BEATNIK BREWDAY!

“I’m not a corporate stooge. I didn’t just become a shareholder for the investment. I did it for days like this – to meet the people making the beer and feel a part of it.” 

Billy, Equity Punk

Saturday saw the return of one of the highlights of our year – the Equity Punk brewday in Ellon. It may have been a chilly, overcast afternoon in February, but Billy and his fellow shareholders turned up in their droves to help us put together a very special beer indeed.

Since the official unveiling of the Beatnik Brewing Collective, our legendary Equity Punks have been duking it out in the EFP forum to democratically select each aspect of the brew in turn. So it was only fair that we invite them all up to our brewery to take part in the brewday. But what did our Beatniks come up with?

The outcome of the week-long debate was a 6.5% Milk Stout, brewed with cacao nibs and coconut chips, and single-hopped with Galena. Christened ‘The Bounty Hunter’ it is destined to be a smooth, roasty extra stout with an intense depth to the flavour profile courtesy of the lactose, chocolate and coconut. Our Beatniks certainly came up trumps on their beery debut! 

As our brewteam got to work, their VIP assistants were given access to the brewery in the form of Willy Wonka-style behind the scenes tours. Following this, the assembled Beatniks got the chance to try ultra-fresh BrewDog beers served from Truck Norris, and were given an exclusive brewery update from James and Martin, featuring our epic plans for the year ahead.

At the same time as the beer was making its way through the brewhouse, a super scaled-down version was being produced on our 50l pilot kit – giving all a chance to breathe in sweet lungfuls of one of the most glorious aromas you can hope to inhale – hot wort infused with chocolate and coconut. If beers can be judged on the initial nose, then The Bounty Hunter is going to be something very special indeed!

Senses thus primed, the final thing on the Beatnik agenda was a beer tasting. First up, a chance to renew acquaintances with one of our most popular beers of last year – India Pale Weizen – followed by a celebration of the return of Alice Porter, sampled straight from the conditioning tank. Finally (after a quick tasting-check of The Bounty Hunter wort) it was all hands on deck for the latest iteration of our barrel-aged series; the sublime Paradox Compass Box.

It was such a great experience for us to welcome so many of our investors to the brewery in person, and chat to them on the day, as they wandered around the brewery they helped fund with their investment. We wouldn’t be BrewDog without them; it’s that simple. Each and every one has a different reason for supporting us – like Ryan here, from Aberdeen:

“Five AM? Five AM changed my life; it really did. I was finally able to go to my girlfriend ‘this is why I like beer’, so she could get it; she could understand.”

“I invested because I wanted to believe in a brewery and make it last. How many others can you come to and make a beer? How many others will let you be a part? You don’t just get to vote, you get to come here and see it being made. BrewDog get people more into beer; I just wanted to be a part of that.”

We’ll give the final word to Ryan’s fellow shareholder Billy, who told us his reasons for investing at the start of this blog post. If you’d like to be kept in the loop on Equity for Punks, then click this link and enter your contact details. Thanks to each and every one of you who came up for the Beatnik Brewing Collective brewday – here’s to The Bounty Hunter!

“I want to be able to go to the USA or wherever and open a bottle of Punk and know it came from here. From right here. It makes me proud to know this is where it came from. It’s ace.”

(Don’t forget - given that this beer has been formulated and brewed in its entirety by our investors, you’ll need to be a card-carrying Equity Punk to grab a bottle of this beer online or in our bars! We are also still after shareholder-submitted artwork, so if you're an Equity Punk head along to the forum and let us have your label ideas!)