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    BrewDog has become irrelevant, suggests boss of bar chain that axed beer
    United Kingdom

    BrewDog has become irrelevant, suggests boss of bar chain that axed beer

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    34 Comments

    1. TheHeroOfTheRepublic on

      A decade or more ago they were the big thing. Guess the owner being an utter scumbag and not moving with the times have impacted them though.

    2. Glittering_Copy8907 on

      Their big USP was to be a bit different, throw a bit of anarchy into the industry and all the rest of it.

      Then it turned out that they were a heavily corporate company, every bit as bad as the “big guys” they claimed to rally against, ran by cunts, who treated their staff like shit and the beer isn’t even that good anywya (Though I don’t mind it, tbf)

      I know I, as somebody who loves beer/ale/etc, wouldn’t make the effort to go to a BrewDog bar, or drink brewdog. As it stands, they have a good selection of alcohol free but other than that they’re not special in any way

    3. RaymondBumcheese on

      It very quickly just became carling for people who dress like they used to be in the Lumineers. If you build your brand on it being ‘cool’ there is only one way that ends.

    4. Dramatic_Strategy_95 on

      There’s all the shenanigans of James Watt which I’m sure doesn’t help.

      For me it was more they seemed hell bent on making undrinkable beer, when this wasn’t always the case. When they were just starting out they had some nice stuff but then it was all sacrificed on the altar of the hop gods.

    6. WinningTheSpaceRace on

      Their beer has always been shit. The All-High Dickhead got them publicity, which converted into sales, but the beer is crap. Now we know what arseholes the CEO and co are, there’s no point at all in them.

    7. tezmo666 on

      Even if you put boycotting aside because James Watt is a proven helmet, they no longer have a convincing USP so it’s no surprise:

      * Not cheap and now there are better quality ales on tap in most pubs
      * Why do I want to sit in a sports bar-type venue with no sports on?
      * Mediocre sports bar/Americanised food

      If I’m going to spend my money on going for drinks(rare these days) I’m going to the nicest pub I can find and enjoying a proper local ale.

    8. Any-Memory2630 on

      The landscape changed for beer just at the time they decided to lower the quality of their beers and appear more scumbaggy.

      Everywhere has a tap room where you’d get better beer than brewdog now. In most supermarkets you’ll probably find a better beer than theirs on the shelves next to it too

    9. BobBobBobBobBobDave on

      Pretty true.

      There are other brands doing the same thing better, and which don’t have the baggage which drives an increasing number of drinkers to reject Brewdog.

    10. RightEejit on

      It’s an amazing case of how to ruin a beloved brand.

      Start out as a genuine independent craft brewery, help really bring ‘craft beer” to the masses, perfectly timed as styles like IPAs are becoming popular. Have a cool alternative brand that markets well to trendy folks in their 20s who don’t want to drink “real ales” or watery lagers. Do extremely well off of this

      Then… start pulling the ladder up, become incredibly corporate, start your own bars and hotel chain and get a bad reputation for underpaying your staff. Start a scheme where fans can buy “shares” but actually they aren’t shares and you can’t really sell them. Get a bit of a reputation for suing anyone who tries to call their beers “punk”. Refuse proper living wage increases to those working your brewery in London. Allow EDL meets at your pubs and fire the staff that complain. Move your focus onto mass market beers like lagers and session IPAs and a legally distinct nitro stout.

      The current iteration of Brewdog is unrecognisable from the brewery of old. Multi-millionaire owners who sound like shitty people, just another big brewery at this point.

      Stay small, pay your staff well, focus on ethics over profit. Not every business needs to be some global giant.

    12. ProtonHyrax99 on

      My condolences to everyone who “invested” in “equity for punks”.

      Hope you at least get a class action lawsuit out of it.

    14. all_about_that_ace on

      The problem with brewdog is they sold themselves on being slightly left punkish counter culture then proceeded to act like a caricature of the worst elements of right-wing capitalism.

      If your branding and your reputation are 100% incompatible with each other you’re going to struggle.

    15. literalmetaphoricool on

      That ‘Cold Beer’ summer promotion in July exposed how far they had fallen imo. Worst tasting beer i’ve ever had, wasn’t even that cold out the pump. Not even a £2.50 pint could convince us to stay – ended up going the the local tap room up the road instead.

