Ten years ago, barely anyone had heard of BrewDog, the self-styled “punk” brewery founded in Aberdeenshire and named in honour of its co-founder’s chocolate labrador. Backed by a cult following of 130,000 small crowdfunding shareholders, known as “equity punks”, BrewDog has grown at a rate of knots to become the standard-bearer of the so-called “craft beer revolution”. And by co-opting the word “punk”, BrewDog left itself open to charges of being anything but. A so-called “transgender beer” raised money for LGBTQI+ charities but drew criticism from Stonewall for the language used. Allegations of poor conditions experienced by the staff who helped BrewDog achieve its extraordinary growth may be harder to spin.

Source: The Guardian June 10, 2021 17:03 UTC