Edinburgh Gin celebrate the International Science Festival with social media crowdsourced gin

How can you combine social media with one of Scotland’s oldest traditions, distilling? Edinburgh Gin has the answer. Edinburgh Gin is celebrating the Edinburgh International Science Festival (1-16 April) with ‘Distilling Live’, a live gin distilling with recipes crowdsourced from three social media platforms.

The world’s first and Europe’s biggest science festival invites audiences to get connected this year as it explores what it means to live in the information age. This digital connection and the festival’s programme strand, ‘Sociable Science’ provided inspiration for Edinburgh Gin to devise an innovative distilling event connecting science with social media.

In what is believed to be a first in gin-making, ‘Distilling Live’ will see Edinburgh Gin create three new, small batch gins using the recipes crowdsourced from each social media platform.

The campaign to crowdsource the botanicals used in the recipes starts on Monday 13^th March. Gin-lovers will be able to vote for their favourite botanicals via Edinburgh Gin’s social media accounts.  Voting will start on Edinburgh Gin’s Facebook page and last for 7 days before moving onto Edinburgh Gin’s Twitter account for the next 7 days and then finally Edinburgh Gin’s Instagram account for another 7 days.

On Saturday 8^th April at Edinburgh Gin’s Biscuit Factory distillery in Leith, ticket holders will see, first-hand, Head Distiller at Edinburgh Gin, David Wilkinson create three new crowdsourced gins during this live distilling, streamed on social media.

During the event, David Wilkinson will give a comprehensive overview of the science of distillation and host a tutored tasting of Edinburgh’s gin range, before giving the live audience the chance to sample the specially created gins once the distillation process is complete. The event will be live streamed through Edinburgh Gin’s Facebook page.