Page 22 - BrewDog Case Study

beer produced in very small quantities. “We made one

tankful, maybe 500 bottles. We sold 450 abroad – so there
were, like, 50 on sale in the UK, at £18 each. To claim that’s

going to promote excess and irresponsible drinking …

Seriously? What about the brands selling 24 cans of lager for

a tenner? That’s excess.” (14) However, a single bottle was
reported as containing six units of alcohol, the equivalent of

three pints of normal strength beer. In response, BrewDog

unveiled a 1.1% ale called ‘Nanny State’.

This controversy generated enormous publicity for BrewDog

with, in one instance, Watt’s picture appearing in the Sun

newspaper with the caption: ‘If Britain has a binge-drinking

problem, blame this man’.

BrewDog then launched a beer called "Tactical Nuclear

Penguin", with 32% alcohol, which was claimed to be the

strongest beer ever made. The BrewDog business grew by

200%.

However, the veteran beer writer and editor of Camra’s

(Campaign for Real Ale) Good Beer Guide, Roger Protz,

described Watt and Dickie as “lunatic self-publicists” and
“over-inflated ego-maniacs”, with the result that BrewDog

was excluded from the organisation’s Great British Beer

Festival handing BrewDog the opportunity to play the

fearless but oppressed newcomer, eager only to get on and
do its thing.

2010

In 2010, BrewDog announced "Sink The Bismarck", an

apparent 41% ABV to reclaim the World's Strongest Beer