Brewdog forced to pour away millions of pounds of 'infected' beer at flagship brewery

Staff at the brewery in Ellon, Aberdeeenshire, were read the riot act in a furious email about 'sour beer' leading to a record number of complaints.

Scottish booze giant Brewdog has been forced to discard millions of pounds worth of beer after it became “infected”. The deluge of wasted Punk IPA came after a “major quality incident” at their world-famous brewery in Ellon, Aberdeenshire.

The scale of the problem was detailed in a furious email from Chris Fielden, the firm’s chief supply chain officer, about “sour beer” which was sent to customers. The astonishing internal email lambasted workers for repeatedly failing to adhere to basic hygiene rules.

And Fielden claimed the wastage of the firm’s iconic Punk IPA beer was at a level never seen before. The “major quality incident” meant the company’s productivity target for August was missed by a whopping £950,000 – but the wastage, according to Fielden, runs into millions of pounds.

While some of the beer was “thrown away”, some product was sent to customers leading to the “highest rate of customer complaints” the company has ever seen. In the shock email sent to staff, Fielden blasted: “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.

The bombshell email adds: “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.”

He puts the productivity shortfall at £950,000 and adds: “Obviously, this is a huge number and has a direct impact on business EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation).”

Beer industry expert Melissa Cole said contaminations will happen from time to time in beer production. But she said: “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.”

In May this year, Brewdog’s millionaire former CEO James Watt stepped down after 17 years and spoke of the many controversies he’d found himself caught up in.

Watt, 41, claimed he is “demanding” and “wired differently”, which may have led to some staff being offended by his behaviour.

Last year, it was reported he sought specialist help after he was described as “semi-autistic” in the wake of allegations of inappropriate behaviour. He remains a director of the company and a strategic adviser to the leadership team.

Timeline of glittering success, controversy and scandal

Brewdog was founded in Fraserburgh in 2007 by local beer enthusiasts James Watt and Martin Dickie.

The “punk” brewers set out to disrupt the world beer market with a non-stop series of irreverent stunts and shock-tactic promotions that hugely boosted their profile, bringing a cult following among beer fans worldwide.

In recent years the publicity soured, with allegations about the conduct of Watt and revelations about business performance tarnishing the glittering image of earlier years.

Timeline

2007: BrewDog launches and soon starts mopping up big awards for beer and for business innovation, quickly a landmark deal to supply Tesco.

2009: BrewDog is accused of being ‘grossly irresponsible’ for calling one of its products Speedball – the name given to the combination of heroin and crack cocaine. The controversy brought global publicity.

2010: BrewDog opens the doors to its first BrewDog pub in Aberdeen.

2011: The company employs a person with dwarfism to stand outside parliament for a week holding a sign in what it called “the world’s smallest protest” - in relation to regulations over beer volume regulations.

2013: Advertising Standards Authority cautions the company for causing "serious offence" over foul language.

2021: BrewDog is forced to apologise to a number of ex-employees who accuse the company and its co-founder James Watt of fostering a “culture of fear” in which workers were bullied and “treated like objects.”

An open letter saw 61 former employees allege that the brand frequently cut corners on health and safety and created a “toxic” culture that left staff suffering from mental illness.

2022: A raft of allegations are made in BBC documentary Disclosure: The Truth About Brewdog - many of which the company denies.

2024: A staff backlash erupts after BrewDog announces it is dropping out of the accredited real living wage scheme. The firm claims the move was a “necessary“ step to help it return to profitability after making a £24m operating loss last year.

2024: James Watt steps down as CEO after 17 years at the helm of the company he co-founded.

Watt handed over the reins to chief operating officer James Arrow but is retained as “captain and co-founder” - retaining 21 per cent of the firm’s shareholding.

Watt’s romantic partner, Made in Chelsea reality TV star Georgia Toffolo, said she was proud of him as he stood down.

A Brewdog spokesperson said that, despite the heavy duty wording of the email, the beer lost was a relatively small volume in the context of overall output. He said that any customer who complained about the sour tasting beer was given a refund.

The spokesman 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 per cent), 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.”

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He added: “The cause of the issue was quickly identified and resolved and any customer who raised concerns with us were recompensed appropriately. We apologise to anyone who has had a less than perfect beer.”

Fielden was appointed by Brewdog as chief supply chain officer last May. He was previously the supply chain director for food supplier Warp Snacks and before then he worked for Innocent drinks.

The Brewdog spokesman did not respond to queries about how many pints were wasted, how many countries were affected or the exact number of complaints received or how many countries may have been affected by the contaminated supply.

He did not quantify the number of complaints.

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