Last time ( https://www.londonbiermeister.co.uk/blog/in-dog-we-trust-part-1 ) I gave some introductory thoughts on the phenomenon that is BrewDog, written before I attended their AGM (Annual General Mayhem) on 13 August.
So how was it? Spoiler alert: for all the things that one could criticise or make fun of, I came away with a warm positive feeling.
I joined the small crowd gathering in Aberdeen Castlegate at 10:30 a.m for the walk up to Hazlehead Park. It was not quite the riotous social gathering that had been implied, but perfectly pleasant. Then the logistical issues bit for the first time as we were kept waiting outside for 30 minutes as final preparations were made to the site.
Once inside I found beer - at this stage no queues - and chatted to a local man who wore a “BrewDog Airlines” T-shirt. He told me the story - that as part of the promotion of their bar in Columbus, Ohio, BrewDog had chartered a plane and flown a group of “Punks” over there. A typically showy gesture, but one that had worked really well for those who took part in it, many of whom had formed friendships.
We came to the first main event of the afternoon: “Business Talk by James [Watt] and Martin [Dickie]”. It was billed for 2 but happened at 2:30.
As one would expect, the vibe that they sought to build was akin to a festival awaiting the headline performers. As the time approached, the DJ cranked up the volume with an interesting set of tunes. “I have to praise you like I should” began Fatboy Slim with a message to the crowd about the correct attitude with which to approach this. The DJ then went off script as Hall and Oates told someone that they were “out of touch” but, realising this, quickly corrected the playlist to “Da ya think I’m sexy?”
A countdown came on the screen and a comedy video intro, featuring James Watt made up as Hulk Hogan, began. In silence. We waited for this to change and it didn’t. “You’re on mute, James!” shouted a wag in the crowd. The DJ hastily restarted the music, with Blur informing us that “he lives in a house, a very big house in the country”.
After a second unsuccessful go with the video (apparently the heat caused a short circuit), James and Martin (as all the crowd were referring to them, so I will do likewise) walked slightly anti-climactically onto the stage. James was wearing a reversed baseball cap, mirrored sunglasses and stubble, which may just have confirmed any prejudices that sceptics held about him. Not that there were any of those here. I had half wondered if there would be a “Punks with Purpose” demo, but no. Nor was there any cultish fervour. Partly because it was hot and the open air, but also it just wasn’t that kind of atmosphere. As James spelled out past achievements and future plans, quiet Scottish voices would occasionally say “aye, well done” and there would be a respectful round of applause as if he had just squeezed the ball through mid wicket for a single. At one point James said plaintively “only thing worse that nobody applauding is one person applauding… oh, great, there’s two”. In terms of the relationship, James played rock star and Martin played geek - the penny eventually dropped that they reminded me of one of those electronic bands with the front man and the instrumentalist, e.g. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.
Recent controversies were addressed with a slightly brief and ritual “we haven’t always got things right and we need to do better in future”.
The substance of the talk was all about growth - more bars, more beers, bigger, better. Which included “better” in terms of sustainability. There was a brief passing reference to their “EBITDA” [comment: I looked it up - Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation] being good last year despite a tough time, but that is clearly not what was getting them up in the morning. I thought that there might be a passing reference to a future float, but there wasn’t. At all. Which suggests that it isn’t on the cards. There was a passing reference to their new Chair (Allen Leighton) and Deputy Chair (Blythe Jack) - “we call them Mum and Dad” - in the context of stronger corporate governance.
But this was clearly fine with the audience. Of all the people I spoke to, there was a common theme of not having expected to make money from their shares. Many people had only bought a couple of shares just because they wanted to buy into the BrewDog journey and get invited to events such as this. While there were a range of people speaking different European languages as well as a good number from England, the majority of those present were Scots and there was a palpable sense of pride in what a couple of local boys had been able to do. There was genuine bemusement at the accusations of bad worker treatment, and a bit of a suggestion that it had come from over-sensitive American employees.
Some random bits from the talk that stuck in my mind:
I retreated to my B&B after the talk and returned for the evening. When I came back, a little bit of discontentment was growing about the queues. The bar queues were long - although it seemed to me that they were moving quite quickly. Worse was the food. One stall after another ran out of food and shut down, and the queues for those that were still open were epic (I chose badly with the Soul and Smoke Tacos, which were delicious, but they were a bunch of perfectionists which meant that each one was handcrafted slowly…) Quite a few people had drifted away by about 8:30, so I took the opportunity to sample some beers with the shorter queues.
The Scottish Sun did an article that referred to “chaos” at the event, which was way over the top. The logistics were not as sharp as they should have been, and some people went away unhappy. However, most people seemed to me to be impeccably patient and good-humoured, so I bought into this mindset.
For the record, the beers that I consumed (combination of BrewDog and guest) were:
BrewDog Candy Kittens - raspberry and guava East Coast IPA (6.5%)
Funky Fluid Splash Red - pomegranate and blackcurrant gose (3.8%)
Equilibrium “To Space We Go” - double IPA (8.5%)
Brewdog Blind Chinchilla Circus - barrel aged US-style beer (12.1%)
Amundsen Dark Chocolate Pecan and Coffee glaze porter (11.4%)
(The following evening, I discovered the original BrewDog flagship bar in Aberdeen with a couple of hours before my train left, and added the following to my list
Hazy Jane Guava - a variant on Hazy Jane and a great summer beer
Silk Road lychee IPA
“Valkyrie Vendetta” - “Brett funk” (i.e. Bretanomycces) with sour cherry, hazelnut and whisky)
Overall I came away happy. It was effectively a festival, and like any festival you put up with queues and other aggravations. Of course BrewDog should have sorted some of the issues, but the idea that this someone negates the whole value of the event is absurd. That was definitely not the mood I sensed around me. Others were whingeing afterwards that the overall choice of beer had gone downhill; I had no complaints.
And the positivity of all of the really nice locals was very infectious. As I said, for them it is simple - James and Martin are local boys, just like us, who have done incredibly well. The people who complain that James is a pretentious tosser do so out of envy.
I don’t doubt that the atmosphere within BrewDog has been unpleasant for some. It is the classic phenomenon of the charismatic start-up, where there are no boundaries between the personal and the corporate and no limits to what is expected of people. I don’t get the sense that James loses much sleep over this. Not his style. He believes in the great thing that he is doing - always more, bigger, faster. He has always had detractors, and not cared. I am not excusing the impact it has had on some people. It needs fixing. But I have a bit of experience in spotting a genuinely toxic environment within an organisation, and I just wasn’t getting that at all.
I didn’t come away with great optimism for realising the value of my shares. Again, not what really drives BrewDog. I have some doubts about whether “more bars, more beers” is a sustainable strategy or whether it will ultimately lead to over-stretch. Let’s see. Fortunately I can pretty much lose my investment without hurting if it comes to that.
The title of this blog comes from one of the most popular T-shirts (the other was “We Bleed Craft Beer”). Yes, in Dog I trust. Up to a point.