James Watt - BrewDog (Reprise)

What this episode covers

This is an archive conversation. As Covid is playing havoc with our scheduling, we found this very old, but still relevant interview with BrewDog’s James Watt from September 2011. We have been joking - or maybe half joking - about the post craft world we increasingly inhabit. As craft beer growth slows, the market becomes increasingly crowded and commercial realities of running a business seem to be ever more stark, some of the battle cries of the early craft beer movement are giving way to what we can perhaps charitably call more pragmatic business decisions. Overnight the self-proclaimed punks of the beer world BrewDog announced a partnership with Asahi in Japan to give their beers greater each in that market. I recalled James’ strident denunciations of Beavertown just 3 years ago when that brewery sold a minority stake to Heineken. Back then, James retweeted his earlier blog post post titled “Nailing our colours to the mother effing mast." When you read those comments in light of last night’s announcement, those colours would appear terribly faded, if they - or the mast - are actually still there. We’ll be back with fresh content next week, and of course discussing the news this Thursday. Our partners Radio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt, who we are thrilled to announce are back supporting us for another year of conversations. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner - and our premium podcasting partner - Cryer Malt is proud sponsor of this conversion and the Radio Brews News channel. Every guest on Beer is a Conversation receives a new piece of exclusive merch - a branded Yeti Rambler mug, thanks to our good friends at Yeti. If you like what we do at Radio Brews News you can help us out by: Sponsoring the show Reviewing us on iTunes or your favourite podcasting service Emailing us at [email protected] to share your thoughts

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