A new cloud-based spirit management system has said it is transforming the way distilleries and cask management companies around the world manage their production and maturation processes.

Co-founded in Speyside, Scotland by digital expert – and Elgin native – Stephen Hamilton, Vapour is a “cutting-edge digital platform that provides an innovative digital-first solution” to augment traditional methods used in spirit production and maturation, offering unparalleled traceability and transparency from crop to cask.

The innovative platform, developed alongside industry experts, is enabling brands like Brewdog Distilling and Lochlea Distillery to track their products’ entire lifecycle with a mobile device, from raw material intake to cask maturation and beyond.

By capturing data at every stage of the production and maturation processes, Vapour creates a comprehensive record of provenance, allowing distilleries to monitor quality, track changes, and gain valuable insights into their spirits’ unique journey. This traceability is built into the platform from the moment it is used.

Vapour offers a flexible pricing model tailored to the needs of all sizes of business, making it an accessible and cost-effective solution at a time where value is of utmost importance.

Co-founder and CTO at Vapour, Stephen Hamilton, said: “We have developed Vapour in collaboration with leading industry experts, ensuring that the platform addresses the specific operational challenges of running a distillery or maturing and bottling spirit. A key aspect of our philosophy is that we don’t ask you to do anything different than you do today – it’s as simple as recording your existing activities in Vapour.

“We’re proud to say that in just a few short years since launching, we now have customers as far afield as Australia using Vapour, and our customer base across Europe has expanded significantly too. The nature of the product means it’s extremely quick to set up for customers anywhere in the world and can be done remotely from our base in Scotland.

“It is not just a digital record, we are digitising operations within distilleries and in turn giving them scalable, efficient and detailed support at every stage of production. It is fantastic to have clients like Brewdog Distilling, Lochlea Distillery and Scotch Whisky Investments on board who we’ve worked with to enhance and craft the platform to meet the needs of our clients.

We have also developed important industry partnerships such as Clyde Associated Engineers, a major supplier for fluid handling businesses like our distillery and maturation customers, to automate and digitise data capture on the distillery or warehouse floor.

“As is the nature of the product, we can easily adapt and add new functionality to Vapour based on feedback from our customers. We are in the relatively early stages of bringing Vapour to the world, but we feel hugely optimistic about the future.”

John Campbell, Production Director at Lochlea Distillery, and legendary former distillery manager at Laphroaig stated:“Having previous experience of the traditional technology used in large volume spirit producers, I was immediately impressed with the Vapour platform from day one with how easy it has been to use and embed into our processes in the distillery.

“The fact that Vapour is a digital platform means that wherever I am in the world, I can have an instant overview of what’s happening at the distillery across Production, Maturation, and soon our Bottling processes. Our inventory management and traceability have never been as good as they are now. The depth of utility and flexibility offered by Vapour is ideal for us and I’m sure many other spirits businesses.”