WILK Friday BeerBuzz – 27 Sep 2013 BrewDog Punk IPA w/James Watt & Martin Dickie

We’ve reached out pretty far for our beers on the WILK Friday BeerBuzz.  From the west coast and even to Hawaii, but today’s brewery really takes the cake.

BrewDog comes to us from Aberdeenshire Scotland, and their story is an exciting and irreverent one.  Started in 2007 when “Emperor” James Watt and Assistant-Emperor Martin Dickie convinced some banks to give them a large amount of money to start a brewery.  Tired of mainstream lagers and crappy beer, they decided to bring true craft beer to Scotland, and eventually the world.  By 2008 BrewDog had already grown to be Scotland’s 2nd largest brewery and in 2012 the guys took it even a step further.

In less than 5 years BrewDog was running at capacity so they launched the first ever crowd-sourced brewery.  Equity For Punks is a stock purchase program launched twice by BrewDog to fund their new brewery & expansion..and it worked.  This new brewery launched in 2012 in Aberdeenshire and it is not only state of the art, but huge!

James & Martin are known for their irreverent antics and their unusual brewing techniques and beers.  They’ve brewed on a ship, they’ve brewed at the bottom of the ocean, they’ve launched what was at the time the highest ABV beer in the world in the 32% ABV Tactical Nuclear Penguin, and they’ve even trumped that with the worlds most expensive beer that not only comes in at 55% ABV but it fuses beer with the art of Taxidermy as the beer bottles are packaged in road kill.

Jump forward to 2013 and the guys have opened 6 new bars and launched into a new TV Show called Brew Dogs.  The show airs on the Esquire network, and James & Martin have been touring the US visiting and filming at multiple U.S. craft breweries.  I’ve seen the trailers and the show is hilarious…and as if that wasn’t enough fun, the Sept 30th show will be set in Philadelphia PA so be sure to check it out.

It was a lot of fun talking beer with James Watt & Martin Dickie.  Known for their irreverence and off-the-cuff profanity, we certainly had our hand on “the button” all morning.  James began his business saying, “the beer scene was sick and he was the “f**king Doctor!”  He’s a ton of fun to talk to, but don’t let that fool you.  These guys knows great beer and good business and I suspect we’ll see BrewDog get even larger in the future.  It was a blast hearing about the new BrewDog brewery and the new TV show from James & Martin, but even more fun talking beer.

Today we featured BrewDog Punk IPA.  As James would put it, ‘This beer is a wolf in sheep’s clothing as opposed to a sheep in sheep’s clothing” and that pretty much describes the beer.  This non UK traditional take on an IPA is loaded with Chinook, Ahtanum and Nelson Sauvin hops so it is loaded with mango, grapefruit, kiwi and other citrusy hop flavors and it finishes nice & clean.  Punk IPA is 45 IBU and 5.6% ABV so it is really drinkable and since it is their flagship beer, it is readily available so be sure to taste it for yourself.

Thank you to James Watt & Martin Dickie from BrewDog, Nancy, John, Karel & Kyle for yet another

fun Friday.

The Friday BeerBuzz…bringing good beers and good people together.  As always you can check out the video on-line at the WILK Friday BeerBuzz page by clicking HERE.
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