Founder gave entertaining talk at LSE recently
Business for Punks :
http://www.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2016/01/20160119t1830vOT.aspx
Scottish brewer BrewDog has agreeably released its entire recipe back catalogue, encompassing the 215 beers developed during its almost 10-year history. From humble home-brewing origins, James Watt and Martin Dickie have grown BrewDog to an international craft beer operation. Along the way, they've claimed the "world's …
In these days of bitter IP battles, it's easy to forget that it isn't always what's in a product that inspires customer and brand loyalty; sometimes it's the way that you do business and the way you present yourself that makes all the difference. Hats off to these guys for having the confidence to do this.
Also, beer!
I love both BrewDog and Black Sheep style beers.
technically, what BrewDog do are more American style* 'craft beet' as opposed to traditional 'real ale'. The differences between them are fairly subtle yet can be highly political - CAMRA seem to have a real bee in the bonnet about this style of drink. As I'm a BrewDog shareholder and a CAMRA member, I sometimes think I should be punching myself in the face.
CAMRA should concern themselves with helping independent brewers respond to the inadequacies of products churned out by the likes of Diageo and InBev insrtead of vilifying other equally passionate brewers with slightly different ideas of what can be done.
* IMPORTANT : This is modern 'American Style', typically highly flavourful and heavily hopped, strong beer as opposed to the swill that many people associate with American beer.
I went to a blind beer tasting recently, there was a homebrew, micro brewery and a mass produced beer. Most of us preferred the homebrew, the micro brewery one was interesting but very unusual and not to most peoples taste. The mass produced one was OK, but lost out by a long shot to the home brew.
I was very surprised to find that the mass produced was a Brew Dog beer, reading that post about CAMRA I can now see why they did that. I certainly would not compare B.G. to what I'd call mass produced.
I think that was one of the (hopefully!) smartest thing these guys have done!!
They ARE going to get ripped-off by other brewers out there, but it got my notice - just placed an order for £130 of beer from them :)
Why?
1. I *LOVE* beer!
2. Reading their web-pages made me feel that they are the "good guys", and I want to support them. Especially as the few of beers I've tried in the past have had really interesting flavours.
3. Did I mention that I love beer...?
Thanks BrewDog, "You da Man! Er, Men!!" :D
https://www.brewdog.com/lowdown/blog/nailing-our-colours-to-the-motherfucking-mast
Those guys are alright.
Call me a killjoy, but I for one finds their 'marketing for punks' really rather annoying.I know it's Friday but everyone here seems so enthusiastic and I can't fathom why.
I was quite disappointed the last couple of times I had their beers. A Punk IPA that tasted like flat fruit juice. And their draught lager is really just a plain boring lager. If you want to try a nice lager from a Scottish brewery, Harviestoun's Schiehallion is a much better choice. The Williams Brothers lager isn't bad either.
Then there's also this in the news today:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/14304753.Cheers__Glasgow_pub_allows_your__dug__to_have_a_pint/
*sigh*
That recipe book is cool though - I'll definitely pass it on to some people I know do home brewing.
I'd also add that their founder has in the past displayed what I can only call a proclivity to questionable business ethics. Not the marketing bombast which he so obviously loves (and is very good at) but the 'not acting like a dick towards business colleagues and partners' thing.
Yes, that is the sound of an axe being ground you can hear so I'll say no more about it other than I'd advise being very careful before entering into any more complex than a transaction to buy one of their beers in a pub/supermarket.
Anon because etc.
www.wildbeerco.com - Very interesting stufff
They came to the pub on Wednesday to judge the Bread & Pickles competiton. And to drink beer, of course - we had a Wild Beer Tap Takeover :-)
But if you're going to spell "stuff" with three "f"s, you might want to look towards Four Marks...
Vic.
BrewDog are opening up a pub in April.
We're doing well for pubs at present - the Butcher's Hook, the Overdraft, the Bookshop and others. It's a fine time to be drinking beer :-)
Vic.
Hrm...
Did they OPEN SOURCE it, or release it under a Creative Commons license of some sort, such as, say, a Share Alike Noncommercial?
The difference is important, because if they fully Opensourced it, there's literally nothing to stop, say, those wankers who own Budweiser or someone from cooking right out of their recipe book at industrial scale and flogging it.
Have you considered the possibility that they might regard getting Anheuser-Busch InBev or similar to produce this sort of beer as the world's most massive fucking win of all time?
There are people out there who just like to share stuff and are prepared to do so without your having to sit through a tedious lecture on what their idea of the meaning of the word "share" actually is.
Given their virulently angry stance towards Anheuser-Busch InBev and other big beer companies which buy up craft beer breweries and gut their carcasses to sell expensive pisswater under their names in order to sleaze their regular pisswater into the shelves of stores that were otherwise perfectly happy selling the craft beers?
I considered it, and rejected it. It seems to me that BrewDog are going to be kicking themselves in the head if Anheuser-Busch InBev starts proudly brewing their beers - or worse, inferior versions of their beers - with the label "Right out of BrewDog's recipe book - and cheaper!"
I am involved in opening a high-end hotel which will eventually brew its own beer. Beers from this book will definitely be in our starting lineup, and we will have the printed book available for our guests to browse at the bar, we hope this will provide benefits back to BrewDog by allowing people to try the beer in a place that it would not have been available before.
Like all open source projects, it may be a while before they see a monetary effect but the influence will run deep.
Congrats and thanks BrewDog, this is a forward-thinking way of doing business.