Current Research in Brewing and Distilling

Joel Saunderson graduated from an MSc in Brewing and Distillation at Heriot-Watt in 2020 having spent years crafting his skills initially as a home brewer.  After graduation Joel went on to start his own small brewery alongside a fellow HW graduate before becoming a technical brewer for William Bros in Alloa, one of the largest craft breweries in Scotland.  Having developed a passion for research during the master's program, Joel has now moved on to pursue a PhD within the brewing industry over the next four years.

Joel's PhD is centred around the stability and instability of haze within craft beers such as New England and West Coast IPA's.  With a global increase in demand for this style of beer over the past 10+ years, it has become apparent that haze is not consistent across the board in brands which can lead to a drop in flavour and aroma with consumer dissatisfaction a major concern.  By understanding what makes up beer haze, Joel's research aims to correct this issue and provide the knowledge to deliver a much more consistent product either through processing aids or a change in production techniques.

After completing his MSc in Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University, Alan started work at the Reivers Distillery where he is now Distillery and Blend Manager. Alongside this, he is undertaking a PhD at Heriot-Watt university, where his research centres on the impact of the all grains in method of whisky production on spirit quality. All Grains In methodology is where there is no separation of grains and wort after mashing leading to a grains-on fermentation and grains-in distillation. This allows processing raw materials such as Rye which would otherwise be difficult for traditional methodology

Hannah obtained a BSc (Hons) in Microbiology from the University of Glasgow before working as a microbiologist at a blue biotechnology start-up based at the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology in Oban. She has since swapped shellfish for whisky and is currently completing a PhD at Heriot-Watt University researching the role of microorganisms in whisky flavour.

Hannah’s PhD focuses on the influence of distillery microbiota on whisky flavour. During Scotch malt whisky production, fermentation was traditionally carried out in large wooden vessels known as washbacks. Although wooden washbacks are still widely used today, many distilleries are now opting for stainless steel vessels. When comparing new make and mature spirit produced in both types of vessel, differences in levels of flavour-active methyl ketones and their corresponding ‘green’ and ‘sour’ sensory attributes were observed. This research in collaboration with the Nikka Whisky Distilling Co. aims to investigate the origin of these flavours in whisky with focus on the fungal communities present on wooden washbacks.

Barnaby graduated from the University of Manchester with an MChem in 2014, during which time he published research in the area of computational chemistry. He subsequently attained an MSc in Fermented Beverage Science and Technology from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain (2016) where he conducted research into population dynamics and flavour production in mixed-culture fermentations. Upon graduation, he worked first as Cellar Brewer, and then as Quality Control Manager at Garage Beer Co. (Barcelona). In January 2020 he started a PhD at the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling, at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh), exploring the potential of mixed yeast fermentations in brewing. He moved to Dublin in January of this year to join Whiplash Brewery as their Quality Manager.

Sally is a PhD student at Napier University whose principal research theme relates to the impact of ethanol on whisky flavour. After undertaking an MRes in this topic in conjunction with the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, the project was extended to doctoral level. She spent a number of years of practical experience working in alcohol production in across the UK, Australia, and California, and has several qualifications in the industry, including a BSc Viticulture and Oenology and an MSc Brewing and Distilling.

Sally’s PhD researched is majoring upon novel sensory techniques aiming to eliminate the disparity between whisky sampling and alcohol bias when analysing differing strengths in samples in association with the Scotch Whisky Research Institute.