Brewdog: Punks with a Point to Prove
BeerSweden’s founder Darren Packman travels to BrewDog to meet the brewing punks determined to change the way we drink beer forever.
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“How,” I asked BrewDog’s self-styled beer punk and ‘Head of Stuff’ James Watt, “is it possible for you to even try to meet the global demand for your beers with a brewery this small?”
James shrugged and replied: “It’s pretty simple really. We opened the doors to the brewery back in 2007 and we’ve never locked them since.”
Remarkably, this cutting-edge Scottish craft brewery has been creating avant-garde and controversial beers around the clock seven days a week from a cramped industrial unit, ever since the first day two young guys with a dog and a dream started BrewDog with big ambitions and even bigger bank loans.
“For the first 6 months it was just me and Martin (Martin Dickie is BrewDog’s co-founder and Head Brewer) and the dog, and we would do everything ourselves, make the beer, bottle it, do the accounts, sleep in the brewery, and drive around in a beat-up old delivery van trying to sell the beer.”
The problem was that the pubs near the brewery in Fraserburgh, a working harbour town clinging to the wind-swept east coast of Scotland, weren’t quite ready for BrewDog’s aggressively flavoured beers.
“In the beginning it was a disaster”, said James. “Some weeks we would sell just ten cases. Everyone said it was either too expensive, too hoppy, or too bitter.”
It was when they reached their lowest point that the two long-time friends entered a national UK supermarket beer contest and ended up finishing “first, second, third, and fourth.”
“It was our breakthrough moment. All of a sudden we went from 10 cases a week to having two of our beers listed in 215 stores nationwide. The problem was there was no way two guys and a dog could produce that much beer, so we put our suits back on and went back to the banks for more money.”
Despite being turned away by their own bank (the books, James admits, didn’t make for comfortable reading) they managed to bluff their way into the bank next door and arrange finance for a new bottling machine and enough fermentation vessels to meet the supermarket’s demands.
Their beers, headed by their now iconic Punk IPA brand, went on to become huge sellers, and shortly afterwards they got their first order from the Swedish alcohol monopoly Systembolaget, which today ranks as their largest single customer.
In fact, 70% of all BrewDog’s beers are exported to 27 countries, which are clambering for brands such as Tokyo, Hardcore IPA, and their infamous high-octane beers: Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismarck.
Their international success is built largely on their edgy branding and shrewd use of online media. By exploiting the Internet and social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook, BrewDog has been able to punch well above its weight to grab ‘share of throat’ among beer drinkers.
“Our past, present, and future is online,” said James. ”When you look at traditional beer advertising it’s all about how much money you’ve got. We can never compete with that.
“But online it’s not so much about how much money you have, it’s about how intelligent and engaging your content is and your ability to connect with the customer. With traditional marketing channels we would get wiped out by the big beer conglomerates, but online we can take them on and beat them.”
I recently spent two days at BrewDog, and what struck me most during my time there was the almost palpable sense of energy in the place. Beer was being brewed, bottles packed, and orders taken at frenetic speed. Everyone seemed to be smiling, as though they knew they were in at the start of something big. I remember thinking, this is what it might have felt like in the early 1970s when a group of brewers on the west coast of the USA decided to rip up the rulebook and start brewing beers they wanted to drink.
It’s exactly the same philosophy that drives James and Martin forward and ensures they will never compromise and brew bland beer.
“What we will never do,” said James “is make something which is mainstream just to get volume.”
“Our average beer is made with over 40 kilos of malted barley per barrel* (compared to the average monolithic lager which uses 12 kilos per barrel). We use 35 times more hops than an industrial brewer and over 15 times the hops of an average small UK brewer to make one barrel of BrewDog beer.
“We figure we’ll keep brewing the kinds of beers we want to brew and just see where we end up”.
When I asked James whether this was a sound business strategy he replied: “Probably not, but it hasn’t done us any harm up till now, has it?”
James may, by his own admission, be a punk – but he does have a point.
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(* A UK barrel contains 163.6 litres (approx. 43 US gallons) of beer.)
One Comment to “Brewdog: Punks with a Point to Prove”
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I loved the article as much as I love the Hardcore IPA. You are a champion of “real” beer in every which way possible. The awakening that Umea has had is all due to you and your love for beer. Well done Darren! not only the article but I applaud your ongoing war against mass produced bland shite !