BrewDog

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BrewDog
Type Independent
Industry Alcoholic beverages
Founded 2007
Headquarters Ellon, Scotland, United Kingdom
Products Beer
Owner(s) James Watt & Martin Dickie

BrewDog is a Scottish brewery located in Ellon, Aberdeenshire.

Contents

History [edit]

BrewDog was founded in 2007 by James Watt and Martin Dickie.[1] The brewery at the Kessock Industrial Estate in Fraserburgh produced its first brew in April 2007. It claims to be Scotland's largest independently owned brewery producing about 120,000 bottles per month for export all over the world.[2] The company moved premises to nearby Ellon in 2012, and the Fraserburgh site will be used as a brewing laboratory for experimental beers.[3]

Beers [edit]

A selection of Brewdog beers

BrewDog produces bottled and canned beers in a variety of styles such as ale, stout, IPA and lager, some of which are also available in keg containers.

The bottled beers are widely distributed to British supermarkets and are exported worldwide to countries including Japan, Taiwan, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, the United States of America, Canada and Australia. The kegs are available in a number of locations throughout the UK and Ireland and in a selection of countries around the world.

Prior to 2012, most of their beers were available as cask ale, but cask production was controversially phased out.

BrewDog's core range of beers include:

  • Punk IPA (5.6% ABV, previously 6.0% ABV) - a hoppy and powerful ale in the American style. Their flagship brand
  • 5am Saint (5.0% ABV) - a red ale
  • Hardcore IPA (9.2% ABV) - an extremely hoppy and strong double IPA
  • Dead Pony Club (3.8% ABV) - a hoppy californian style pale ale.
  • Libertine Black Ale (7.2% ABV) - a black ipa.

Other BrewDog beers have included:

  • Zeitgeist (4.9% ABV) - a black lager
  • Chaos Theory (7.0% ABV) - an IPA flavoured exclusively with Nelson Sauvin hops
  • Alice Porter (6.2% ABV) - a porter flavoured with vanilla
  • 77 Lager (4.7% ABV) - a pilsener-style lager
  • Trashy Blonde (4.1% ABV) - a hoppy golden ale; it was one of the most widely available cask beers in the BrewDog stable
  • The Physics (5.0% ABV) - an amber beer
  • Paradox (10% ABV) - a whisky cask aged stout available in differing editions depending on the source of the aging cask
  • Rip Tide (8% ABV) - an imperial stout, also occasionally available in a 4%abv form
  • Bashah (9% ABV) -(Black As Sin Hoppy as Hell) a hybrid of imperial stout, Belgian abbey ale and IPA, made in collaboration with Stone Brewing
  • I Hardcore You (9.5% ABV) - an imperial IPA, made by blending Brewdog's Hardcore IPA and Mikkeller's I Beat You
  • Dogma (7.8% ABV) - a heather honey infused ale
  • Tokyo* (18.2% ABV) - a very strong imperial stout
  • Tokyo Rising Sun (13.2% ABV) - a version of Tokyo (first recipe), aged in Highland or Lowland whisky barrels for 4 years, supposedly "forgotten about"
  • Nanny State (0.5% ABV) - a very weak but extremely heavily hopped bitter, brewed as a reaction to criticism of the high strength of their beers
  • Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32% ABV) - at the time, the strongest beer ever produced in a competition with German brewer Schorschbräu
  • Sink The Bismarck! (41% ABV) - at the time, the strongest beer ever produced. A quadruple IPA
  • The End of History (55% ABV) - the beer formerly known as "the world's strongest beer". Only 12 bottles released and packaged inside stuffed squirrels and stoats
  • Ghost Deer (28% ABV) - the world's strongest naturally fermented beer. Served from a mounted deer head at the BrewDog bar in Edinburgh
  • Avery Brown Dredge (7.5% ABV) - an imperial pilsner brewed in collaboration with beer writers Zak Avery, Pete Brown and Mark Dredge
  • Hardcore NZ (9.2% ABV) - a version of Hardcore IPA made using New Zealand hops
  • The Abstrakt series of experimental beers. Known only by their AB: number designation

In 2009, Tokyo* caused controversy when UK watchdog the Portman Group criticised the availability of a beer of that strength in 330 ml bottles with traditional crown corks. Since then Brewdog has produced progressively stronger beers of very high strength, and has laid claim to the title 'strongest beer ever brewed' on more than one occasion.

