Skip to main content

Ten Reasons Why I Hate Brewdog


There was a time when I thought beer was subjective, when I believed it was there to be interpreted and commented on from a personal perspective. I used to form my own opinions about beer, pubs and breweries and sometimes I’d even write them in this little blog. Brewdog were no exception; I was happy to praise them when they did right and criticise when I felt they were wrong.

Of course I now have seen that I was wrong to do this. You see, it’s not about opinions or personal preferences; it’s about following the crowd, doing what’s cool and avoiding controversy. At present it’s not cool to like Brewdog. Despite the fact that I still really enjoy their beers and bars, people keep telling me why I should hate them. You probably already do, as you are well “in” on what’s hot and what’s not. I wasn’t aware of this, the e-mail never landed in my inbox, but not wanting to fall out of the loop I’ve presented a list of reasons why we should all hate Brewdog so I can fit in with this growing mass. I’ll be honest, the majority of these musings are not personal thoughts, but have been borrowed from others who keep pressing me with reasons as to why I should dislike this brewery. Remember, if you want to stick with the cool kids, you’re not allowed to disagree.

§  B******g is a naughty word. I’m not 100% sure as to what the term “BrewDog” actually means. For me, without doing my own research prior, it seemed just an innocent name for a craft brewer. However, since any mention by myself of the word Brewdog leads to lots of sharp intakes of breath and shakes of the head, as well as the use of words such as ‘silly’ and ‘daft,’ words I only ever use when trying not to swear in front of my girlfriend’s mum, I assume that Brewdog is actually a derogatory, offensive and cursive word.  Shame on you, B*****g.

§  Brewdog does not offer a voucher system. There is a pub open in my local town owned by a rather large pub chain you may have heard of. It claims to serve ten real ales, although six are generally absent and four undrinkable. It also serves inedible food at low prices and has suctioned in so many thrifty drinkers that it has killed off many of the town’s other pubs single-handedly. There is a large organisation that supports real ale and your local apparently, that randomly dishes out vouchers to this large pub chain, increasing their customer base and turning them away from other free houses. Despite no attempts to kill off all local trade and having the gall to serve edible food, Brewdog is still not offering any such voucher system.  Pay full price? No thanks.

§  Brewdog won’t do what you say. My father has made one visit to Brewdog Manchester. His surmising of his visit was, “The beer was very nice but I’d like to see cask pumps.” Are you listening Brewdog? We’re not interested in good beer if it’s not dispensed in the way we see fit.

§  Brewdog is trying to resurrect awful names. Man has made many errors in the past and we’ve tried to fix them as best we can. One way we’ve tried is by retiring ugly names such as Gertrude, Barbara and Ingrid. Yes, Ingrid! Awful. Whilst we’re at it, most of their beer names are stupid anyway. Where is the Brewdog Winter Warmer or Brewdog Top Totty? Think it through.

§  Brewdog is sold in supermarkets. We all know that the point of craft beer isn’t to enjoy it but to feel superior to your fellow man. It’s there so you can scoff at the next man drinking his Caffrey’s and hold up your Brewdog AB:04 with pride, regaling the story of its origin to the poor sole. However, Brewdog is now available in most of my local supermarkets. This is an outrage. If this is going to be the case, I may as well just drink Mackeson’s Stout and White Lightning. What are they trying to do, run a commercially viable business? For shame.

§  Brewdog train their bar staff wrong/don’t train them. We all know how to train bar staff in busy pubs/bars selling numerous beers. The staff at the above mentioned large chain have got this down perfectly. First you must struggle to get their attention, then when you order your real ale they must provide you with a completely blank and vacant look (if they are properly trained they may even shout “What?” at you loudly) before going down the bar, turning every pump clip around before finally finding what you ordered and pointlessly asking “this one here?” The Brewdog bar staff are clueless to this system. They seem to know all the beers they sell, frequently make helpful suggestions as to what you might like to try and rudely try to force conversation about beer upon you. Complete incompetence.

