By now BrewDog is a name recognised in pubs, supermarkets and craft beer stores across the UK. It has made headlines with super strong beers such as its Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismarck, while bringing a broader audience to craft beer with its trademark Punk IPA. But as well as the taste of the beers, BrewDog became known for a strong brand identity that has been imitated across the beer sector. BrewDog beers are known for being loud, anarchic, and irreverent, but above all, passionate about beer.
But for one of BrewDog’s founders, Martin Dickie, their original ambition was not to make beer, but whisky.
“His initial aspiration when he went to university was to move into the whisky sector,” says Steven Kersley, Managing Director of BrewDog Distilling Co. “It just turns out he was excellent at making beer, so started BrewDog in 2007. But that aspiration to build the distillery was always there.”
That ambition came to fruition in 2015, when Dickie and James Watt contacted Kersley, asking him to design, build and operate BrewDog’s new distillery, establishing what it was going to be, and what it was going to stand for.
But while whisky remains BrewDog Distilling Co’s ambition, there were still more than a few diversions along the way.
“I tell people we are a whisky distillery with a serious gin problem,” Kersley jokes. “All of our capacity initially, was consumed with other styles of spirit. Part of our ambition from the outset was to be truly multifaceted, producing whisky, gin, and rum, not be constrained. But it has constrained our original goal, whisky.”
To keep working towards its whisky dream, BrewDog has expanded its production capacity to ensure there is enough room for vodka, rum, and whisky. The end result is a facility equipped to make any spirit it wants.
The next challenge is to get all of those spirits to customers, and one of the best ways to do that is through cocktails in BrewDog’s own chain of pubs. Except, mixing cocktails is a skill, and pubs and bars, as a rule, have a high staff turnover that includes seasonal workers and students, making skill retention a challenge.
To that end, BrewDog has designed and released a selection of ten reader-to-drink cocktails to showcase its spirits.
Brand New
But while BrewDog has clearly put the work into its new range of products, persuading drinkers to adopt them is another matter entirely. BrewDog is a big, recognised name among beer drinkers, but it is also a name inextricably tied to beer.
As Kersley points out, “If Guinness made a vodka, would you drink it?”
This is why BrewDog Distilling Co. rebranded its whole portfolio in 2022.
“Our branding prior to that was an extrapolation from our beer products, with the same hierarchy of design and brand codes,” Kersley says. “We were translating the packaging you see on cans of BrewDog beer into vodka, gin, and rum. It appealed to beer drinkers, who are already with BrewDog and drink Punk IPA and Black Heart. However, a large swathe of premium spirit drinkers do not drink craft beer, so we were creating a barrier to entry.”
Creating a brand from scratch is perhaps the most difficult challenge a consumer brand can face. There are elements of the BrewDog brand that have carried over, the commitment to quality, and the passion for the product, but the identity and the audience are very different.
“A whole different process goes into making these spirits, so there is a completely different story to tell,” Kersley says. “The key thing we are trying to do is build our own credentials and build that consumer trust. We talk about how we make our spirits, why we make them the way they do, and the stories that they tell.”
As an example, Kersley points us to BrewDog’s spiced rum, DUO, a blend of the rum BrewDog distils in Aberdeen, and imported rum from Barbados.
“The story is the coming together of these two spirits,” Kersley says. “It is difficult to tell that if it is just ‘BrewDog Rum’. With a name like DUO, we bring it to life in a much more authentic way. That is exactly what we have done across the whole range.”
It is also the best way to showcase the talent pool that BrewDog has been nurturing.
“We are an extremely passionate, capable distilling team who have never worked on beer, so what we had to do was become a broader church, to attract that premium spirits consumer base,” says Kersley. “It was a painful realisation, back in 2022, but it was 100% the right decision to make, giving each spirit its own identity and personality.”
Which brings us back to BrewDog Distilling’s original aspiration. What is the story behind the whisky BrewDog is putting the years into?
“Whisky is our main aspiration and focus for our business,” Kersley tells us. “Over the next two to three years we will be able to launch our inaugural bottle. It has been a labour of love for the last four years as we have dialled in the process and the recipe.”
BrewDog boasts a unique approach to how it creates whisky, supported by a wealth of experience and far more technical capability than most distilleries.
“It means we can play with our flavour profile, and that has yielded really good results. We are looking forward to getting that into a bottle in the next couple of years,” Kersley shares.
The Next Steps
As well as working towards the grand launch of its first whisky, BrewDog Distilling Co has many other big plans.
“We have enjoyed great growth considering that this has been one of the toughest periods for most sales channels,” Kersley says. “Our distribution is increasing, as is our rate of sale month-on-month. Our ready-to-drink Wonderland cocktails are finding an audience and seeing meaningful growth within their category. That is really exciting for us.”
The beverage sector, like many others, is still navigating a cost of living crisis, but for many customers that is translating into spending less on fewer, higher quality products.
“They are seeing quality as a real justifier for spending that little bit more,” says Kersley. “They will buy less, but trade a £2.50 vodka soda can for our Wonderland bar quality cocktails at £3.90 for a much better experience. People are saying, if I have that amount to spend, do I want something cheap, or more expensive with a better experience?”
While BrewDog Distilling Co. is building new brands to differentiate itself from its beer brewing parent, it still shares one quality with its parent company.
“We exist to put the best possible beer, spirits and cocktails into the hands of our customers and give them an unbeatable experience”. Kersley concludes.
