This headset will take them to landscapes inspired by the flavour profiles of the two brews, and through immersing the drinker in this world it is hoped that additional sight and sound senses will be triggered which will heighten the taste.
There is two different content for both the Original and Lager and the content gives a nod to Innis & Gunn’s brewing process and Scottish origins.
Virtual Reality has been used in the past to enhance the taste of food and now the beer industry gets a chance to join in, as Innis & Gunn started the new Immersive & Gunn experience at The Beer Kitchen in Edinburgh and Dundee on Thursday 11th August.
Further roll-out in the next couple of weeks will be taking the VR experience to beer drinkers in Glasgow’s Tabac, where drinkers will be served their pint alongside a VR headset and a beer mat explaining exactly what to do and why.
In order to create this content, the brewer has collaborated with cognitive neuroscientist, Dr. Jacob Jolij, an expert on how our brain creates experiences, who explains how VR impacts taste perception. He comments: “A taste experience is not just a matter of chemistry and biology. Whenever you take a sip of your favourite beer you do not just taste the water, the grains, and the hops, but your brain adds in your previous memories, surroundings, and expectations.
“Immersing the drinker in this virtual reality world created by Innis & Gunn, is a very powerful way of enhancing the taste experience. It will change the way your brain processes and interprets the signals coming from your taste buds, drawing on personal memories of sight and sound to create a unique experience of the beer for every drinker.”
Check out the VR video content for the ‘Original’ below:
Scottish independent brewer Innis and Gunn has opened its second bar/restaurant The Beer Kitchen in Dundee’s Tay Street. Designed by architects Morgan McDonnell, The Beer Kitchen is aimed at educating diners on matching beer with food and has been designed by award winning architects Morgan McDonnell in a Scandi-Scottish style. The Beer Kitchen will serve a wide range of craft beer along with a specially curated menu featuring chopped and charred and low and slow style dishes as well as pub classics. The brewer has also launched the world’s first ever beer and marmalade; Marm & Ale, made with the brewer’s oak-aged IPA with Dundee’s finest preserve to take advantage of the current debate over the origins of marmalade and has also brewed a brand new flavour of marmalade IPA using Innis & Gunn’s trademarked beer percolator. Spearheaded by retail veteran David Hall, the ‘Beer Kitchen’ brand will continue to roll out venues across the UK and internationally, with plans for another 2 sites.
Innis & Gunn is planning to launch its second bar & restaurant venue, The Beer Kitchen by Innis & Gunn, in Dundee. The company aims to build on the success of the brand’s first site in Edinburgh which opened last summer. Innis & Gunn’s, Founder and Master Brewer, Dougal Sharp said, “Dundee is a vibrant, thriving city and with the huge redevelopment that’s happening it was always top of our list of cities to launch in as soon as we could. We want to open Dundonian drinkers’ eyes to what real beer means to us at Innis & Gunn, in our own relaxed way that’s worked really well for us at our first venue in Edinburgh. We’ve zero tolerance for second rate, tasteless beer but our bars are not about us dictating personal taste – we want our venues to change the world of beer for the better by being flag wavers for incredible, flavor packed brews, not fixated on selling ‘flash in the pan’ beers that are all beard and no trousers. It’s our no nonsense approach to quality and real flavor in our beers and food that we hope will go down well with the good folk of Dundee.”
Architects Morgan McDonnell have been briefed to roll out the brand’s relaxed Scandi- Scottish style interior design at the venue at 10 South Tay Street, which alongside the Edinburgh premises, is G1 owned. The 3,700 square feet site will feature limited edition oak aged cask beers in an exposed beer cellar and 2 x 5 hectolitre tanks serving Innis & Gunn’s award-winning unpasteurized lager fresh from the brewery. The kitchen offering will include pub classics with a beer ‘flavor’, alongside chopped and charred and low and slow style dishes. David Hall, is the man in charge of the roll out of the concept, and he is planning another two sites by the end of 2016.
Innis & Gunn has announced the appointment of James Coyle as Managing Director. Coyle, who was formerly Deputy Managing Director of Marston’s Plc, will oversee all areas of the Innis & Gunn Brewing Co, including International expansion and the roll-out of the company’s newly launched retail operation arm, The Beer Kitchen by Innis & Gunn.
In February 2015, he joined Innis & Gunn as a non-exec Director but has been a long-standing supporter and advocate of the Innis & Gunn business.
Dougal Sharp, Founder & Master Brewer of Innis & Gunn, commented, “James has an unparalleled wealth of experience in the brewing and bars business and has been a true supporter of ours since our launch in 2003. As his career has moved on he has always maintained a strong professional interest in our progress and as a result, this next step feels entirely right for us, during a monumental year for the business. This year we saw the launch of our first crowd funding initiative, The Innis & Gunn BeerBond, where we successfully raised our target of £3M to help us build a new state of the art brewery in Scotland. We’ve also opened our first bar and restaurant in Edinburgh, The Beer Kitchen by Innis & Gunn, with plans underway to have another 2 outlets opened in the UK by spring 2016. James’ vast experience will be invaluable in helping us realise our ambitions for the business and drive the global acceleration of our brands to the next level.”
The independent brewer, known for its innovative and oak-aged crafted beers, has been at the forefront of the British craft beer scene for over a decade, and has had a relationship with Coyle from 2003 when he helped launch its flagship beer, Innis & Gunn Original, to the UK market.
James has worked in the beer industry for twenty years, first joining Marston’s to set up a new Take Home and Export division in 1995. Following almost a decade at Wychwood Brewery (latterly Refresh), where he was instrumental in the development of Hobgoblin plus a range of innovative beer brands, he also helped expand Wychwood’s managed retail estate to 30 units. In 2003 he played a key part in bringing Innis & Gunn to the UK market, overseeing the launch and UK Distribution Agreement through Wychwood Brewery. Following the acquisition of Wychwood in 2008, James returned to Marston’s as National Sales & Marketing Director before taking the role of Deputy Managing Director.
Commenting on his appointment, James Coyle said: “Innis & Gunn is a truly entrepreneurial business that has already had huge success in taking its remarkable beers to an international audience. I have known and worked with Dougal for many years and am thrilled to be joining the company at a time where the global appetite for innovative, flavour packed beers has never been greater. My goal is to further bolster the global appeal and availability of the company’s craft beer brands and contribute to the business’s mission of changing the world of beer for the better”.
