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

I was slightly surprised to find PunkIPA as the UK entry on the menu of international beers in a pub in Kawasaki.
That reminds me that I really liked the Brewdog bar in Tokyo when I was there last year. It's tucked away just off the main drag in Roppongi, so it's not the cheapest obvs, but at least it wasn't full of pissed Brits. I don't know if the staff were well paid or not, or if they were expected to serve people who'd already had enough, but I was on holiday so frankly didn't care.
 
That reminds me that I really liked the Brewdog bar in Tokyo when I was there last year. It's tucked away just off the main drag in Roppongi, so it's not the cheapest obvs, but at least it wasn't full of pissed Brits. I don't know if the staff were well paid or not, or if they were expected to serve people who'd already had enough, but I was on holiday so frankly didn't care.
There's bars that will serve clearly pissed folks, and there's bars that won't. Roppongi does have a reputation, but it's been a while since last there.
 
That reminds me that I really liked the Brewdog bar in Tokyo when I was there last year. It's tucked away just off the main drag in Roppongi, so it's not the cheapest obvs, but at least it wasn't full of pissed Brits. I don't know if the staff were well paid or not, or if they were expected to serve people who'd already had enough, but I was on holiday so frankly didn't care.
With the exchange rate atm, bars and restaurants in Japan are very cheap for us. A lovely ramen for six quid. Lunch in a diner three pounds fifty. A standard beer in a bar for about three quid. A full meal in an izakaya for maybe 20-30 quid, with drinks.

There are a few craft ale places there now, but they're quite a bit more expensive. Even so, a bottle of Chimay Red in Kawasaki was about a fiver. It's cheaper than the UK for sure, but the pound is worth about 30 per cent more than it was a few years ago.

Minimum wage in Tokyo is about 1,200 yen. So fuck all really. Dunno what a realistic living wage would be. More than that.
 
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That reminds me that I really liked the Brewdog bar in Tokyo when I was there last year. It's tucked away just off the main drag in Roppongi, so it's not the cheapest obvs, but at least it wasn't full of pissed Brits. I don't know if the staff were well paid or not, or if they were expected to serve people who'd already had enough, but I was on holiday so frankly didn't care.
Got to say that when I was in Tokyo, visiting a Brewdog - or any British themed pub - was just about at the absolute bottom of my list of things to do.
 
Nah, this is all marketing. It's a keg beer, as long as the lines aren't chock fill of filth or something then one pint will be exactly like the next. There's nothing unique about it that makes it particularly variable compared to any other beer at all.

not so, says the London Guinness pub du jour...


"There’s also been an increased awareness in the varying quality of Guinness, thanks to the likes of the Shit London Guinness Instagram account, where Corkman Ian Ryan shames publicans serving sloppy, bubbly pints in the capital. Rogers, who made Mayfair’s Guinea Grill a hub for great Guinness long before the boom, takes the whole thing incredibly seriously. “We built the pub around the Guinness installation,” he says. “Nobody’s really done it properly in the UK. Because there’s never been the investment from the pubs, or the owners of businesses to do it properly. In every other pub that I know in the UK, the Guinness comes through the same cooler as the lagers, which makes it too cold. And they use the same gas. And they use the same companies to put a basic system in and they use simpler, cheaper equipment. And you can tell in the taste. We spent a lot of money on it, and I am fuckin’ delighted that it works because it was a massive risk.” While most pubs in the UK spit Guinness out at a ratio of 70:30 nitrogen to carbon dioxide, The Devonshire does 82:18, which gives it the creamy head that’s closer to what you typically find in Ireland."
 
not so, says the London Guinness pub du jour...


"There’s also been an increased awareness in the varying quality of Guinness, thanks to the likes of the Shit London Guinness Instagram account, where Corkman Ian Ryan shames publicans serving sloppy, bubbly pints in the capital. Rogers, who made Mayfair’s Guinea Grill a hub for great Guinness long before the boom, takes the whole thing incredibly seriously. “We built the pub around the Guinness installation,” he says. “Nobody’s really done it properly in the UK. Because there’s never been the investment from the pubs, or the owners of businesses to do it properly. In every other pub that I know in the UK, the Guinness comes through the same cooler as the lagers, which makes it too cold. And they use the same gas. And they use the same companies to put a basic system in and they use simpler, cheaper equipment. And you can tell in the taste. We spent a lot of money on it, and I am fuckin’ delighted that it works because it was a massive risk.” While most pubs in the UK spit Guinness out at a ratio of 70:30 nitrogen to carbon dioxide, The Devonshire does 82:18, which gives it the creamy head that’s closer to what you typically find in Ireland."

The Devonshire's got some serious marketing going on at the moment. Almost everywhere you look in the London food/drink scene media you get whacked with something about it.
 
Yeah no hype there.
Sure but some actual specifics too.

I’ve been wondering about the Guinness thing recently and was generally in the ‘marketing hype’ camp - the waiting a minute to pour the second half of the pint seems to have been scientifically analysed to make almost certainly no real difference - but interesting to see some specific claims for a change from someone with a good track record.
 
Got to say that when I was in Tokyo, visiting a Brewdog - or any British themed pub - was just about at the absolute bottom of my list of things to do.
It wasn't on my list at all, I just went to it as it was close to where I was staying. I went lots of other places too, like you do. But I won't mention them as this is a thread about Brewdog.
 
I'm sure that the corporate business would say that the 'towers' were for sharing and that may equate to a table of 4 people merely having their 'last orders' pint, but I can't imagine that at 11pm that sort of thing was being actively or effectively managed.
I’ve never heard of a beer tower. I would have thought cheap shot deals are more potentially dangerous tbh
 
I’ve never heard of a beer tower. I would have thought cheap shot deals are more potentially dangerous tbh
In whatever form it takes, it's all excessive alcohol that no shithouse manager should be forcing their bar staff to sell to clearly intoxicated customers.

Throw in the racist, sexist, ableist, bullying, unsafe, toxic workplace that leaves exhausted, exploited workers feeling unsafe and in tears and you've got plenty of reasons to be permanently staying away from Brewdog,
 
I've skipped a few months of posts here so this probably has been covered but...

I went into the one in Waterloo at the weekend - around 11pm only a smattering of people around and absolutely no atmosphere - what few people there were were spread out very thinly

Went down the slide (quite a good slide tbf, I went down a couple of times), but with that, the ping pong tables and the general layout and décor it felt like the office of a mid-2000s tech company.

Fucked off pretty sharpish (having paid £7.60 a pint!) - won't be going back in a hurry.

Mercato Metropolitano down the road was also a huge sprawling place but was packed and had a much better atmosphere - also bloody expensive mind but at least sub £7 a pint (can't believe I'm typing that as a good thing!).

Much better places to drink than both tbf
 
I've skipped a few months of posts here so this probably has been covered but...

I went into the one in Waterloo at the weekend - around 11pm only a smattering of people around and absolutely no atmosphere - what few people there were were spread out very thinly

Went down the slide (quite a good slide tbf, I went down a couple of times), but with that, the ping pong tables and the general layout and décor it felt like the office of a mid-2000s tech company.

Fucked off pretty sharpish (having paid £7.60 a pint!) - won't be going back in a hurry.
Yeah, it's eyewateringly expensive, even by London standards. If you're in Waterloo, The Hole in the Wall is the pub to head for.
 
Given all the performance about not "supporting" Brewdog it's interesting that actively supporting and promoting the Royal Family is seen as acceptable when choosing drinking venues.
What a curious post. Who do you think is supporting and promoting the RF?
 
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