Scottish craft brewer Innis & Gunn gets new U.S. importer

Traditional Scottish beer is full of malty majesty. Scotland has a wonderful climate for growing all kinds of grains, so it produces really good malt, but it’s a terrible climate for growing hops. There’s just not enough day length. So, traditionally, Scotland brewers haven’t used a lot of hops because hops had to be brought up from the south of England or the continent, and because the English can be stone-cold jerks, they didn’t share. The result: Awesome, malt-focused beers.

Innis & Gunn (out of Edinburgh, Scotland) is a great example. Innis & Gunn Original is its flagship beer, and it’s super malt-focused and super delish. In fact, we hear the stuff is award winning. How can you get some of this trophy-earning, malty beer? Well, the independent Scottish brewer just announced a new partnership with United States Beverage to import the brewer’s innovative portfolio of oak-aged craft beers to America (sorry, didn’t we mention that all their beers are oak aged?). The move looks to bolster the brand’s ambitious plans for long-term growth into new U.S. states and greater brand awareness within the craft-centric U.S. market.

The Innis & Gunn brands had previously been imported and managed by the brewer’s affiliate, Innis & Gunn USA. Here’s what the bigwigs had to say about the move:

Dougal Sharp, founder and master brewer of Innis & Gunn: “Following a thorough review of our own business within the U.S. and the fast changing U.S. beer market, we have taken the decision to partner with United States Beverage to accelerate the growth of our beers and further strengthen our position in the United States. The team at US Beverage have an exceptional track record in building brands and we are thrilled to be working with them. Working together will help us better meet the demand for Innis & Gunn products from bars, restaurants and liquor stores and allow for increased promotional programming and consumer marketing on a greater scale. Our long-standing U.S. Managing Director, Dan Deluca, who has successfully established significant distribution for our brands, will continue in his role with Innis & Gunn and support the growth of our brands through the new partnership with United States Beverage.”

Justin Fisch, VP/general manager of United States Beverage: “We are honored to partner with the Innis & Gunn team as our companies share like aspirations. Innis & Gunn has built an innovative and exceptional craft beer brand that provides differentiation and excitement to the highly competitive U.S. beer market. We are fully committed to ensuring its future success in the US market.”

Here’s another rad read: We discuss quality control with the barrel-aging experts at Innis & Gunn.

The transition from Innis & Gunn USA operations to United States Beverage will take place April 1. At that time all responsibilities for U.S. sales, marketing and distribution will be handled by United States Beverage.