As the chain closes ten bars, has “Punk” beer peaked?

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/life/2025/07/brewdog-britain-is-dead

Posted by YchYFi

32 comments

  3. Great business corrupted by money. Quite literally disposed of the morals they built the business on, the beer quality suffered as well.

  4. It’s expensive enough to go out drinking as it is, nevermind at their prices. Once they nuked their own image, which had drawn in a lot of people, they were done. The business is the brand, and they ruined the brand.

  6. They just lost their USP.

    They were one of the forerunners of British craft brewing and I fondly remember drinking Punk IPA in 2010 when it was the only IPA you’d see. Now every bloke with a warehouse and a plaid shirt is churning out IPA’s and pales and a lot of them are better than BrewDog’s and don’t have the same negative connotations. Not hard to see why their bars are empty.

    They’ll be fine as the Stella of the craft beer world though and being bought in Tesco multi-buy deals.

  9. Like many others I like Brewdogs beer. Again, like many others, once I found out what a massive twat the CEO is I switched to Northern Monk etc. That was the only reason. All the man had to do was not be such a horses arse, or at least not publicly, and not treat his workers badly, and the money tree would have kept growing.

  10. The content of the article doesn’t match the title. They’re closing 10 pubs. That’s it. They’re otherwise turning a profit.

  11. I like hazy IPA they offer but I’m not spending a tenner on a pint when I can get 4 pack in supermarket for a fiver.

  12. I avoid Brewdog entirely. James Watt a dodgy, unbearable prick.

  13. Brewdogs shit now. And if you want a mass produced non lager beer, Guinness or Beavertown are much nicer.

  15. Loved them at the start when they sold affordable alternatives and when punk tasted more craft compared to the current mass produced version.

    They’re not even affordable anymore, even with my 10% discount I’m looking at £6-7

  16. Don’t think I’ve stepped foot in a Brewdog bar for over a decade. Shite beer and shite owner.

  17. Wasn’t the owner the cunt that said people don’t need a work life balance and shit in the British people who put money into business. Feel sorry for the staff but screw this place.

  18. I think a lot of people were drawn in by the fact it was “punk”.

    It was an alternative to mass produced beer and there was a sort of punk ethos to it.

    Then when you dig down and find out it was all just clever marketing and the guy in charge is just another corporate ghoul.

    Nah fuck off. I’d happily pay £7+ for a pint if it was decent and the staff were paid well, they put money back into the community and they gave money to good causes. But I’m not paying that to line the pocket of some corporate fuckwit who probably spends his time wanking himself off with Stephen Bartlett.

  19. The type of experimental beer Brewdog and others pioneered 15 years ago is gone. I remember when brewers were sticking chillies in everything or brewing with botanicals because they could get away with it a bit more because the margins weren’t as squeezed as they are now.

    These days brewers have to brew stuff that sells, which is invariably hazy pales and increasing smoothie sours.

    I do feel nostalgic about early Brewdog but not about what they’ve become. They preferred being rich over being punk.

  20. I looked at their Equity offering a few years back. It was obvious that there was no actual value of being a shareholder, other than being “cool”.

  21. Lets hope the Brewdog CEO’s lesson is well learned by other businesses that wish to survive

  22. We’ve got a lot to thank Brewdog for, but…

    When I was a PhD student in the late noughties I’d go to the USA, love the amazing craft beer, then wait until the next conference trip to experience it again. You just couldn’t get that stuff in the UK, or at least in pubs or the supermarket.

    Then Brewdog came along, and you could. Then it got popular and the US companies started importing, and the Brits started making the styles too. And now we are where we are, and perhaps there’s even too much.

    I really struggle to buy Brewdog beer these days though. Their good beers (eg Punk) have been matched by competitors, and the new beers just aren’t as good. It’s hard to choose them vs equally nice or better new alternatives, when their CEO is just such a c**t.

  23. Couldn’t happen to a bigger cunt. Not that he will care. He’s made his money and fucked off with his mental mrs

  24. I have absolutely no interest in the politics of the company or the top brass. I just care about taste and price.

  26. The main problem with Brewdog is that their CEO is an insufferable mega bell

  28. As someone who thinks their beer is massively overrated, and the owner is a bell, about time. 

  29. I point blank refuse to buy any of their products because the CEO is a cockwomble

  30. As much as I hate the guy, it’s a bad sign with them closing, Spoons reducing its number of outlets etc. pretty much recession.

  31. The owner makes Gerald Ratner look like a marketing genius. Used to love a can of Elvis Juice years ago but then the CEO turned out to be a complete bell end and I can’t bring myself to buy it. Money + unchecked ego is hell of a drug.

  32. I’d rather drink my own piss than do anything that would profit James Watt.

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