§  Brewdog enjoy brewing. Sinking beer? Taxidermist packaging? Strongest beer in the world? What are you doing, trying to have a bit of fun? Stick to the norm please.

§  Brewdog are not trying to kill me. Seeing as they have many beers above the 4% limit so many older folk impose upon themselves, Brewdog serve many beers in half or third measurements so that you can taste and enjoy them without the dizziness. They even have the cheek to serve two of their beers in what can only be described as dram sized portions. I don’t care how strong they are. I want beer in a big pint glass, preferably with a handle.  Stop caring about my health.

§  Brewdog are sexist. I’ve noticed that when I’m drunk Brewdog sounds suspiciously like ‘boob job’ and I believe this is where the name was incarnated from. From this, I can devise that Brewdog want all women to increase their bra sizes and are misogynistic and sexist pigs. They probably kill kittens too…

§  Because it’s cool to. Do you remember when U2 first came on the scene? And Coldplay? Do you remember liking them? Perhaps hailing them as the current best band out there? Then a hundred impersonators came out just after? And now the sight of Bono or Chris Martin makes you sick, just because we as Brits like to put down those we truthfully admire?  The truth is, I don’t need to provide another nine reasons to hate Brewdog. This final one is good enough. Beer has entered a realm where subjectiveness is no longer allowed. You have to love what everybody else does and hate what you are told to. Somebody actually went as far as to (indirectly) call me a liar after a recent blog post which they disagreed with, so let’s not say anything that can be perceived as controversial in future. Breweries should be small, unambitious and humble. Don’t even think about offering a different opinion. You have been warned. Please address all the above issues Brewdog, though, when you do, we’ll still hate you anyway, until somebody tells us not to.

Comments

Cooking Lager said…
Still overpriced piss though eh?
Anonymous said…
I for one really hate the way that B*****g use top-notch graphic design (even actual artists!) to make their beers look attractive, modern and desirable to the (ugh) mass-market. It's almost as it they're attempting to be successful and sell more of their product or something. How are the prime examples of classic tongue-in-cheek ale labelling that you see all the time on Pumpclip Parade meant to compete with that sort of unfair degree of professionalism, eh? Answer me that.
steve thack said…
Some of their beers are ace, some would be better on cask, some are seriously overpriced! Some (punk!) seem to have quality control issues. The iconoclastic marketing begins to grate eventually, looking forward to discussing all this with brewdog Leeds staff

Popular posts from this blog

LIVERPOOL - the City that Craft Beer Forgot Part II (and found...)

After visiting Liverpool, one of my favourite cities, in February this year, and not impressing people with my rather hasty but honest verdict on the city’s lack of craft beer, I jumped at the chance to return last week and hoped to come out with a more attractive judgement. A couple of friends and I visited on a day out, with neither of them having been drinking in the city before. It was left to me – or rather, I volunteered – to plan the day’s itinerary and places to visit. I had a couple of new or unvisited places in mind myself, but knew it would be unfair to miss out on some of the city’s famous gems. With around 10-12 hours in which to fit in an entire city, I opted to concentrate on the famous Georgian Quarter and see if we had time for the Dale Street end later on.    We planned to arrive in the city for around 11a.m. just in time to walk up Mount Pleasant to the new-on-me, though I believe it has been opened three years, Clove Hitch on Hope Street f...

"They Had Their Issues, So..."

      There’s a set of garages to rent as storage units near my workplace. One of them is taken by a local florist that uses it to store flower arrangements for various events, that are more often than not funerals.   As such, at least once a week at 8am I will pass a car being loaded up with flowers arranged into heart shaped patterns or the letters M U M. It is a grounding reminder that, as I mentally grumble my way through the upcoming arbitrary grievances of my ordinary working day, a group of family and friends locally is going through the hardest time. It provides much needed perspective on days when I could do with being reminded of all that I have to be thankful for.   These little moments explain to me why it is possible for us to share a communal loss when a celebrity passes away. Grief is often a personal and lonely experience, shared between a minority of people in your life. When a co-worker loses a relative or friend, it has little affe...