Having a Normal One(TM), BrewDog style

Editor’s note: The column below was originally published on January 21nd, 2022, back when Fingers was much smaller. Following Sky News’ scoop this past Saturday that BrewDog has tapped a bank to oversee its potential sale, I thought it’d be fun to refresh our collective memory on one of the many recent scandals that have compounded the once-hot Scottish craft brewer’s present predicament. (See also this, this, and this.) The column below is more than four years old, and I edited it lightly for length/formatting, but I think it’s held up pretty well. Hope you enjoy!—Dave.

On Monday, Scotland’s leading current affairs investigative program, BBCOne Disclosure, will broadcast a 60min feature about the much-criticized business practices, workplace culture and conditions, and whole, like, “thing” of Scottish craft beer juggernaut BrewDog. Judging by the way the company, and one cofounder in particular, have responded to the lead-up reporting that Disclosure journalists have published this week, the BBC appears to have some serious bombshells to drop on the self-styled “punk” brewery.

Just this morning, for example, The Guardian reported that BrewDog cofounder/CEO/frontman James Watt had apparently tried to intimidate employees who may have spoken to the BBC anonymously, warning in a shareholder forum post that anonymity “can never be guaranteed,” and that “[i]f anyone is in any way concerned by this, it is not too late to withdraw your consent” from appearing in the program.

This is, of course, not normal behavior for the chief executive of an international corporation that is claims to be worth well over $2 billion. But BrewDog is a deeply abnormal company, and after years of emerging from scandal unscathed in Ol’ Donnie Trump “Ah! Well. Nevertheless.”-style, it appears that its habitual line-stepping, counterculture kayfabe, and relentless self-mythology may have finally caught up with it.

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