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A“Cane to Cask” rum producer with a commitment to sustainability and a focus on high-quality raw materials, Matugga aims to leave an indelible mark on the international drinks marketplace.

Background

Husband and wife team, Paul and Jacine Rutasikwa, co-founded the Matugga Distillery in 2018, and were one of the first in the UK to produce rum from scratch. Based in Livingston the Matugga Distillery produces a multi-award-winning range of handcrafted spirits with distinctive character and flavours which are distributed across the UK and Europe.

The company is also developing a sugar cane estate on family land in Uganda that will employ and train local agricultural workers. By harvesting cane from its family land and converting it into high quality distilling molasses the company will become a “Cane to Cask” rum producer. With a commitment to sustainability and a focus on high-quality raw materials, Matugga aims to leave an indelible mark on the international drinks marketplace.

Matugga’s initiatives detailed below, supported by Interface’s introductions to academia and various funds, showcase the distillery’s commitment to sustainability, innovation, and social responsibility.

The Challenge – Pot Ale Utilisation

A pressing issue for Matugga is the management of liquid by-products, a challenge since their inception in 2018. Facing escalating disposal costs and a potential surge in liquid volume due to expansion plans, Matugga partnered with Heriot-Watt University. Through the Food & Drink Net Zero Challenge Fund, they explored sustainable alternatives for pot ale, including potential uses in animal feed and biogas, offering additional income streams.

The Solution

Heriot-Watt University’s research looked into characterizing Matugga’s pot ale, proposing solutions that added value while considering the environmental impact. The exploration encompassed biogas, feed/food applications, and new product feedstock potential. The goal was to create a sustainable value chain for pot ale, akin to Scotch whisky distillers.

The research led by Heriot-Watt University provides Matugga with a sustainable solution for pot ale, aligning with their commitment to environmental responsibility. This breakthrough has far-reaching implications for both Matugga and the wider Scottish rum distillery community.

The Benefits

A potential path has been identified which can enable Matugga to return their pot ale into the value chain similar to how Scotch whisky distillers can, ensuring sustainability.

This not only benefits Matugga’s expansion plans but also holds promise for other current and future Scottish rum distilleries.

Overall Impact

Interface have been instrumental in assisting Matugga Distillers with several other research and development opportunities which include:

Matugga’s initiatives, supported by Interface’s introductions to academia and various funds, showcase the distillery’s commitment to sustainability, innovation, and social responsibility.

Matugga Distillery’s journey is a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation, and sustainability in the spirits industry. Through strategic partnerships and leveraging Interface’s support, Matugga has not only overcome challenges but has emerged as a leader, setting new standards for environmentally conscious and socially responsible distilleries in the UK.

The Net Zero Food & Drink Challenge Fund

The Net Zero Food & Drink Challenge Fund was launched in FY2022/23 by Interface and the Scotland Food and Drink Partnership to support businesses to accelerate their journey towards Net Zero utilising the knowledge base across Scottish Academia. It funded 17 projects of up to £10k each.

Projects were carried out between businesses and academia to improve their environmental credentials through the sustainable measures and learnings taken as a result of their projects. Type of impacts have varied from CO2 Capture, CO2 reduction, Energy Reduction and renewable energy benefits, alternative uses and adding value to waste, and sustainable farming techniques.

Background

Family-owned Arbikie Distilling Ltd is aiming to be one of the world’s most sustainable distillers.

The Arbikie Highland Estate distillery is a genuine field-to-bottle operation – the ingredients for all their spirits are planted, sown, grown and harvested on the farm within a stone’s throw of the distillery. Records show distilling on this site dating back to 1794 – it is the field-to-bottle culture used by these ancient distillers that inspired Arbikie’s distilling ethos. Premium spirits can only come from the highest quality ingredients and drawing from decades of farming experience, they grow all the raw materials to make their award-winning range of whisky, vodka and gin.

The Arbikie Highland Estate has always been farmed with absolute respect for the land. The addition of a distillery has not changed their commitment to minimising any environmental impact.

The soon-to-be hydrogen-powered distillery at their Angus farm has always had a focus on sustainability. Production began in 2014 with the goal to add value to the potatoes which were deemed to be too ‘wonky’ for the farm’s bigger customers. Tattie Bogle Potato Vodka was born and from there they have gone on to release a range of award-winning gins, vodka and whisky including their climate positive Nàdar spirits made from peas.

The Challenge

The Scotch Whisky Association has set an ambitious target for the Scotch Whisky industry to reach carbon neutrality by 2040.  In order for the industry to reach this goal it is vital that sustainability is improved across the supply chain, including both agricultural practices and malting.

To reach these sustainability goals Arbikie needed to look beyond the distilleries four walls and consider both upstream and downstream emission sources. A major contributor to the carbon footprint of barley-based alcoholic beverages such as Scotch Whisky is tied within agricultural practices (e.g., the use of nitrogen-based fertilisers) and in the processing of raw barley into malt. Conservation barley varieties have been introduced into the farm rotation as they are known to have the potential to reduce emissions, whilst utilising low input agricultural regimes. The challenge addressed here was to look further down the production chain and producing malt from these varieties in a more sustainable way.

The Solution

Funding through The Scottish Food & Drink Net Zero Challenge Fund, from Scotland Food and Drink, administered by Interface allowed the collaboration between Arbikie Distilling Ltd and Heriot-Watt University’s International Centre for Brewing and Distilling (ICBD), to take place.  

The project focused on characterising the behaviour of conservation barleys upon exposure to industry-typical malting regimes and sought to exploit some of the known resilience present in such barley to reduce water and energy input into malt production.  Within its scope, the project successfully identified conservation barley varieties that could be used to produce malt of favourable quality.  Further, the results indicated that malt quality was similar between the typical and low input regime, highlighting potential for reduced input malt production.

Bringing together Arbikie’s knowledge of agriculture with Heriot-Watt’s malting expertise has resulted in the inherent qualities of older barley varieties being applied to the malting process to successfully develop lower input regimes.

Benefits

The Scottish Food and Drink Net Zero Challenge Fund

This project benefitted from The Scottish Food & Drink Net Zero Challenge Fund, a key initiative of the Scottish Government’s Industry Recovery Plan, first launched by Scotland Food & Drink Partnership and Interface in October 2021, with the aim of encouraging businesses to take action on their environmental impacts through collaborative projects with Scottish universities in order to accelerate their journey to net zero. The fund supported 17 projects across a range of sustainability themes and companies.