Late in November 2009, BrewDog launched a beer called Tactical Nuclear Penguin,[4] with 32% alcohol, which was claimed to be the strongest beer ever made.[5]

In February 2010 Brewdog announced Sink The Bismarck, an apparent 41% A.B.V.[6][7] to reclaim the World's Strongest Beer title from Schorschbräu, who had produced a 40% A.B.V. version of their Schorschbock.[8]

In July 2010, BrewDog produced a 55% A.B.V. freeze-distilled beer called The End of History, with the bottles packaged in the stuffed dead bodies of small animals, priced at £500 and £700 each.[9][10][11] Only 12 bottles were produced; 11 for retail sale, with the other one going to internet video blog BeerTapTV.[12][13] BrewDog claim that this set new records not only for alcoholic strength in a beer, but also for price. Advocates for Animals called the gimmick 'perverse'.[9] The title "strongest beer of the world" has since fallen back to Mr. Tscheuschner from the Schorschbräu brewery in Germany, whose Schorschbock 57 boasts an ABV of 57.5%.[14]

Bars [edit]

In October 2010 Brewdog opened their first bar in nearby Aberdeen, simply named BrewDog Aberdeen.[15] A second bar, BrewDog Edinburgh, opened in March 2011 located on Cowgate[16] with a third in Glasgow opening in July.[17] BrewDog Camden opened in December 2011,[18] followed by BrewDog Nottingham in the Lace Market which opened in February 2012.[19] Soon after BrewDog Newcastle opened on the 13th of April[20] with a BrewDog bar opening in Manchester on the 4th of May[21] and in Bristol at the end of October.[22] As of December 2012 a further site has launched in Birmingham.[23]

Awards [edit]

BrewDog won the 2008 Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.[24]

Paradox Grain won a Gold Medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup in the Wood and Barrel-aged Strong Beer Category.[25]

BrewDog won the Tenon Entrepreneur of the Year Award for demonstrating exceptional vision and leadership at the 2008 National Business Awards for Scotland.[26]

The Physics won World's Best Strong Pale Ale (Sub Category Winner) and Rip Tide won Worlds Best Imperial Stout (Style Trophy Winner) at the 2007 World Beer Awards, an annual competition organised by Beers of the World magazine.[27]

Hardcore IPA won Gold at the 2010 World Beer Cup in the Imperial IPA category.[28]

On 9 May 2012 Brewdog revealed that Diageo had threatened to withdraw funding from BII Scotland's annual awards if Brewdog was named winner of the Best Bar Operator award.[29][30][31]

Marketing [edit]

BrewDog's provocative marketing has been a key aspect of the business, and has gained them substantial international coverage[32]

In 2008 BrewDog were challenged by UK drinks industry watchdog the Portman Group. Portman had claimed BrewDog to be in breach of their Code of Practice.[33] BrewDog denied these allegations and countered that Portman was impeding the development of smaller brewing companies.[34] After an 8 month long dispute and a preliminary adjudication which had ruled against the company, in December 2008 BrewDog were cleared of all breaches of the Code of Practice and were permitted to continue marketing their brands without making any changes to the packaging.[35] In protest to their targeting, BrewDog introduced "Speedball", saying "...we thought we would give them something worth banning us for..." . Speedball was promptly banned by Portman[36] before being renamed as Dogma.[37]

