Brewdog forced to throw away millions of pounds of beer after 'major incident'

Brewdog has been forced to discard a huge amount of beer after it was contaminated due to a "major quality incident"

Scottish brewing giant Brewdog has been forced to discard a massive quantity of beer, worth millions, due to contamination issues. The company's popular Punk IPA suffered from what was termed a "major quality incident" at their well-known Ellon brewery in Aberdeenshire.

Chris Fielden, Brewdog's chief supply chain officer, revealed the extent of the problem in a blunt email sent to customers, which mentioned "sour beer" The internal memo sharply criticised employees for repeatedly not adhering to essential cleanliness protocols.

Fielden highlighted that the loss of their flagship Punk IPA was unparalleled. This significant quality issue resulted in a substantial miss of the company's August productivity target by £950,000, although Fielden pointed out that the actual financial losses were much higher.

Some of the contaminated beer was thrown away, but some reached customers, leading to what Fielden described as the "highest rate of customer complaints" Brewdog has ever seen. In the stark email to staff, Fielden stated: "The reality is that it was an incredibly tough month in which we significantly missed our productivity target and have been working through a major quality incident.

"Throughout August and even now we've had millions of pounds of beer that has been impacted by basic hygiene issues that have resulted in infected beer. Not only have we had to throw beer away, we've also shipped sour beer to customers and have Punk running at the highest rate of customer complaints it's ever seen," reports the Manchester Evening News.

The email further reveals: "Through the investigation we've ruled out many things and keep coming back to the same basic causes. Poor hygiene standards, particularly around the brewing operation.

"What's most disappointing is that when I chat to people about this I've seen very little personal accountability with people blaming other teams or other parts of the process. As such, I wanted to be really clear that shop floor hygiene is the responsibility of every single one of us."

The message also highlights a significant productivity loss valued at £950,000, stating: "Obviously, this is a huge number and has a direct impact on business EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation)."

Beer industry specialist Melissa Cole commented on the situation, acknowledging that contaminations are a part of beer production but criticising the tone of the email: "The wording of the email seems very demoralising for staff, when they should perhaps be saying we recognise that this is a problem, how can we help fix it? That has never been the Brewdog way it's always pointing the finger."

A Brewdog spokesperson said: "Beer quality is our absolute number one priority. Unfortunately, earlier this year, we discovered that some batches of Punk IPA did not meet our high standards due to a minor, irregular process issue."

"While most of the affected beer did not leave the brewery, a small quantity reached some of our customers. The affected beer, which represents a minuscule proportion of our annual production (approx 0.02 percent), did not meet our high standards and did not taste as good as it should but we would like to reassure customers that it did not pose a health risk."