BrewDog: yet another hip company using 'rebel' language to sell its stuff

[pogofish]

The move is in fact a huge dilution of existing shareholders' rights. The founders have basically cashed out leaving a huge millstone around the company' future profitability. And walked away with £100m.

From what I'm being told about their AGM at the weekend is that that by 4pm, the attending shareholders would have voted for just about anything except more beer because they were so pissed!

I've had to let the original shareholder here go home for the rest of the day because he's still so obviously suffering an almighty hangover - and he's a big beery lad, well used to a good bucket!

 

[equationgirl]

Not very punk, is it, to sell their equity to a US private equity firm? Of course, they were never in it for the money...

 

[not-bono-ever]

Pete Brown: Why I can't get too excited about BrewDog's big 'sell out'

An advertising exec writes....

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Scrumpy-making farmer not 'inspired by Brew Dog'

A FARMER whose bright orange cider makes you shit yourself is not inspired by Brew Dog, he has confirmed.

Arable farmer and part-time cider maker Tom Logan said he has no plans to build up and then sell his drinks-making business, and does not have a brand other than a hand-made sign on the roadside that says ‘Scrumpy’.


He said: “We get the apples, make the cider, then put it in plastic petrol-type containers, some of which have previously had petrol in.

“We have no shareholders because I only take cash, which goes straight in my pocket. The price varies depending on my mood. Sometime I take £25 a week.

“Personally I don’t drink our cider because it’s fucking horrible and apparently it can make you go blind, but some people seem to like it. Christ knows why.

“We don’t really have a business model other than ‘sell cider’. I don’t have a handsome youthful face, tattoos, or a friendly welcoming grin that says ‘please like me’.

“If you want cider, I have cider. Otherwise, stay away.”

He added: “Craft beer is for dickheads.”

 

[gawkrodger]

a mate writes


A BrewDog investor's tale: How the 'punk' dream faded to be replaced with wads of cash from chaos

 

[editor]

A BrewDog investor's tale: How the 'punk' dream faded to be replaced with wads of cash from chaos

Spot on:

Then, in the last few months, things really started to go sour: friends complained on social media about being asked to leave BrewDog in Glasgow because of their attire: they were punks, and dressed as such.

A story about the legal action brought against a small bar in Birmingham that happened to share the same name – Lone Wolf – as a vodka BrewDog had yet to bring to market went viral.

And, finally, the last straw: BrewDog had threatened a small bar wanting to call itself Draft Punk, claiming intellectual ownership of the term 'punk'.

 

[William of Walworth]

A FARMER whose bright orange cider makes you shit yourself is not inspired by Brew Dog

No connection withThatchers Cheddar Valley then ...

 

[J Ed]

Brewdog are expanding into the US apparently, which is something I don't really get. Now that they've 'sold out' on even the very modest small shareholder capitalism thing that was central to their marketing, what are they selling themselves on exactly? There are plenty of US breweries, some very prominent, that are actually run as worker co-operatives. In terms of the less important aspect, the beer itself, is there a niche in the US for a British company whose brewing technique was to brew US-style IPAs at a time when they were less prominent in Britain?

It all seems a bit selling coal to Newcastle, then again bizarrely Newcastle Brown Ale actually does well in the US.

 

[phillm]

WTF - their book is no 1 on the Amazon Anarchism book list.

Business for Punks: Break All the Rules - the BrewDog Way: Amazon.co.uk: James Watt: 9780241290118: Books

I like this comment about James Watt ;

James Watt is a man full of certainties. In fact, if you don't do things the James Watt way you are a fool, imbecile, idiot, stupid muppet, clown or moron - and those are just the polite words he uses. If you don't do things the James Watt way and you happen to work for a large company and wear a suit you are a 'corporate android'. No ifs and buts, that's just how things are.

Aside from the know-it-all arrogance - he quotes famous people like Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw and Kurt Cobain, but quotes himself at the end of each chapter in larger, white on black characters - there are also a number of contradictions in the book.

For instance, he tells you right at the beginning to forget about business plans and calls an acquaintance of his who worked for too long on his plan a 'number crunching clown'. Later in the book, whilst discussing financial controls, he goes to great lengths to extol the virtues of being a number crunching clown. He dislikes corporate androids, but his description of Brewdog's recruitment process appears to amount to a search for several hundred James Watt clones; a breed of super-andriods, it seemed to me. Furthermore his dislike of all things corporate does not exclude running KPI's on absolutely everything that can be measured. Finally, he screams at his audience to always be the authentic you, then uses American spellings throughout, as well as the inevitable kick-donkey expression.

