The carbon-negative Scottish beer company BrewDog is ready to launch a record number of craft beer pubs in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Goa, and other cities across India, founder James Watt reveals.
If the journey of BrewDog was a movie, its genre would easily and evidently be that of a self-guided adventure. The craft beer company with its roots in the fishing port town of Fraserburgh in Scotland birthed in 2007. It has since been exemplar of how dedicated disruption can bring the right kind of change in the beer industry. The brand’s founders, James Watt and Martin Dickie, were all of 24 and completely smitten with the idea of reimagining the production and consumption of beer a lot differently than the already existing, seldom-changing beer market around the world. So, they did.
BrewDog started with small batches of carefully crafted brews sold in the local markets, a passion project that soon snowballed into more than 100 bars across 50 countries, becoming one of the top players in the industry. Scoot over to India, with its main production unit in Pune, BrewDog has two craft beer bars in Mumbai and one outpost in Gurugram. Plans are already brewing to launch 25 new outlets across Chandigarh, Mohali, Amritsar, and Goa among other cities. Karan Jain of Aloha International Brewpub reveals possible plans of opening Asia’s first microbrewery hotel by 2025 with BrewDog, too.
During his recent visit to India, we caught up with the freethinking founder James Watt — who was a deep-sea captain in Scotland many moons ago — over a freewheeling chat on his exciting plans to make beer the reigning drink for the global palate, advice for young entrepreneurs, and the secret behind the name of the brand, BrewDog. Any guesses?
What do you think makes BrewDog stand out in the global beer business?
If you look at most beer businesses, most of them are owned by big, multinational companies with no point of view or passion. We wanted to build a company with a personality that resonated with the things we believed in and put our customers first. I think the beer industry overall is a bit old-fashioned with less excitement and innovation, and we wanted to change that. And that’s how we started in 2007 with two humans, one dog, and one mission to change the world of beer.
For the uninitiated, why the name BrewDog?
I was working as a captain of a fishing boat and one day my best friend Martin and I decided to start a beer business. We were in my dad’s kitchen, and he had a puppy at that time. We were trying to coin a few names while he ran around the table. It just came to us very simply as we were thinking names like dog beer, beer dog, brew dog, and that was it. The dog was our mascot for the first five years.
How is BrewDog beer connected to the locations it retails in?
The idea remains the same with us present in over 50 countries. But we do adapt slightly to the specific locations. In Mumbai, wheat beers are quite popular, so we make some wheat brews in India that we don’t sell anywhere else.
What exactly does carbon-negative stand for at BrewDog?
We’re facing an existential climate crisis and we need to make massive changes, not in the next few years but right now. Two years ago, BrewDog became the world’s first hyper negative beer business, and we do this fully transparently. Every year we calculate the carbon footprint of our business and share it publicly for people to see what the numbers are. And then every year, we take twice the amount of carbon out of the air.
What are some entrepreneurial secrets you discovered over the years that could make for a great advice for upcoming entrepreneurs?
My only piece of advice for anyone looking to get into the beer business is that you should do it for one reason only and that’s because you absolutely love beer. You shouldn’t do it because you think it’s a good business opportunity, or because lots of people are drinking beer. You should do it because you love and think of beer every second and want to share the passion with everyone else.
One thing you have a love-hate relationship with as the founder and CEO of BrewDog?
Being a CEO is tough but there are so many things about my work that I love, especially opening at new locations, spending time with the team and customers… We started with the two of us and a dog and now we’re almost 40,000 people in the team. That takes a long time and comes with certain challenges. But I always say this to my team — when everything is going well and fantastic, it’s all easy. It’s when things are difficult and you have to work hard, that’s what makes a difference. And if it’s easy then everyone would do it.
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