LOCATIONS
Innovation Lab, Chatham Ontario
Innovation Lab
712 Richmond St, Unit D
Chatham, Ontario, N7M 5J5
This dedicated R&D center focuses on product development, process optimization, and next-generation technologies.
The 9,500-square-foot (883-square-meter) facility supports both our distillery operations and our customers by addressing complex quality and process questions, optimizing yields, and developing customer-driven specifications and product solutions.
Roughly 90% of its work is customer-facing, helping customers troubleshoot complex issues, refine product specifications, and design solutions that meet demanding regulatory and performance requirements.
The Innovation Lab focuses on new products, tighter sensory specifications, impurity profiles, and long-term process improvements, so our core operations can continue to meet the highest quality standards.
We stay ahead of the curve by regularly adding new innovative tools and techniques that advance our inhouse capabilities. Recent additions include advanced analytical instruments that allow us to characterize complex impurity profiles and support high-quality products like the detection of parts per billion (ppb) levels of 23 elements in 15 matrices.
Sensory science is a core strength of the Innovation Lab and a key part of real-world product evaluation.
Because panelists integrate aroma, taste, and mouthfeel—not just a single signal—sensory analysis is particularly well suited to evaluating products the way customers experience them.
Sensory testing enables the team to map how trace congeners and other compounds contribute to a product’s sensory profile, helping customers refine specifications and ensure consistent sensory performance over time. Panels can detect compounds at extremely low concentrations.
Capabilities and Focus
• Chemistry and process catalysts
• Impurity assessment and mitigation
• Analytical and sensory requirements for high-purity products
• Process optimization and yield improvement for distillery operations
• Long-term efficiency projects through a dedicated engineering group
Key facility details include
• Capacity to assess over 30 weekly tests and up to 140 sensory samples
• 1,600-square-foot laboratory
• Four dedicated ~180-square-foot experimentation rooms
• 400 square feet of cold storage
The Innovation Lab Team
The Innovation Lab is staffed by a team of seven scientists and analysts, supported by engineering and operations colleagues. The team’s expertise spans:
• Fermentation & biotechnology
• Chemical & Process engineering, chemistry of blends
• Analytical chemistry and advanced instrumentation
• Sensory science and panel management
• Applied R&D for new products and customer-driven specifications