    16. ottoandinga88 on

      I liked this stuff a decade ago, but it became obnoxiously hip and all the accusations of horrible workplace practices were a huge turn off so I’ve been essentially boycotting lol

    18. 2beHero on

      That’s what happens when you’re a corpo business boy pretending to be punk – people eventually get sick of your shit and stop giving you their money

    19. LookitsThomas on

      I have no strong feelings about Brewdog, but I think perhaps they were partly a victim of their own success. Their products broadened consumer’s interest and contributed towards a wider cultural change, which has resulted in a huge expansion of the craft beer industry. They did it first, but not best, didn’t keep up, and now they’ve been left behind.

    21. Any_Association405 on

      I think they make horrible beer, and from what I understand they are run by equally horrible people.

    22. BeardedmanGinger on

      I liked them 16 years back when they first started, I was even a “shareholder” but over time they just became the same old lager company as all the others. I loved their stupid strong beers but over time started to hate the over hoppyness and now you find it in all the off licences and it tastes no different to anything else and isn’t a different price. Same with their bars, they went from quirky to “this is how we do it” and each city had the exact same layout same decor same “jokes” and even the guest beers vanished (I remember the speedway stout with fond memories).

      But now they all same same and beer tastes same same and the CEO has proven himself to be a right wrong un

    23. Free_Bumblebee_3889 on

      It’s very hard to run successful brewpubs. It’s extremely hard to run successful brewpubs if you willingly allow Wetherspoons to vastly undercut your pricing. It’s almost impossible to run successful brewpubs if you willingly allow Wetherspoons to vastly undercut your pricing AND your founder has a worse CEO than them.

      Add in being awful to your staff and you have an answer right there as to why they are in a death spiral

    24. Mantises2400 on

      I popped in for a pint in Edinburgh before a concert, £15.80 for 2 pints. That should say it all. £7.95 alone for a pint of Black Heart, even a good Guinness in Edinburgh is around the £6.50 mark.

      Rude and unwelcoming customer service behind the bar too. They were impatient when my friend was trying to decide what he wanted – understandable if it was busy – but it was a ghost town the entire time we were there.

    25. Annual_History_796 on

      I still drink Brewdog but there’s a lot more competition out there now which hasn’t helped them.

    26. zackdaniels93 on

      Their owner is a dick, but I honestly do quite like their beer. They taste much better than typical lagers, but aren’t as expensive as IPAs and more niche drinks can get on the top end. Plus pretty much everywhere had something from them, so I never felt like I had to settle for something that didn’t taste as nice lol

      Seems like they’ve just been unfortunate enough to fall into the ‘it’s cool to hate on them’ bracket, which isn’t helped by (to repeat) the owner being a dick.

    27. AdAggressive9224 on

      You can buy it in the supermarket for less than you can in the pub. I think people who are going out to the pub now are having a cheap larger or ale, rather than sinking £5 on a pint of craft beer. Pub-going is the sort of unnecessary expenditure that most people can cut during times of hardship. Especially when the same exact product is still available as part of their single weekly grocery shop.

      But Aldi / Lidls own brand versions are perfectly comparable.

    31. jnthhk on

      It’s crazy how they’ve gone from building and having such powerful brand loyalty to destroying it.

      I was a self confessed Brewdog fanboy for so many years. The stuff they did like releasing the home-brew recipes, the limited edition subscription etc etc made me buy their stuff, and want to buy their stuff, like I have with no brand before.

      But their CEO has just destroys that. I now go out of my way not to drink their beer, because just can’t stand him. The things he does are in total opposition to the things that made the brand appeal to me.

      On top of that, the new beers have just got so boring. Brewdog wasn’t just a brand when it was good, it made seriously good US style craft beer at a time when that just wasn’t in supermarkets in the UK. Now the new beers are just variations on the same bland NEIPA. Punk is still a good example of that style, but if I try one of their new releases I usually come away disappointed.

      A pity… but couldn’t have happened to a bigger cunt I guess.

    32. poliver1988 on

      Hipsters of 2010s boom have grown up and don’t care about hipster signaling anymore.

      To a younger generation they’re just an average overpriced pub that always been there.

    33. pdr555 on

      Will get missed but, for a purely beer point of view:

      Punk IPA – Was decent, now brewed different/cheaper and tastes like piss

      Elvis Juice – Was really solid, then they reduced the ABV for a while. Relaunched with the first 6.5%ish abv and again, was cheaper

      Then they have a whole range of mass produced Hazy IPAS, that are poor on their own and then flavoured with all sorts of fake tasting bits.

      So, as a beer drinker, the quality is poor compared to what it once was.