BrewDog were also described as "...one of the prime movers..."[38] behind the campaign which changed the law in 2011 to allow new beer measures in Britain.[39]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Brewdog - About". Brewdog. Retrieved 3 February 2013. 
  2. ^ Profile of James Watt, Managing Director of BrewDog[dead link]
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2][dead link]
  5. ^ 'World's strongest' beer with 32% strength launched, BBC News 26 November 2009.
  6. ^ Sterling, Colin (16 February 2010). "Sink the Bismarck!: Brewery Releases World's Strongest Beer At 41% ABV". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 August 2010. 
  7. ^ "Sink the Bismarck! by BrewDog". YouTube. 16 February 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  8. ^ "New world's strongest beer is 40 per cent lager". 
  9. ^ a b "'Perverse' animal beer bottles sell out in hours". BBC News. 23 July 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2010. 
  10. ^ Stuart Patterson (23 July 2010). "Scottish brewery introduces world's costliest beer at £700 a bottle.. and it comes in a stuffed squirrel". Daily Record. Retrieved 23 July 2010. 
  11. ^ Brian Lilley (22 July 2010). "Scottish brewer offers beer packed in roadkill". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 23 July 2010. 
  12. ^ "@GirlsPintOut Drinks The "End Of History"". YouTube. 6 November 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  13. ^ "The End of History". Brewdog.com. 22 July 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  14. ^ Andreas Benz (21 March 2006). "Willkommen beim Schorschbräu - Die handwerkliche Kleinbrauerei im Fränkischen Seenland". Schorschbraeu.de. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  15. ^ "BrewDog Aberdeen to officially open on the 19th of October". Brewdog.com. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  16. ^ "Work starts at BrewDog Edinburgh". Brewdog.com. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  17. ^ "BrewDog Glasgow with 3 days to go, 5am Saint and other news". Brewdog.com. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  18. ^ "BrewDog Camden". Brewdog.com. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  19. ^ "Welcome to BrewDog Nottingham". Brewdog.com. 29 February 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  20. ^ "BrewDog Newcastle Officially Open". Brewdog.com. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  21. ^ "BrewDog Manchester Officially Opens Friday 4th May!". Brewdog.com. 30 April 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  22. ^ "BrewDog Bristol is now Officially Open!". BrewDog. Retrieved 12 December 2012. 
  23. ^ "BrewDog comes to Birmingham". 
  24. ^ 2008 Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust Awards[dead link]
  25. ^ "2008 World Beer Cup Winners". Beertown.org. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  26. ^ 2008 National Business Awards for Scotland[dead link]
  27. ^ "2007 World Beer Awards". Beers-of-the-world.com. 20 June 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  28. ^ "Hardcore IPA wins Gold at the 2010 World Beer Cup". Brewdog.com. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  29. ^ "Diageo Screw BrewDog". BrewDog. 9 May 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2012. 
  30. ^ "Statement regarding the 2012 BII Scotland Annual Awards". Diageo. 9 May 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2012. 
  31. ^ "Scottish beer company BrewDog forces Diageo to apologise over 'dirty tricks' at awards". The Telegraph. 9 May 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  32. ^ "BrewDog: A marketing lesson for everyone", blur-marketing.com
  33. ^ Crighton, Ryan (14 November 2008). "BrewDog Vs Portman". Pressandjournal.co.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  34. ^ "BrewDog calls for Portman to be scrapped". Thedrum.co.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  35. ^ "BrewDog brands given all clear". Thepublican.com. Retrieved 10 May 2012. 
  36. ^ "Speedball Beer Banned, The Guardian
  37. ^ "Brewer in dog house for glamorising drugs"", January 2009, Matt Eley, The Publican
  38. ^ "Schooner or later it had to happen…", 4 January 2011, Beer Today
  39. ^ "A schooner of lager? Or how about a jigger of whisky?", 5 January 2011, Laura Barnett, The Guardian

External links [edit]

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