THE BREWDOG INDUSTRY OPEN DAY

THE BREWDOG INDUSTRY OPEN DAY

Brewing is about many things – experimentation, early starts, sourcing new ingredients and a level of cleaning that would please the harshest germaphobe. But above all else (or if not, it should be) is the desire to never stop learning. When you’re a brewer, every day is a school day. It’s the reason why there are so many collaborations these days; joining forces gives you a chance to put your heads together and pick up new ideas.

And last Monday, we had the ultimate day for doing just that – our first Industry Open Day.

The bedrock of brewing in this country is the community of hard-working people who mash in every morning, and it was amazing to welcome over 100 of them to our corner of north-eastern Scotland to start the week. As part of the day they headed off on a full tour of the brewery as well as the LoneWolf distillery and the BrewDog OverWorks (with beer tastings on the way as well).

Also on the Industry Day were sessions from a dozen speakers, such as our co-founders James and Martin, head of quality Dr Fraser Gormley and our head of production Jason Pond. The seminars covered everything from how to sell to export, dealing with grocers and off-trade retailers and even a trip down the myriad pathways of alternative fermentation with Richard Kilcullen.

“To open your doors to other breweries and share your knowledge is a real testament to BrewDog; you're not just about yourselves but strive to increase the standard of beer from the whole craft beer sector so we can all stick a massive 2 fingers up at bland, industrial beer. The lab and sensory facility was particularly impressive for me as I am from a scientific background and it showed that your pursuit of quality will not be compromised - ever.” Gav Riach, Darkland Brewery.

We decided to open our HQ to independent craft breweries as part of our BrewDog Blueprint and in the spirit of DIY Dog – nothing is off-limits about our recipes so our operations and processes should be the same way. Hopefully by doing this and sharing what we have learned along the first decade of our history we can help to accelerate change within the UK brewing industry and raise the bar at the same time.

“It was great to have informative talks, from so many experts in the field. The day (and evening!) was so well planned and I had a great time on the brewery tour, tasted some awesome beers from OverWorks and met some great people.” Mike Dent, Accidental Brewery.

It was amazing that representatives from 60 different UK breweries took the time out of their busy schedules to travel to Scotland (from afar afield as London, Manchester and North Wales - even all the way from Slovenia). We are massively proud of what we have built in Ellon and we love the fact that openness and transparency between peers is such a cornerstone of our industry. We hope everyone who came found it interesting and learned as much as we did – thanks to all our attendees!

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Nathan G 22.11.2018 @ 12:14pm
Wish I could have made it up there- it sounded like a great opportunity. I will be first through the door if there is another one!
Chris A 21.11.2018 @ 7:31pm
This is the kind of event that makes me proud to be a shareholder . Brilliant idea.
David K 21.11.2018 @ 3:30pm
Brilliant. This is how it should be. Sorry to see that Innis and Gunn were not there too.
Paul 21.11.2018 @ 3:06pm
This kind of thing is a credit to you and should be an annual event