 

[phillm]

WORLD U75 PREMIER - A DECADE OF DOG

 

[YouSir]

Brewdog are expanding into the US apparently, which is something I don't really get. Now that they've 'sold out' on even the very modest small shareholder capitalism thing that was central to their marketing, what are they selling themselves on exactly? There are plenty of US breweries, some very prominent, that are actually run as worker co-operatives. In terms of the less important aspect, the beer itself, is there a niche in the US for a British company whose brewing technique was to brew US-style IPAs at a time when they were less prominent in Britain?

It all seems a bit selling coal to Newcastle, then again bizarrely Newcastle Brown Ale actually does well in the US.

He'll be flogging a British Punk 'ethos' no doubt, on the assumption that it won't be as blatantly transparent there yet as it is here. Beer is a side note to branding.

 

[editor]

WORLD U75 PREMIER - A DECADE OF DOG

Like a Tory party political broadcast. I wonder if this is timed to hit back at all their negative PR?

 

[equationgirl]

Like a Tory party political broadcast. I wonder if this is timed to hit back at all their negative PR?

I would be surprised if it wasn't.

 

[MrSki]

No connection withThatchers Cheddar Valley then ...

Well I had a couple of Cheddar valleys & got the shits.

 

[hash tag]

This is proper craft beer like and certainly a way of keeping children away from it at just £13+ per pint in a trendy London pub.

London pub criticised for charging more than £13 for a pint

 

[killer b]

It's a 9% beer made by a small(ish) brewer - isn't that what you'd expect to pay in London? They shouldn't be selling it by the pint anyway.

 

[killer b]

How much for a pint of wine, barkeep? £20? That's outrageous, Carling is only £4.20!

 

[hash tag]

£20 for a cheap small glass of wine.

 

[killer b]

9% is barley wine - it's a higher duty rate, and takes more ingredients and resources to make than a 4% beer. It isn't cheap, but nor is it that outrageous - a pint of normal strength craft beer has often been over a fiver since before I quit drinking 4 years ago.

As with most things, with beer you have a choice to make - you can have something mass produced out of shit quality ingredients for cheap (or often not so cheap), or you can have something made in smaller batches by skilled people out of good quality ingredients and you pay more money.

Sure there's price gougers, but the rate of pub closures in the UK (29 a week) suggests margins aren't that generous.

 

[Teaboy]

Yeah, seems a bit odd that people get worked up about this sort of thing (if anyone is) just buy something else. It's probably just a hipster marketing trick though.

 

[Tom A]

In Manchester I take it as a given that any pint of craft beer from a small brewery is usually going to coast at least £7.

 

[Pickman's model]

It's a 9% beer made by a small(ish) brewer - isn't that what you'd expect to pay in London? They shouldn't be selling it by the pint anyway.

i remember years back having a pint of barley wine in a pub, didn't think much of it at the time. but now you bring it to mind...

anyway i didn't pay for it.

 

[ViolentPanda]

i remember years back having a pint of barley wine in a pub, didn't think much of it at the time. but now you bring it to mind...

anyway i didn't pay for it.

Order one next time you're having a drink with yer pa ( Spymaster ). He HATES it when people go for double bubble on his round!

 

[campanula]

O barley wine - my preferred tipple throughout my teens, 20s and 30s (although there was a brief cider and sherry mash-up). Lovingly recall the little red bottle tops of Watney's Stingo (could pack 4 bottles in duffel coat pockets on the way home from the Queen's Head in Crouch End. When I moved to Cambridge, I seamlessly transferred to Greene King's version.
Oddly, it appears that crap breweries can manage a decent barley wine.
I am absolutely fucking certain I would not be paying £10+ a pint for it though, no matter how superlative (pokey).
Brewdog = wankers. Piss.

 

[hash tag]

I couldn't resist the urge to give this a miss in Norwich

 

[equationgirl]

I note they are trying to open a hotel next to their brewery in Aberdeenshire. With beer taps and a beer fridge in each room. Called The Doghouse.

To be fair there isn't much else to do in that part of the world apart from drink...

 

[teuchter]

To be fair there isn't much else to do in that part of the world apart from drink...

A bit snooty

 

[equationgirl]

A bit snooty

No it's not. It's a remote part of the country, with few amenities. You're just looking to pick a fight with me.

 

[teuchter]

No it's not. It's a remote part of the country, with few amenities. You're just looking to pick a fight with me.

It's not at all remote by the standards of northern scotland. But even if it was, it would still be very snooty to say that there was nothing much for people to do but drink. It's just like making jokes about welsh people and sheep.

 

[equationgirl]

It's not at all remote by the standards of northern scotland. But even if it was, it would still be very snooty to say that there was nothing much for people to do but drink. It's just like making jokes about welsh people and sheep.

I lived in NE Scotland for a few years, I'm well aware of the area thank you.