Port of Leith Distillery has hit a £2m crowdfunding goal and has now raised around £12m to help complete construction of its nine-storey vertical distillery project.
The company reached its target on Seedrs after only being live on the platform for less than 24 hours. While still open to further investment, it should now have enough to get the whisky production side of things finished by Christmas.
Founder a co-chief executive Paddy Fletcher told Insider that fit out of the bar, shop and tasting rooms should follow in early 2023, with a grand opening by March.
"Fundraising sometimes seems like a never-ending river of cash needed to build these kind of things, but we really enjoy it actually.
"I used to be terrified of the process, but the more you raise, the easier it gets," he explains. "You have an excuse to talk about the business with people you wouldn't normally interact with."
The 28,000 sq ft site is right on the Port of Leith, next to Royal Yacht Britannia and Ocean Terminal Shopping centre.
"It was just a tiny scrap of land that we found, so the only way we could work with it was to build up," says Fletcher. "But doing it vertically we can save some energy, with water moving down through the distillation process using only gravity.
"It will affect the character of the spirit - although we're not sure how yet - by not having to pump things horizontally, so there's less messing with the liquids," he continues, adding: "We're trying to create a delicate, floral spirit by using yeast in the fermentation process too, trying to show that different yeast strains have different impacts on the flavour - rather than most of it just being down to the wood barrels."
The company behind the plans, Muckle Brig, was set up by life-long friends Fletcher and Ian Stirling, who both grew up in Edinburgh.
The duo are also in charge of the Lind & Lime Distillery, which rolled up the shutters at a new site - also in Leith - last month.
This will allow the company to welcome up to 10,000 visitors to a tour and tasting experience and increase bottling capacity to around one million per year, having installed a new 1,000 litre still.
"We're still bottling mostly by hand though," notes Fletcher. "In the long run we may have to move bottling out of here, but for the time being we love that it's all done in Leith by our team."
This team is at least partially made up of students from Heriot Watt University's International Centre for Brewing and Distilling, which the company set up a long-term partnership with a few years back. "It's been a fantastic recruiting ground for us, with a lot of staff coming through the degree programme as bottlers and seasonal tour guides, before moving into more permanent roles," says Fletcher.
"This trading business also really helps with fundraising, as it gives an idea of revenues, etc, rather than just having a pit of money and nothing to sell; given whisky's long maturation lead time."
Lind & Lime co-founder Stirling added: "We began in a small industrial unit on Tower Street in 2018 with the sole aim of creating a benchmark classic style of gin, but since launching, our feet have barely touched the ground and we have struggled to meet demand.
"We’d been searching for a larger facility for some time, and we were incredibly fortunate to secure the former Sports Warehouse on Coburg Street.
"Following a £600,000 fit-out, which began in October 2021, we’ve invested carefully to make this building as environmentally efficient as possible, and we will continue to power production with 100% green electricity."
The distillery plans were originally submitted to Edinburgh City Council in 2017 and include a rooftop bar and restaurant.
Early funding came from a range of international private investors and whisky connoisseurs, including two unnamed drinks industry chief executives. The project is being built by specialist Scottish firms, including constructors Colorado Group - which built Raasay and Kingsbarns distilleries - alongside process engineers Allen Associates and Threesixty Architecture from Glasgow.
The mash tuns and tanks will be by LH Stainless, while the copper stills are already being hand-crafted by the Speyside Copper Works in Elgin.
"We can really push the boat out with the design because we're not tied to any historical legacy, so the building becomes the brand and the marketing flows from there," added Fletcher.
The distillery is supporting more than 30 jobs during construction - including six staff in the distillery team - and should create around 50 long-term jobs once complete.
Don't miss the latest headlines with our twice-daily newsletter - sign up here for free.
