On Brewdog II
Mar. 2nd, 2026 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeThe news this afternoon that Brewdog has been bought by Tilray Brands should leave me feeling upbeat, but sadly it's the opposite. The news that 38 UK bars are to close, making nearly 500 staff redundant on no notice, is a bitter pill to swallow and my heart goes out to all those who have lost their jobs. I guess it was inevitable when these things happen, but it's still not nice. The communication throughout all this has been abysmal and I can only hope the staff were treated better than us shareholders. Judging by previous form, I'm not convinced they were.
While I figured I had lost my financial investment some months ago, I regret having become so emotionally invested in a brand that betrayed its own principles. I have happy memories of many of these 38 bars and their closure does sting a little. Travelling Europe visiting all the locations was fun back in 2018 and I don't regret doing it. I do regret believing the hype longer than I should have.
Back when I first invested in 2011, Brewdog was a nice craft beer community, rather than the sterile, distanced behemoth it became. The beer back then was interesting too, now it's just mass-produced and disappointing. And all of this was before the issues with the management, the delisting as a B-Corp, the U-turn on the living wage commitment, and a host of other widely reported scandals. My love for Brewdog had already waned, but now it's burnt out. The fact that the founders pocketed a hefty sum of cash off the back of our investments following a piss-poor deal with a venture capitalist firm in 2017 rankles even more. They'll be alright, I'm sure. Hell, they made more than what Brewdog was sold for today. It was a good deal for them, bad for the rest of us. I should have cashed out when I had the chance. Brewdog was sold to us as a way of doing business better, a beer club with positive values based on community. It's the subsequent hypocrisy that hurts the most. Betrayed is the adjective I'd use.
Tilray Brands do seem to have some semi-decent craft beer breweries on their books and there could be upsides. This will be an easy route into the UK market for some potentially good American craft beers and at £33m, they have done a good deal, particularly as they can utilise all the spare brewing capacity in Ellon. Some bars will at least remain open and some jobs have been saved. No shade to them at all, but regardless, I am done with Brewdog. The truth is, I was done on Friday when the German business closed. With no means to get Brewdog here any more - either in the bars or supermarkets - and with the nearest bar to Leeds now being in Manchester, this is the end of my involvement. The one Manchester bar that's surviving is the very worst one in the estate, while five of the remaining 10 non-franchise bars will be in London. I am also a little pissed off that Manchester again gets everything whereas Leeds gets nothing, but that's just how it's been in almost everything for the last 20 years. Fortunately, the franchise bars do seem open for now, but when the nearest one of those is in Hull, again, it's just not viable. Tilray Brands have said they'll still honour EFP discounts (notably calling us 'ambassadors' rather than 'shareholders') but with no nearby bar to use them, there's very little point. I'm not travelling 60 miles to a different city to get a free beer on my birthday and a 10% discount.
Fortunately, there is enough good local craft beer in both Leeds and Berlin to be able to swerve Brewdog pretty easily. The likes of Fierce, Vocation and Northern Monk are all easy to find in Yorkshire and BRLO and others will suffice in Germany. Small, independent craft brewers have always produced better quality beer and they're the ones to support. It's sad it's ended this way and I'm glad that some jobs have been preserved, but ultimately, I'm done. I don't want to support a brand that's now just one name in a portfolio of others on a NASDAQ-listed American company. I'll stick to small and local, as I should always have done. I wonder how many of my fellow investors feel the same.
While I figured I had lost my financial investment some months ago, I regret having become so emotionally invested in a brand that betrayed its own principles. I have happy memories of many of these 38 bars and their closure does sting a little. Travelling Europe visiting all the locations was fun back in 2018 and I don't regret doing it. I do regret believing the hype longer than I should have.
Back when I first invested in 2011, Brewdog was a nice craft beer community, rather than the sterile, distanced behemoth it became. The beer back then was interesting too, now it's just mass-produced and disappointing. And all of this was before the issues with the management, the delisting as a B-Corp, the U-turn on the living wage commitment, and a host of other widely reported scandals. My love for Brewdog had already waned, but now it's burnt out. The fact that the founders pocketed a hefty sum of cash off the back of our investments following a piss-poor deal with a venture capitalist firm in 2017 rankles even more. They'll be alright, I'm sure. Hell, they made more than what Brewdog was sold for today. It was a good deal for them, bad for the rest of us. I should have cashed out when I had the chance. Brewdog was sold to us as a way of doing business better, a beer club with positive values based on community. It's the subsequent hypocrisy that hurts the most. Betrayed is the adjective I'd use.
Tilray Brands do seem to have some semi-decent craft beer breweries on their books and there could be upsides. This will be an easy route into the UK market for some potentially good American craft beers and at £33m, they have done a good deal, particularly as they can utilise all the spare brewing capacity in Ellon. Some bars will at least remain open and some jobs have been saved. No shade to them at all, but regardless, I am done with Brewdog. The truth is, I was done on Friday when the German business closed. With no means to get Brewdog here any more - either in the bars or supermarkets - and with the nearest bar to Leeds now being in Manchester, this is the end of my involvement. The one Manchester bar that's surviving is the very worst one in the estate, while five of the remaining 10 non-franchise bars will be in London. I am also a little pissed off that Manchester again gets everything whereas Leeds gets nothing, but that's just how it's been in almost everything for the last 20 years. Fortunately, the franchise bars do seem open for now, but when the nearest one of those is in Hull, again, it's just not viable. Tilray Brands have said they'll still honour EFP discounts (notably calling us 'ambassadors' rather than 'shareholders') but with no nearby bar to use them, there's very little point. I'm not travelling 60 miles to a different city to get a free beer on my birthday and a 10% discount.
Fortunately, there is enough good local craft beer in both Leeds and Berlin to be able to swerve Brewdog pretty easily. The likes of Fierce, Vocation and Northern Monk are all easy to find in Yorkshire and BRLO and others will suffice in Germany. Small, independent craft brewers have always produced better quality beer and they're the ones to support. It's sad it's ended this way and I'm glad that some jobs have been preserved, but ultimately, I'm done. I don't want to support a brand that's now just one name in a portfolio of others on a NASDAQ-listed American company. I'll stick to small and local, as I should always have done. I wonder how many of my fellow investors feel the same.
