I managed to make a recent Brewdog event in Bristol, and amongst the free beer and snacks, and the general fun got the chance to ask James about the “Libertarian Black Ale“ label that had been getting some flack recently.
James confirmed the rumor that the label was to be changed and also confirmed there were no plans for it to be sold in supermarkets, so that was not the reason for the change. The label change was more as they wanted future Brewdog style to be less about shock, and more about clever. Which I can respect, and as someone who has been doing a few articles on the often strange attitude in the beer scene towards women drinkers I applaud the change. Not everyone reacted the same way to the label, but enough women I spoke to found it unnecessary and thought it detracted from the great drink that I think it was worth doing.
A few other notes came up that I thought were worth sharing as well.
1) The 10% odd of Brewdog beers that are being brewed at other locations are being brought back in house with the new brewery and James commented that in hindsight the choice to brew elsewhere was probably a mistake.
2) Following on from that James mentioned there had been some problems with over attenuation on the past years Punk IPA’s .That could explain the varying quality over the past year on one of my favorite beers. It’s expected that the new Brewery will allow much better control, so when we get the first batch from the new brewery I may do a quick note here on how it holds up.
3) I’ll do a full review later, but the prototype “Nuns with guns” was interesting. It was probably the weakest of the three as beers, but as a lager it was far above Brewdogs standard 77 lager. I’ll see how it holds up in bottle when they send them out, but it would be nice to see better lager to rope people into the craft beer scene.
4) Brewdog will be looking at the huge difference in pricing between their everyday beers and their very expensive top of the line beers. As someone who loves Brewdog and their beers, I do feel a bit bad some times as some of their beers are very bloody expensive. Since I feel that good beer should be financial available to as many people as possible (Within the limits of the cost to make and the like), the very exclusive nature of this beers did seem to against the punk ethos that Brewdog espouses. I’m hoping that this look will help resolve some of those issues but we can but see.
Anyway, it was great event with lots of good food and beer. Thanks to James, Zarah and everyone at Brewdog Bristol. (and especially to James and Zarah for being kind enough to pose for a photo) Enjoy your drink!
