Is anyone else getting sick of BrewDog?

I think we have, in a sense, asked for this brewery. We ask for it every time we purchase something with esoteric ingredients over a well brewed, traditional style beer. The same is true for any number of American breweries that put shock value over all other concerns.

Interesting read, must declare my hand, as I am, as I’m sure many are on here, a brewdog shareholder. As many have said, brewdog bars are wonderful, the level of customer service always impresses people that I take in, and they do serve some great beers.
In terms of their beer, they have brewed many decent beers, but probably not enough world class ones. Although I have drunk more brewdog beers than any other brewery , my average rate for them is rather low, because I’ve tasted lots of "experiments". It is also slightly bizarre to watch them play the radical punk card, but still copy many things from other breweries, in particular Stone.
So, it’s almost like that music thing, we love them when they are ours, and small, but once they step into the mainstream, many turn their backs. However, they have had a massive influence on the craft beer scene, my quarterly review that I recieved today claims that 1 in 4 "craft" beers sold in supermarkets in the UK are brewdog beers , which is pretty impressive.
I will keep drinking their beers, and will always look forward to the AGMs, and visiting new bars, can’t wait for brewdog York, in my home town. However , I would say ,that I just wish they could focus upon brewing some world class beers, that are unique.

Originally posted by harrisoni

Originally posted by Leighton
Also, BrewDog bars are well run. They have some of the most well trained staff in the UK (and I’m sure more broadly than that even), which is certainly something to be commended.

I have never had a problem with the staff in a BD bar, never been served the wrong beer, always been asked if I want a sample first. Both the Brighton one and Glasgow Doghouse I have visited in the past fortnight have been excellent with enthusiastic, knowledgeable and helpful staff.

Originally posted by Erlangernick

Originally posted by bartlebier
Just like their brostyle insecure manly-man series Brew Dogs, I am allergic to their stroboscopic flashy style and marketing, but appreciate most their of their content. Some of their marketing blurbs are also quite literate I find.
Overall, I’d rather have Martin and James colonising Germany with their brazen hoppiness and US-inspired bravado than a West Coast nitwit like Greg Koch, who doesn’t even have the decency to learn the dialect of the tribe when he’s opening a business in Berlin. Respect to terroir, language and cultural context goes a long way for me. The Brewdogs at least learned their métier in Germany and speak the language - Stone is all Yankee style gung-ho expansion & domination, as if they’re still airlifting necessary supplies to Continental EU, post-war.
Now I’m not sure what the Brewdog Brussels franchise has to add in this respect...

What did Greg Koch do? You know, learning a language as an adult ain’t exactly easy.

Did you ever see the bit on Pro7 a few years ago with BrewPooch & Schorsch, Sink the Bismark vs. whatever Schorsch beer it was? Watt speaks gut Deutsch in it, lovely Scots accent, not clear Dickie does at all. One could look down on their WWII hype there, I suppose.

Watt’s recent AMA.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3u8nka/i_am_james_watt_cofounder_of_brewdog_and_cohost/

Some homebrewer guy in Brazil asks who wants to start out himself ask for advice. To which Watt responds ’Ignore all advice’....while having just published a business guidebook.

I can’t tell you the last time I drank one of their beers, and I’ll only go in their bars if there’s an interesting tap takeover from another brewer, but I have no objection to them.

They are a good business, primarily for the young beer neophyte. I think if you get pissed off with their business practices then there’s plenty of smaller craft brewers who use limited availability and hype to exploit their customers using very similar tactics.

Originally posted by bartlebier

Originally posted by Erlangernick

Originally posted by bartlebier
...

What did Greg Koch do? You know, learning a language as an adult ain’t exactly easy.

Did you ever see the bit on Pro7 a few years ago with BrewPooch & Schorsch, Sink the Bismark vs. whatever Schorsch beer it was? Watt speaks gut Deutsch in it, lovely Scots accent, not clear Dickie does at all. One could look down on their WWII hype there, I suppose.

Yes, also in Brew Dogs Berlin Watt conducts a few interviews in German. Just uplifting to hear an anglophone speak out of their comfort zone and drawing on the more "humanistic/liberal arts" side of their Weihenstephan education.

As far as Stone goes, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for the first Marienfelde years ("Bringing Germany into the Stone Age" is pretty clever), but don’t expect the expat playground that is Berlin to seduce/coerce any higher-tier Stone execs to pick up any local lingo, like say brewmaster Eric Toft managed to do at Schönram, who is now speaking a broad and perfect Bavarian after becoming quite fluent in Flemish working at Het Anker in Mechelen for only a few years.

I was just balancing accounts of who in the Anglophone brewing world has the loudest mouth and boldest marketing versus who actually has the decency to adapt that loud mouth to the varying amplitude of a foreign tongue.

Listening in on Shelton Bros podcast interviews with Belgian or German brewers is very instructive in this respect as well. Not even a cringe from Van Roy, Ghequire or the Weissenohe brewer having to explain themselves in English as interview guests, while being treated to mangled pronunciations of gooooze etc., and the Shelton Bros were still among the more cultured ones at least trying to get it right.
Michael Jackson took pride in at least jotting down a few phonetic pointers here and there to seduce the British drinkers in reading about beer outside of their own terroir and linguistic comfort zone. Also the laddy Brew Dog show is remarkably sensitive to regional cultural differences both in the US and EU.
Superlative Stone-style beer geekdom seems to have overshouted that last bastion of Allgemeinbildung, opting for one XXL version of "West Coast English fits all".

Originally posted by ContemplateBeer
I think we have, in a sense, asked for this brewery. We ask for it every time we purchase something with esoteric ingredients over a well brewed, traditional style beer. The same is true for any number of American breweries that put shock value over all other concerns.

Originally posted by Brigadier

Originally posted by ContemplateBeer
I think we have, in a sense, asked for this brewery. We ask for it every time we purchase something with esoteric ingredients over a well brewed, traditional style beer. The same is true for any number of American breweries that put shock value over all other concerns.

At least companies like Dogfish Head offer a range of more normal beers to offset the more eccentric ones (Chocolate Lobster anybody?). Brewdog does as well but their price point seems to be a bit more. Punk was great at UK grocery store pricing but at import prices it just don’t hold up. Maybe that will change when the Ohio brewery is open ( http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2015/10/12/brewdog-founders-raise-a-glass-to-columbus.html) but personally i was done with their novelty after the 12th version of Paradox.

Firstly, I think their beers are really good choice for craftbeer newbie. Secondly, I think they still have attitude, e.g. They stopped selling Lagunitas in all of their bars when Heineken bought the brewery. They use one of the UK’s few remaining letterpress studios to print their label. It’s not easy.