Monday 19 October 2009

Dog Virus?

Tomorrow BrewDog will finally reveal "The single most exciting, influential and ground-breaking thing to happen in the British brewing industry for decades". The BeerTwitterSphere has been getting more and more excited about the news. I've booked a ticket to get to London tomorrow so that I can join in with the hysteria. But are we all getting worked up over another publicity stunt with the customer base doing most of the work and no real payback?

Of course we're getting used to BrewDog's viral marketing. Send out a tweet here, post a blog there, slip the odd bottle of something new into orders. Releasing beers with provocative names and pronouncing their products "beers for punks" is bound to raise an eyebrow in the current Daily Mail style shock-horror-were-all-drunken-bums journalism enjoyed today. Back it up with press releases and a few rumours and the machine is rolling a little faster. Just as the momentum is picking up give it another kick in the form of the strongest beer in the UK. Wow, that got us noticing things for sure.

So, how are these young upstarts doing it? After all, they are not long out of University and already they have made a big name for themselves. They've only been going since April 2007 for gods sake. I've been brewing longer than they have. How dare they take over the world so soon!

Anticipation for sure. Tomorrow we'll get to know if the world will really change. Perhaps it will for the beer geek. For me, if the world of beer changes a little for the better then it's worth it. But I worry that I've been taken for a ride. Have I spent nearly £80 on train fares that I needn't have done? After all, I only have to look at their web site at 7am to find out what the fuss is about.

If it's really the biggest thing to hit brewing in decades then how can I miss out tomorrow? Of course I have to go to London and of course I had to book the tickets in advance. If it turns out that I've wasted my time and money and it's all just a pile of dog poo then James and Martin have one less fan - they are too clever to risk that, aren't they?

Well, I'm not going to guess what it's about. I'll just trust them1 and wait. Tomorrow we find out.

What I really want to know is how Bracken tweets, I'd really like to see that. I have no doubt that Bracken is the most intelligent BrewDog in the whole world, but the physical incompatibilities with human I.T. must be insurmountable. I suspect it's got something to do with James's beard.

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1What am I talking about? James studied as a lawyer, you can't trust lawyers.

4 comments:

Cartbozman said...

Well I must say I am a little jealous. I live smack in the middle of the 2 launch locations. Just a tad too far but I am very excited to hear.
We have a possibly unhealthy obsession with brewdog on our podcast, and tomorrows show will most likely be yet another love fest. Ever since punk IPA blew our socks off it's been a labour of live to find more bottles.

So have fun, I will be checking back to read your thoughts :)

Boz
Host of Here goes nothing podcast.
http://www.simplysyndicated.com/shows/heregoesnothing

Rob Sterowski said...

I think the crucial factor is that the beer is great. If the beer wasn't any good, I'd be the first to call them a pair of over-hyped wankers.

We do this because it's fun. If they announced tomorrow they're shutting up shop and going back to mackerel fishing, it would still have been a great three years' story. Discovering Punk IPA at a beer festival. Hearing about a pub that sold this weird new beer. Hating Riptide stout, then loving it. Wondering whatever happened to The Physics. Clubbing together with your mates to buy crates and crates of Zeitgeist at 70% off. Watching a barrel of Atlantic IPA fall irretrievably in the sea. Writing emails when they sent your beer to the wrong address. Trying to be the first to scoop How To Disappear Completely. It's fun.

Dubbel said...

Erm... I'll look out for the happy face this evening, Dave!

Tandleman said...

"Have I spent nearly £80 on train fares that I needn't have done? "

Yes is the short answer. How many bottles of their beer could you have bought for that?