BrewDog is a brewery, bar chain, and brand with a capital B. It launched in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 2007, and was founded by friends James Watt and Martin Dickie. Since then, BrewDog has expanded into a multinational company with nearly 100 locations, and more than 1,000 employees around the world.
Begging to know more? Here are 11 things you should know about BrewDog.
BrewDog is an oxymoron.
BrewDog was built on an “anti-business business model,” and has been both heralded and derided for its counterculture, yet corporate, ethos. It positions itself as a brewery created by and for “punks,” from its “Equity for Punks” investor program to its flagship Punk IPA.
The company’s corporate growth is undeniable, however: Its annual general meeting (AGM) in 2019 counted 140,000 attendees, making it the largest AGM in the U.K.
BrewDog is always breeding.
BrewDog began as a small brewery in Ellon, Scotland in 2007. Ten years later, it opened a second facility in Ellon, as well as its first U.S. brewery, in Columbus, Ohio. In 2019, BrewDog took over what would have been Stone Brewing in Berlin, Germany. Another BrewDog location is in the works in Brisbane, Australia.
In addition to its breweries, BrewDog has upwards of 90 bars around the world. It’s expected to have 100 pubs by the end of 2019.
You can eat, drink, and sleep BrewDog.
In August 2018, BrewDog debuted the DogHouse, a hotel at its brewery in Columbus. The hotel offers beer around every corner, from the shower to the breakfast menu.
BrewDog’s founders are media hounds.
In 2013, BrewDog founders Watt and Dickie starred in their own TV series, “Brew Dogs,” on the former Esquire network. It was cancelled after three seasons. They didn’t stop there: BrewDog launched its own streaming service, the BrewDog Network, in 2018. The subscription-based service offers “over 100 hours of drink and lifestyle content, including original series you can’t find anywhere else.” It launched with a tongue-in-cheek, porn-themed campaign that, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn’t go over too well.
It brews to extremes.
BrewDog has made beer as high as 55 percent ABV, and as low as 0.5 percent ABV. It’s brewed on a boat, on a Brooklyn rooftop, and on a plane. It claims to have made the world’s most caloric, most caffeinated, and most expensive beers. And yes, the beer sold in taxidermy squirrels was them, too.
This dog can fly.
BrewDog Airlines, a name for a series of flights run by BrewDog since 2018, transports “equity punks” and paying customers to and from BrewDog locations around the world. Its debut flight from London to Columbus didn’t go exactly according to plan: The plane famously had a restroom malfunction, leaving 200 drunk passengers with no place to break the seal. Its next flight is scheduled to take off Oct. 31, 2019.
Note: BrewDog Airlines is not an actual airline.
It’s a champion for diversity.
BrewDog is a major investor in Crowns & Hops, a craft beer brand and brewery-in-planning that aims to be Inglewood, Calif.’s first black-owned brewery. BrewDog originally approached Crowns & Hops co-founders Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter (formerly Dope & Dank) to be featured on their “Brew Dogs” show on Esquire. Ashburn and Hunter refused, but eventually appeared on the BrewDog Network.
It throws ‘pawties’ and offers ‘paw-ternity’ leave.
In 2017, Brewdog launched a “paw-ternity” leave program allowing employees a week of paid leave to start life with their new four-legged family member.
In 2018, it announced it would throw birthday “pawties” at its DogTap location in Columbus, complete with dog-friendly party hats, cake, and beer.
You might say its wild beer is ‘wicked.’
In 2018, BrewDog debuted its first sour beer facility, BrewDog Overworks. BrewDog’s founders tapped Richard Kilcullen to be its brewmaster. Kilcullen’s former gig? He was head of sour production at Wicked Weed of Asheville, N.C.
BrewDog was once also LoneWolf.
BrewDog launched LoneWolf distillery in April 2017. In 2019, it announced plans to rebrand as BrewDog Distilling Company. When Watt teased possible label designs on Twitter, responses were so unkind, he scrapped the designs and deleted the tweets.
You can make your own BrewDog beer.
Online retailer Brooklyn Brew Shop teamed up with BrewDog to make beer-making kits and mixes so you can recreate Punk IPA and Elvis Juice at home.
